If you feel like complaining about all that needs to be done this fall, think of the American Golden-Plover bird! Its task is to fly 8,000-10,000 miles before winter!

Plovers are 9 to 11 inches long with a wingspan of 22 inches. They are famous for the white question mark shape in their feathers. Weighing in at less than 0.5 pound, they are considered the fastest flying shorebird, reaching speeds of 60 mph.
The American Golden-Plover annually performs one of the longest migrations of any American bird. They fly up to 20,000 miles per year, usually including a nonstop flight of 3,000-3,500 miles over the Atlantic. To prepare for this, they stock up on bugs, berries, leaves, and seeds. They also may be capable of maintaining seeds in their digestive tract to help them survive long migratory flights.
In the summer, Plovers live in the arctic regions of Canada where the females lay four eggs and both parents incubate them. The babies hatch in 26 days and are ready to fly in another month. Late summer the parents leave their summer habitat and travel down the eastern coast of Canada and the United States, eating more along the way. In Florida they start their non-stop flight to South America. It was probably the Plover that Columbus sited 65 days at sea that encouraged him to believe land was near.
But the trip doesn’t stop in South America. Plovers will continue all the way to Argentina, another 2,000-3,000 miles. In the spring they will fly all the way back to arctic Canada but this time up the western coast where food is already growing.
Who taught the Plover how to make this flight and where to go? It wasn’t the parents, for they start south two weeks before the babies are ready for the flight. Yet, the babies will follow the same route and end up in the same region, nearly 10,000 miles from home! Honest people must admit the Plover was designed by intelligence! That person is Jesus Christ! (John 1:3)