Scientists in the New Jersey area are underway with their yearly census of the the red knot migratory birds and the horseshoe crabs that they depend on for life.
Scientist capture and tag many red knots and other shore birds to help keep an eye on how well the birds are doing. The last decade has been challenging to these birds due to the reduction of the horseshoe crab population along the New Jersey beaches.
The preliminary results coming in seem to indicate that the horseshoe crab population is rebounding from the over harvesting and the red knots are getting enough horseshoe crab eggs to fatten up for their continued journey to their breeding grounds.
Hopefully this will bring about a rebound of the reclining population of red knots seen over the last decade and prevent the possiblility of their extinctinon.
You can see a short video of the scientists capturing the examining the shorebirds at nj.com.