It is no picnic
being a shorebird!

For one thing, there’s an awful lot of travel involved

Tiny western sandpipers, common on the beaches and mudflats of Clayoquot Sound in early May, may have flown all the way from Ecuador or Peru. Sanderlings and semi-palmated plovers may have spent our winter months in Tierra del Fuego. Other species range even farther. When they pass through the Tofino Mudflats WMA in spring, all are headed for a brief, frantic breeding season in the high Arctic.

Mudflats offer migrating birds refuge and feeding . photo: Adrian Dorst
.

Shorbirds need to rest and eat on their great migration or they will not survive
Photo: Barbara Schramm

And decent accommodation is hard to come by

Every seasoned traveller knows the value of eating well and getting a good night’s rest. Western sandpipers, and many other species that migrate along the Pacific Coast of North America, depend on a series of large estuaries, from San Francisco Bay in California to Kachemak Bay in Alaska. Unfortunately, such estuaries are few and far between along the Pacific Coast. Many are under fierce development pressure. With the loss of estuarine habitat elsewhere, migrating shorebirds are increasingly dependent on the Tofino Mudflats for food and shelter.

Bird watching at a safe distance
Photo: Don Osborne

Important Links
and documents

• Important Bird Areas
• Bird Studies Canada