Shorebirds Enjoy a Spring Buffet on the Georgia Coast

A variety of migrating shorebirds feeding on horseshoe crab eggs. Photo by Sarah Cantwell.

People aren’t the only ones who love a spring vacation to the barrier islands and sandy beaches of coastal Georgia. Shorebirds, small long-legged birds such as sandpipers and plovers often use our beaches as a “stop-over” site (area where they refuel on their long-distance migration journey). Upwards of 300,000 shorebirds will visit the Georgia coastline each spring, most of which are traveling here from South America. Many spend about 1-3 months here, utilizing our remote and protected foraging sites, however, their journey doesn’t stop here. These birds will continue north, sometimes flying several days without another stop until they reach their breeding grounds above the Arctic Circle. Red Knots will fly a straight-line distance of over 9,000 miles from the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego to High Arctic Canada! 

​As if the sheer distance of these migrations isn’t impressive enough, shorebirds may complete their journey with as few as 3-4 spring stops along the entire flyway. With so many miles of coast and so few stops along the way, you may be asking yourself “why Georgia”? The answer is complicated but the main attraction is horseshoe crab eggs. The horseshoe crab, a species of marine arthropod, spawns on the Atlantic Coast of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico. In the spring when the waters of the Atlantic warm they come into shallow water to spawn and lay their eggs in the sand or mud of coastal marshes and beaches. This creates a buffet for shorebirds like the Red Knot, Ruddy Turnstone, and Semi-palmated Sandpiper.
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Horseshoe crab eggs in the sand. Photo by Sarah Cantwell.

In order to survive the extreme migration, these birds need to double their body weight. The best way to do this is to feast on the calorie-rich horseshoe crab eggs! Unfortunately, years of horseshoe crab harvesting has decimated the amount of eggs present at important shorebird feeding sites along the Atlantic coast. Fewer horseshoe crabs means fewer eggs to feed the birds which in turn leads to fewer birds being able to survive the long-distance migrations. The good news is, recent conservation efforts have been working to save horseshoe crab populations and the birds that rely on them. The Bird Island Rule in Georgia protects key feeding sites to human disturbance during the critical months of migration. 
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Red Knot. Photo by Sarah Cantwell.

Another spring has passed this year and our shorebirds are on their Arctic breeding grounds, incubating the next generation of long-distance flyers. Although these birds spend relatively short periods of time on our coast, the time they do spend here is critically important. Next spring, consider lending a helping hand to our champion migrators. You can help by flipping over-turned horseshoe crabs on beaches and help them back into the water, reporting horseshoe crab spawning sites, keeping dogs on leash or off the beach during this time, volunteering for shorebird counts, or by spreading the word of this symbiotic relationship between arthropod and bird. You can follow the movements of Red Knots tagged in the Southeast at this link: https://www.scshorebirdproject.com/redknotracking

By Sarah Cantwell, Coastal Conservation Coordinator ​

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