Many people will be out and about today looking for migratory birds in honour of World Migratory Bird Day. Across the world countless millions of birds are taking the life gamble on moving from one region to another, some making the ultimate sacrifice in order that their species will continue. It is an ancient challenge that has proved successful to birds for a variety of reasons.
However the goalposts have moved somewhat, we, as a species, are changing the face of this planet at such a rate that evolution is being left behind and these age old strategies are not working so well for these creatures. Stop-over points are being destroyed wrecking the carefully honed migration biology that has developed over many thousands if not millions of years. Some feel it is their right to blast these birds out of the sky for no other reason that in it fun to do so, witness the events that occur in places like Malta and Lebanon, and yet somehow many of these miracles of life make it through albeit less and less and among the greatest of migrants are some of the waders. http://www.waderquest.org/2014/05/world-migratory-bird-day.html
However the goalposts have moved somewhat, we, as a species, are changing the face of this planet at such a rate that evolution is being left behind and these age old strategies are not working so well for these creatures. Stop-over points are being destroyed wrecking the carefully honed migration biology that has developed over many thousands if not millions of years. Some feel it is their right to blast these birds out of the sky for no other reason that in it fun to do so, witness the events that occur in places like Malta and Lebanon, and yet somehow many of these miracles of life make it through albeit less and less and among the greatest of migrants are some of the waders. http://www.waderquest.org/2014/05/world-migratory-bird-day.html
