Six Willets Godwits. Photo: Alan Krakauer
Spring is almost here, but there’s still time to enjoy the thousands of shorebirds that are visiting the Berkeley waterfront for some winter R&R.
These birds were able to travel in 2020, even if we couldn’t. Many flew thousands of miles to get here, from as far away as the High Arctic or the Great Plains. Shorebirds are drawn to the Bay Area in winter by our climate, our shorelines bordered with marsh plants, and the large variety of invertebrates and small shellfish that thrive in the Bay’s mix of salt and fresh water.
can create right now 18,000 acres of new, shallow water wetland habitat for these migratory birds when they come south. well, is there any science to suggest this, you know, this could actually work? has this been tried? no one has ever tried it on this scale before to my knowledge. and there is a risk that we could fail. i won t kid you on that. but the hope is if they see this open water, if there is food, it ll be like the movie field of dreams. if we build it, they will come. all right. let me play the role of a migratory bird here. okay. i am the black necked stilt. there i am. there you are. here s the thing. i am used to flying to the gulf. what makes me for example stop over stewart county, georgia, instead of continuing on with my normal flight plan that i have executed successfully for years?