This is why I’m going.  I’ll be joining Dr. Allan Baker and a team of researches to document the recovery of the Red Knot, a migratory shore bird which journeys each summer from Tierra del Fuego in Argentina to the Arctic, a distance measuring over 15,000 km.  In the late 1990’s, the North American subspecies experienced a population crash, plummeting from 90,000 individuals to a mere 13,000.  The population now hovers around 30,000.  A few good breeding seasons could take the birds off the endangered species list and onto the road to recovery.  But it won’t be easy – the United States has yet to classify the bird as endangered (due to both political and financial reasons,) and fisherman off the coast of Delaware Bay continue to over fish horseshoe crabs, whose eggs are a critical food source for the Red Knot during the annual migration.

The trip is still a few weeks off, but I’ll be documenting the adventure here.  Stay tuned…