On the Delaware Bay, migrating red knots balance on ‘The Narrow Edge’
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This photo provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service shows a red knot in Mispillion Harbor, Delaware. (Gregory Breese, USFWS/AP Photo)
Each year tiny sandpipers — red knots — undertake a 19,000-mile journey from one end of the Earth to the other and back.
A critical stop for the birds is along the Delaware Bay shoreline, their visit timed to coincide with the annual mass spawning by horseshoe crabs. To complete its journey north, one red knot needs an incredible 400,000 horseshoe crab eggs.
Author Deborah Cramer accompanied the red knots on their odyssey along the length of two continents, tracking birds from remote Tierra del Fuego to the icy Arctic. She chronicled her adventure in “The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, an Ancient Crab and an Epic Journey.” She spoke with NewsWorks Tonight host Dave Heller.
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