B95 was first banded at Rio Grande Bay in Tierra
del Fuego, Argentina. This area is only about 300
miles from the Falkland Islands to the east and is
the closest point on the continent to Antarctica
some 500 miles or so across Drake Passage to the
south.
This fascinating story written by Phillip Hoose
describes B95’s trip and the dozen or so people
who have been responsible for banding him in the
first place. It traces out the stops on his journey
nearly half way around the world as he and some
of his fellow rufa red knots are recaptured at one
or more of the major stopping and refueling points
along the east coasts of North and South America.
Some of the legs of this trip are as long as 5,000
miles, each made in a single stage, over a period of
less than five days. It is an incredibly athletic feat
made possible by a remarkable body. The red knot’s
body can adapt to a range of food and has a biology
that can grow or shrink body parts as needed to
accommodate the changes required. Truly, this bird
is a super athlete.
In preparing for his trip, a red knot can consume
14 times its own weight in mussel spat and convert
it into body fat. Then, he switches to softer food
and his internal organs, including his gut and his
liver, shrink. The muscles in his legs are diminished
and his heart is strengthened with bulked up flight
muscles. He is ready, and his active hormones make
him restless to be off.
Once he lifts off, his wing beats (several times
a second) will continue for the duration of the
flight segment (from two days, to as many as four
days later). At last he arrives, completely depleted,
panting for oxygen, bones protruding, and
ravenously hungry at the chosen refueling station.
The exertion of these long flights takes a real toll on
the birds that perform them. Some don’t make it.
One of the most important stopovers for rest
and refueling is the Delaware Bay. Each spring
millions of horseshoe crabs congregate in the Bay
to lay their eggs. The eggs are the perfect food for
migrating shore birds. They gorge on these eggs and
rapidly recover from the depleted state they were in
when they arrived after a long flight from their last
stopover, very likely somewhere along the northern
coast of Brazil.
B95’s route is not unique. Some 25,000 rufa
red knots remain out of an estimated 150,000 that
existed at the time B95 was first banded. In fact,
there are six subspecies of red knots, one subspecies
for each of the major shoreline routes between
summertime feeding and resting points near the
South Pole and the red knot’s common breeding
and nesting grounds near the Arctic Circle. The rufa
subspecies population must exploit every potential
feeding and resting area along the east coasts of
North and South America. Fortunately for us,
one such feeding and resting area is the beach on
Kiawah Island. We have an enormous responsibility
to keep these beaches open and welcoming to this
threatened, hard-working traveler. NK
Red Knot Updates
According to Manomet Center for Conservation Services, B95 was sighted on May 16, 2013, on the Delaware
Bay, making him 20 years old and the oldest red knot on record. From there he flew over to the New Jersey side
of the Delaware Bay, making appearances at Cooks Beach, Fortesque and Kimbles Beach. Reacting to a decline
indicated to be as steep as 75 percent on the eastern seaboard since the 1980s, the United States Fish and
Wildlife Service designated the red knot as “threatened” in December of 2014.
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