2014 Spotlight Bird  Long-billed Dowitcher   Art: Brookelynn
Harris, Student Art Contest Winner, Grade 4-6  Long-billed
Dowitcher  by Ella Sorensen       The Long-billed Dowitcher is a
medium-sized, chunky, snipe-like shorebird belonging to a group
of species with long legs and thin bills that forage along
shorelines or in shallow water.     Every year millions of
shorebirds pass through the waters and wetlands of Great Salt
Lake.  If a light were lit where each individual shorebird began
its life as a nestling, a map of western Canada and northern
United States would twinkle like stars in a night sky.  Light a
light for each shorebird’s winter destination and the    sparkle
would continue from Great Salt Lake all the way to the tip of
South America.   After nesting in the north shorebirds funnel to
Great Salt Lake like grains in a giant hourglass.  At the Lake
they feed and fatten on a teaming brew of brine flies and other
invertebrates then once again disperse to the south.  Shorebirds
have a special migrat