Mighty godwit’s surprise landing
Captain Sir Tom Moore’s remarkable spirit lives on only a few steps away from the garden where he marched into our hearts.
On the outskirts of the Bedfordshire village where he heroically raised millions for the NHS while approaching his 100th birthday, another intrepid adventurer has been strutting its way into the record books.
Bar-tailed godwits have long legs and banana-shaped bills – perfect for wading through coastal mudflats to winkle out juicy worms and clams.
For several glorious spring days, one of these striking shorebirds drew admiring glances by taking up temporary residence at an inland nature reserve about as far from the sea as you can get in the UK.
Watching the godwit tip-toe through the boggy meadows of Marston Vale Millennium Country Park proved they are as elegant on the ground as they are on the wing.
No birds on the planet perform such astonishing flights as the barwit, to use its popular nickname among the birdwatching community.
One was recorded making the longest non-stop flight by any bird, having set off from Alaska last September and arriving 11 days later in
New Zealand.
At times during the 7,500-mile epic flight, the satellite-tracked godwit reached speeds of 55mph as it powered over the unforgiving waters of the Pacific.
But the bird left high and dry in the wilds of Bedfordshire had been on a very different migratory journey, travelling from tropical West Africa for its remote breeding grounds amid the Arctic tundra wastes of Scandinavia.
Most years, flocks of godwits pass fleetingly over the UK to refuel on the intertidal mudflats of Western Europe’s Wadden Sea, but this spring’s incessant period of northerly winds has meant unprecedented numbers of birds touching down to feed inland.
The British Trust for Ornithology’s BirdTrack project has received hundreds of reports of godwits, with one flock of 1,800 birds counted in Gloucestershire.
Captain Tom reminded us tomorrow will be a good day. To my mind, as long as there are fascinating birds to watch, the future will always be bright.
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No birds on the planet perform such astonishing flights