One of my special interests in birds is to learn about the migration of certain species, and in particular the godwit. The godwit has the longest recorded non-stop journey of any creature, when it was proved by use of a satellite transmitter fitted on a female bird, that a 12,000 km flight was made non-stop from Alaska to New Zealand.
We are fortunate to have a small number of godwits on our local Whanganui River Estuary and one bird with a leg flag engraved ‘AJD’ is special to us. This male godwit has returned to Whanganui eight years in a row, with amazing regularity. He leaves here on about the 25th of March each year and flies to Alaska, via the Yellow Sea in China. He returns from Alaska to the Manawatu River Estuary each year on about the 30th of September, and then on about the 12th of November he comes over to Whanganui for the rest of the summer. He is featured in my last two bird books, so what a thrill it was to find him back in Wanganui again last week, like an old friend returning. While the rest of the godwits slept he gave me a look as if to say, “I know you” – see picture below.
