The Turnstone on turnstones: followup links
The Turnstone on turnstones: followup links
Migratory birds and climate challenges
Last week, I wrote about the turnstone, the little bird that gave its name to my website and its image to my new logo. I’ve actually got two logos – the bigger version that now sits at the top of my weekly articles (for those who receive them by email) and the thumbnail logo, here. The logos were designed by Hero Singers, and I’m sure you’ll agree with me that she’s done a lovely job in capturing the essence of both the bird and my writing.
If my article made you curious about New Zealand’s migratory shorebirds, here’s some more information, from the Miranda Shorebird Centre. But Miranda is far from the only place to see shorebirds. In Wellington, the best place to go is the Pāuatahanui Wildlife Reserve where, as well as well-constructed boardwalk tracks, there are several viewing hides. If you want to identify the birds you are seeing, Auckland Council has put out a beautiful poster covering the shorebirds seen in the Hauraki Gulf. Similar species are seen throughout New Zealand, so the poster is useful even if you are outside Auckland.
If you want to know more about the birds themselves, then it’s hard to go past New Zealand Birds Online as an information source. It’s a great site that I’ve used for a number of articles.
If you are interested in the journeys taken by some of our migratory waders, there’s a factsheet from Birdlife International about the East-Asian Australasian Flyway. There’s also a whole organisation devoted to the flyway and its birds – the East-Asian Australian Flyway Partnership. This partnership helps to connect the many people in many countries who are working to conserve migratory birds and their habitats – from New Zealand to the northern coasts of Russia and Alaska, and everywhere in between.
I was planning to finish up this set of links with a couple of resources about action on climate change, but, when I started digging, I realised just how complex the area is. One of the challenges we face is that we want to do the right thing, but it’s hard to know what the right thing actually is. And what difference does individual action make, anyway? Is there really a point in taking the bus instead of your car when just 100 companies are responsible for 70% of greenhouse gas emissions since 1988? And so, next week I will discuss action on climate change – and what the evidence says about the right thing to do.
The Turnstone comes out once a week. Usually, I write an original article once a fortnight and on alternate weeks I follow up with more information or some related links.
As always, let me know if you have any questions that you’d like me to answer through my articles.