Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
A blizzard of migratory shorebirds converges on the Bay of Fundy's inner basins each summer.
Flying at an average airspeed of 60 kilometers (37 miles) per hour, they can complete their epic journey in
forty to sixty hours. Once they commit themselves by taking a ride on the northwesterly offshore wind, there is
no turning back. Neither can they rest on water, since they do not have the salt-water-clearing mechanisms that
seabirds do. The epic journey is a nonstop ordeal, and it exacts a tremendous toll. Birds arrive in South Amer-
ica with their fuel reserve of fat nearly gone, and some birds actually deplete muscle tissue to complete their
journey.
Shorebirds are generally capable of storing enough fat to make flights of up to 4,600 kilometers (2,900)
miles, and it is approximately 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) from the Bay of Fundy to Suriname, where two-
thirds of the semipalmated sandpipers winter. Clearly, the Bay of Fundy plays a critical role in the survival of
this species. For this reason, the shrimp-rich mudflats of Fundy in Shepody Bay and the Bight area of Minas
Basin have been given protection as Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserves. This is a network of sites in
North and South America, including Delaware Bay, that are deemed vital to the successful completion of the
shorebirds' life cycles. They are links in a chain, with the loss of any one posing a serious threat to the survival
of a species. The inner Bay of Fundy is such a link for semi-palmated sandpipers.
Peregrine falcons are now frequently seen diving through Fundy's massive shorebird flocks, taking their
prey on the wing. They are the fastest bird of prey, attaining speeds of 350 kilometers (217 miles) per hour as
they make their stooping dives. Peregrine falcons are endangered throughout their range in eastern North
America, the population having suffered a precipitous crash after 1950, when widespread use of the pesticide
ddt caused eggshell thinning and thus breeding failure. Peregrines disappeared from the Bay of Fundy in the
late 1940s after ddt was sprayed heavily on budworm-infested forests.
