Rising Tide Images
Posing Plover
A Pacific golden plover warms in the sunrise as it combs the beach to see what bounty a wave might wash in or uncover in the intertidal zone. Many kolea establish territorial fidelity at inland grassy areas, but this one earns its classification as a shorebird. A superb navigator, the kolea (Pluvialis fulva) annually migrates from Alaska and Siberia to tropical Pacific islands on a high endurance non-stop flight of 3 to 4 days using the stars and the earth’s magnetic field, perhaps visually with magnetoreception molecules of cryptochrome in the retina, to find its way over thousands of miles of featureless open ocean. This one winters in Hawaii. Some will continue their migration into the southern hemisphere. Mele Kalikimaka!
Posing Plover
A Pacific golden plover warms in the sunrise as it combs the beach to see what bounty a wave might wash in or uncover in the intertidal zone. Many kolea establish territorial fidelity at inland grassy areas, but this one earns its classification as a shorebird. A superb navigator, the kolea (Pluvialis fulva) annually migrates from Alaska and Siberia to tropical Pacific islands on a high endurance non-stop flight of 3 to 4 days using the stars and the earth’s magnetic field, perhaps visually with magnetoreception molecules of cryptochrome in the retina, to find its way over thousands of miles of featureless open ocean. This one winters in Hawaii. Some will continue their migration into the southern hemisphere. Mele Kalikimaka!