As we write this, Cooper Flagg, the superstar basketball player from Newport, Maine, now playing for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, has just won the award for Rookie of the Year. He’s accomplished so much – good for him! A well-deserved honor.
Lesser Yellowlegs nest in wetlands in the Boreal Forest biome of Canada and Alaska and some winter as far south as Chile and Argentina. National Audubon researchers satellite tagged a few that were wintering in Colombia that are now traveling north in spring migration. (Photo by Jeff Wells)
Flagg isn’t the only individual soaring to incredible heights of success. For us, Cholao 2, a Lesser Yellows, comes quickly to mind.
Unlike Cooper Flagg, Cholao 2 is known primarily to the Audubon scientists who tagged the bird in the agricultural fields south of Cali, Colombia. It’s one of five whose carry-on is a satellite tag that provides real-time locations every few minutes. This allows researchers to learn more about the hour-by-hour movements of each bird. When they are on the wintering grounds in the Cauca Valley of Colombia, those movements indicate where the bird is spending its time feeding and sleeping. When migration begins, the satellite tags provide details as the bird makes a seemingly impossible journey north to the place where all Lesser Yellowlegs nest each summer: the Boreal Forest biome of Canada or Alaska.
Cholao 2’s dramatic exploits were made known to us late last week, as the bird was flying north from Panama across the open ocean on a bearing toward Jamaica. Yes, that’s correct: the bird’s path went out over the wide blue waters of the Caribbean Sea rather than over the mainland where in theory it could safely stop in case of emergency.
Departing from Panama late last week, the Lesser Yellowlegs named Cholao 2 had reached the strait between Cuba and Mexico by mid-day Saturday.
Why? Doesn’t this seem like a big risk? Yes! One reason for it could be that it was channeling Garmin and opted for the shortest route back north. The open-ocean track could shave off as much as 600 miles compared to the winding route above the land mass of Central America and Mexico.
To us humans, it’s downright scary to put ourselves in Cholao 2’s feathers. After all, the bird had to keep beating its wings ceaselessly, with no land in sight in any direction. As night fell, Cholao 2 continued on, high over the ocean, its wings never stopping.
On Saturday, just before noon, we checked in and saw that Cholao 2 was nearing the 120-mile strait between the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and the western tip of Cuba. Depending on how high it was flying, it might have been able to see the coast or mainland mountains—and maybe stop for a rest.
Nope. Cholao 2 kept going, flying north, farther and farther from the closest land. Another sunset came and went from high over the sea.
After a second night of flying nonstop, high over the Caribbean Sea, on Sunday, Cholao 2 was still migrating north toward the Louisiana coast.
By around 10 AM on Sunday morning, this little shorebird with long yellow legs had been flying non-stop for 48 hours and was still smack in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
We had to ask ourselves: will it actually make it without a stop?
Without fanfare, at half past noon, Cholao 2 soared in over the coast of Louisiana, perhaps over the little community of Pecan Island in Vermilion Parish.
The bird had flown nonstop for 1,600 miles! That’s amazing! And it still has thousands more miles to go.
Even more extraordinary is that every other Lesser Yellowlegs, and billions of other birds around the world, have to make journeys just as mind-blowing, every season, in order to continue their lives on Planet Earth.
Doesn’t it make you want to do what you can for them?
If you’re a member of the Natural Resources Council of Maine (where Allison works) or other groups, like the National Audubon Society (where Jeff is on staff), thank you! Your support helps make a difference for work that benefits birds and other wildlife. If you’re not yet a member, we hope you’ll consider making a donation. Apparently, Cooper Flagg’s award will yield him into the seven figures. In Cholao 2’s case, any amount will do!
As always, thank you for caring about birds.
—Allison and Jeff Wells
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