![]() ![]() (All godwits breed in the Northern Hemisphere.) In June or July, they leave their self-sufficient hatchlings and head south. Named after the Canadian bay where the species was first identified, and the bird’s distinctive two-syllable cry (“god-wiiit!”), Hudsonian godwits lay their eggs each spring in this Alaskan bog. There are some 70 species of shorebirds in the world that make the journey from the top of the globe to the bottom and back every year. And migratory shorebirds make the most miraculous journeys of all, given the distances they cover and their tiny size. Long-distance migration is the most extreme and life-threatening thing that any animal does. Their diet here consists mostly of small insects like mosquitoes and flies and their larvae. The Alaskan bog where Hudsonian godwits nest on the ground. This, however, is where one of the world’s premier ultra-endurance athletes lives. Rangy moose emerge from groves of dwarf trees to threaten trespassers. Clouds of mosquitoes search for any bit of exposed flesh. A wrong step can sink the uninitiated into thigh-deep water that requires a hand up. It feels as if the ground might give way. Walking here is like sloshing across a very wet sponge, as each step sinks into a few inches of water. The bog, or muskeg, near Beluga, Alaska, is a floating mass of vegetation, grassy hummocks and stunted black spruce trees that stretch for miles in every direction, with the snow-flecked mountains of the Alaska Range shining in the distance.
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