Rising Tide Images
'Akekeke Beachwalk
Decked out in breeding plumage just days prior to departure, this ruddy turnstone runs up and down the beach, often flipping stones, to see what bounty a wave might wash in or uncover in the intertidal zone. Fattening up is requisite for an annual migration from their tropical Hawaiian winter range to nesting grounds on the tundra of Alaska, Canada, and Siberia. The trip spans over approximately 3,000 miles of open ocean requiring an exhaustive, marathon effort of 3 to 4 days and nights of nonstop flight. Turnstones use the stars and the earth’s magnetic field to find their way over the featureless ocean to the same small patch of territory every year. They may use the earth’s magnetic field visually with the magnetoreception molecules of cryptochrome in their retinae. The Hawaiian name, ‘akekeke, resembles the sound of their call. The physiological changes in migrating shorebirds, like this ‘akekeke, are astonishing. The necessity of increasing fat load for the sustained energy demands of long-distance migration has been compared to, in terms of percentage body fat, larding up to morbid obesity in humans. The surge in heart and lung capacity and increase in pectoral flight muscle are driven by hormonal changes (without the drudgery of exercise!).
'Akekeke Beachwalk
Decked out in breeding plumage just days prior to departure, this ruddy turnstone runs up and down the beach, often flipping stones, to see what bounty a wave might wash in or uncover in the intertidal zone. Fattening up is requisite for an annual migration from their tropical Hawaiian winter range to nesting grounds on the tundra of Alaska, Canada, and Siberia. The trip spans over approximately 3,000 miles of open ocean requiring an exhaustive, marathon effort of 3 to 4 days and nights of nonstop flight. Turnstones use the stars and the earth’s magnetic field to find their way over the featureless ocean to the same small patch of territory every year. They may use the earth’s magnetic field visually with the magnetoreception molecules of cryptochrome in their retinae. The Hawaiian name, ‘akekeke, resembles the sound of their call. The physiological changes in migrating shorebirds, like this ‘akekeke, are astonishing. The necessity of increasing fat load for the sustained energy demands of long-distance migration has been compared to, in terms of percentage body fat, larding up to morbid obesity in humans. The surge in heart and lung capacity and increase in pectoral flight muscle are driven by hormonal changes (without the drudgery of exercise!).