Each small sandpiper must harvest up to 20,000 shrimp while simultaneously avoiding the fastest animal on earth: the peregrine falcon.
Features
TRANSCRIPT
- [Narrator] Semipalmated sandpipers.
(sandpipers calling) 200,000 of them.
These birds are on a huge migration from Canada's Arctic to South America.
(sandpipers calling) They stop here to feast on the shrimps, (sandpipers calling) and they can't move on until they've doubled in weight.
Each small bird must harvest up to 20,000 shrimp in a single tidal cycle.
(sandpipers chirping) (sandpipers calling) But as the incoming tide pushes the sandpipers back up the beach, they have less room for manoeuvre.
Easy targets for a deadly predator.
(waves crashing) The peregrine falcon, the fastest creature on earth.
(sandpipers chirping) The flock moves as one, trying to confuse the hunter.
(sandpipers calling) They dodge the first strike, but their nemesis gains height for an even faster attack.
(sandpipers calling) A weak one is injured, (sandpiper chirping) and taken.
The peregrine is a constant menace, but after 10 days of good feeding, the sandpipers have put on enough weight to continue their epic journey south.
