Chasing the Red Knot from the Arctic to the Antarctic Continued from page10 11 · Thursday, July 22, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com What follows is about four hours of intense processing, where the volunteers, accompanied by whatever bugs decide to swarm them, sit on the beach and go through the tedious process of getting all the information they need. The first thing any handler learns is how to correctly hold the birds. How they are held is critical. Mark notes most people cup the birds with head and feet upwards, but this can cause lactic acid to build up in the bird's legs, which could result in the legs being disabled or even paralyzed. Working in teams, the birds are weighed, measured, blood samples and cloacal swabs are taken. This takes a crew from two to three minutes for each bird, and they go through 50 to 60 birds an hour. "The blood samples allow us to accurately sex the birds because you can't do that just by looking," Mark notes, adding they are also checked for avian viruses. As you might imagine, the role of the horseshoe crabs is essential to this process, not only in bringing the birds to the site, but also in providing the feast for bulking them up. Mark says that when the birds arrive, the Red Knots weigh in at 100 to 125 grams. When they leave a few weeks later they have almost doubled their weight, taking off at 180 to 220 g. This is their safety margin when they get to the Arctic where food is not as readily available. The Delaware shore invasion actually begins with the arrival of the horseshoe crabs. "It is a wonderful thing," says Mark. "The crabs come in on the high tide. There are so many of them that the females laying eggs are digging up the eggs already left." That is what draws the more than 250,000 Red Knots, Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstones to the bay for two to three weeks in the avian equivalent of university spring break rites. It also draws flocks of fishermen. They come with pails and shovels and fill up pickup trucks and everything else with the horseshoe crabs. These are used for fertilizer or bait for conch and eel fishing. Unfortunately they are often harvesting the crabs before the eggs have been laid, which inevitably reduces the numbers of crabs being produced and definitely cuts into the food stock for the birds. In the last five years there have been a few moratoriums on the catch, which have been SUPPLIED PHOTO TAGGED AND READY: A tagged Red Knot shored bird is held expertly by a volunteer handler. countered by successful lawsuits from fisherMark has broadened the scope of the Red men, claiming that their historic rights are Knot migration project to include James Bay being violated. and beyond, at one time even following them "It has become a very sensitive issue," says to their nesting destinations north of the Arctic Mark. Circle. For the last two years, Mark and four others, have spent the last couple of weeks in July and first two weeks in August on the lowland mud flats of Hudson's and James bays (the largest wetland in North America) checking on the Red Knots as they return south from their breeding grounds in the Arctic. The females are the first to return, having left the eggs to be cared for by the males. Next the male caregivers come through and finally the recently hatched juveniles. While on the mud flats, the volunteers settle down in a Cree hunt camp, four plywood sheds that are used for the native's spring goose hunts. Here the volunteers continue their banding. What Mark finds about the birds on their return from the north can give them the first indication of any problems the birds might be facing, and there is no question that the birds are under duress and their numbers are shrinking. For Mark, these northern experiences are positively rejuvenating. The air is clear and fresh and in covering 10 to 20 km a day, he will lose about 20 pounds in the two weeks. "It is a chance to get away and get back to basics," he says. "Life is very simple. We do the job, work and sleep. The days are challenging, the weather and environment is challenging, but we're repeating the same thing every day. We have a sense of accomplishment. There's lots of opportunity to think about life. It is like a meditative retreat." He quickly notes he is glad to return home to his wife Diana, and daughters Sydney and Georgia, in Oakville, although it does takes him time to get readjusted to the pace of life, possibly as much as it takes them time to get adjusted to his northern ways. "I love Ontario," he adds. "It is an amazing province. There's something in me that gets me to love being in the north," says Mark, who points out that many of the crew can't get up there fast enough, in spite of the isolation, in spite of the bugs, including the famed bull dog fly, in spite of the foraging polar and black bears, the threat of injuries and the unpredictability of the weather, which might be over 30 degrees one day and cold enough to snow in July.... In spite of all that, he's ready to return. Maybe you have to be an ornithologist to appreciate that? 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