The Godwit's 10,000-Mile Migration Is 'Technically Impossible'

The Journey of a Migratory Shorebird

Conservation biologist Nathan Senner studies Hudsonian godwits like A34, a pigeon-sized shorebird he tagged in an Alaskan bog. The birds fly nearly 10,000 miles between remote northern breeding grounds and South American mudflats—a journey one scientist called 'technically impossible.' Since 1980, half of migratory shorebird populations have declined by more than 50 percent. As Senner's father Stanley warns, 'Birds are sentinels. The ecosystems they rely on are ecosystems we rely on as well.'