informant38
.

-
...But of these sophisms and elenchs of merchandise I skill not...
Milton, Areopagitica

Except he had found the
standing sea-rock that even this last
Temptation breaks on; quieter than death but lovelier; peace
that quiets the desire even of praising it.

Jeffers, Meditation On Saviors


-

4.8.05

The main western Atlantic population of red knots plunged
by nearly 50 percent in the past year



to
photo: Arthur Morris

This shorebird travels from its wintering grounds on the southern tip of Patagonia in Tierra del Fuego, Chile, to its breeding destination in the high Arctic of Canada. After laying eggs and rearing young, red knots head south to complete an annual round trip estimated at 20,000 miles. The success of their journey depends critically on one food resource: horseshoe crab eggs in the Delaware Bay.

WCS
-
They come to feed on the eggs of horseshoe crabs that spawn on the beaches at the same time of year, a reliance that goes back millions of years. It is one of nature's great migration spectacles. The birds need the crab eggs to sustain them through the remaining leg of their long migration north, some 4,000 miles. But because of overharvesting of the crabs for use as bait in conch and eel pots, there are insufficient eggs and the birds are suffering. Research to develop artificial bait will likely soon yield results, but in the meantime the harvest continues.

American Bird Conservancy
-

red knots at Defenders of Wildlife

Blog Archive