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I have a place I long to be, Forty minutes from our home
Looking over ponds towards the neighbouring sea
I try to arrive, before sunrise, to wait and see the dawn.
Beyond waterfowl, whose cries announce, a new day has been born.
To watch the changing light, and kaleidoscopic sky
Royal spoonbills flying in the early morning sun
Honkings and quackings, Ducks and Swan fly by,
The glowing dawn fades, and this new day, has really begun

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It is known as Miranda, after a beached gun-boat, long ago
More famous now for Shore-birds, They may be seen, to come and go
It is the southern staging post, for Godwits, Knots and more
They've flown here in a single hop, From Alaska's foreign shore.
Where they go to nest, and raise their young, in a strange and alien land
They face there, many predators, eagles, owls, foxes and bear
Strange.., for down here, they have no such dangers to fear
Such is nature, and here I am, I ponder as I gaze in awe, and stand.

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The marvels of creation so long here concealed
Are being slowly studied, unravelled and revealed
We now know that the journey North is in two or three stages
It is according to the weather, the birds encounter on the way
But the reverse journey ,one hop, taking 5 to 7 days
The mysteries of migration are being studied
Radio transmitters, colour bands and other modern ways
The questions of their lifestyle, unfolding on each tide.

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The Northern arctic migrants spend the summer over here
Living on marine worms known as polychaetes,
Molluscs and bivalves probing with their bills
Some swishing side-ways and cleaning mud with a swill
They fatten over the summer putting on the weight
Getting ready for the return journey, awaiting a date
In March or Early April, when weather patterns suit
and in smallish numbers they gather and off they shoot.

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Often their first feeding stop is in the Yellow Sea,
China, Korea, North and South, they not fussy if they're "free"
Human politics are affecting the shorebirds feeding spots
In-filling and reclamation is drying up the nourishing posts
as these nations claim land masses from estuarine feeding grounds
So our Shore-Bird Centre has become famous on the world stage
With contacts in those regions, revealing what they've found
For if such development proceeds, the birds will surely go! (cont'd in Part 2)

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