The migration of birds is such a fascinating topic. The endurance of these light and sometimes fragile creatures who fly huge, almost incomprehensible, distances. The way different species of birds have an internal clock which tells them it is time to fly and then there is the issue of the actual navigation through every type of weather and landscape found on our planet.
Windcatcher begins with a lighthouse! You may know I adore lighthouses. This lighthouse on the edge of the Southern Ocean helps the shearwaters find their way home.
Now onto our hero. Her name is Hope. Her scientific names are:
- Short-Tailed Shearwater
- Slender-Billed Shearwater
- Yolla
- Moonbird
- Mutton Bird
Using narrative, Diane Jackson Hill gives her reader all the facts but in an easy reading format.
There are 37 different species of Shearwater. Our Short-Tailed Shearwater flies 15,000 each way taking six weeks for each journey. The pairs mate for life, the eggs takes about 53 days to hatch. The new baby is cared for by the parents from November until April when the parents leave. The young chick will then loose weight and grow flight feathers. This takes 2-3 weeks then the new chick is ready for his or her own migration fight. If you click here you can listen to a pair of Short-Tailed Shearwater birds in their burrow.
There are terrible hazards for this bird. Krill are the main food but sometimes food is scarce. "Brightly coloured chips of plastic can be mistaken for food and slowly turn to poison inside the birds." The birds have to cope with wild weather but there are other hazards too - fishing nets hidden just under the surface of the water. Luckily Hope is rescued by the fisherman when she finds herself trapped in a huge net and so she is able to fly on to her northern feeding grounds.
On the final pages of Wildcatcher you will find two pages of facts. What they look like; how do they breed; how far do they migrate; what dangers they face; are they protected; and where can you see this small bird which is about the size of a pigeon but which has a 100cm wing span.
Read an interview with Craig Smith where he talks about the challenges of illustrating this book. There is a set of teachers notes on the publisher web site. Here is a review from Reading Time. You would most certainly pair this book with Circle by Jeannie Baker. Another book to use when you talk about bird migration with a younger class such as Kindergarten is Lucy Goosey by Margaret Wild.
I was especially fascinated to read that the parents leave their chick and he or she is left to set off later. This also happens with Puffins. Perhaps someone will write a book for children explaining this interesting process.
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