It’s World Migratory Bird Day, so let’s talk about Bar-tailed Godwits. These shorebirds are about the size of a pigeon, and every year tens of thousands of them make their annual autumn migration around this time.
Amazing birds. When I lived on Waiheke Island NZ I used to love seeing them return to the nearby estuary.
On 13th October 2022, a Bar-tailed Godwit bearing tag number 234684 took off from western Alaska. On 24th October it arrived in Tasmania. That’s an 11-day flight of at least 13,560 kilometres, at an average speed of 51 kph. Without stopping.
That feels very exciting... I saw a flock of birds fly over our house... wondered if they were migrating because I didn't recognise them... but had no idea that they might be migrating on a special day... no idea what they were... pigeon-ish size... black with white bellies...
