Grades 3–6 · challenge for 7–12 · Website scavenger hunt
The Shorebird Highway — Web Search
For teachers: Single-page hunt on the Grays Harbor shorebirds page. Core 3–6; challenge uses the page’s numbers (the 2% / half figure) and the salmon-and-birds “shared nursery” idea. Check the questions you want, then print — unchecked ones are left off and the rest renumber automatically. Expand the answer key below to print a teacher copy. Open the source page →
10 of 10 selected
Open “What’s in our backyard → The Shorebird Highway at Grays Harbor” (or search “shorebirds”). Read the story, the bird cards, and the tide section, then answer each question.
NameDate
Challenge · Grades 7–12
Answer key (for teachers) — matches your selected questions
1.As many as a million.
2.From South and Central America to nesting grounds in the Arctic.
3.They can nearly double their weight in fat.
4.The Western sandpiper.
5.Tiny worms, shrimp-like amphipods, and a film of algae.
6.On an incoming (rising) high tide, because the rising water pushes the birds close to shore.
7.The Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge in Hoquiam; peak is usually late April into early May.
8.It’s only about 2% of the estuary’s mudflats but draws up to half of all the spring shorebirds.
9.No bird can make the whole trip in one hop, so they must refuel along the way; miss the feeding window and they’d run out of fuel over the ocean.
10.Young salmon and the migrating shorebirds; both need clean water and healthy mudflats.