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SALT LAKE CITY — About half a million birds are fattening up and getting ready to take off from the Great Salt Lake to head half the world away. Their annual trip continues to amaze scientists.
One biologist has come all the way from Argentina to try to solve some of the mysteries surrounding the phenomenon.
Argentinian biologist Marcela Castellino grew up next to a lake just like the Great Salt Lake in South America. The lake in Argentina even has the same stinky smell.
"Some people (don't) like it, say, 'Mmm, smells so bad,' but I really enjoy it," Castellino said with a laugh. "I like it."
She traveled to Utah to study a tiny shorebird called Wilson's Phalarope. They come in enormous numbers, about 500,000 each year.
"And that represents over a third of the whole global population of this species," said ornithologist John Cavitt.
Cavitt, also a professor at Weber State University, is helping Castellino study the birds.
They're now consuming vast amounts of brine shrimp and brine flies, which are so thick in some places that they look like rolling black waves on the lake. The Phalaropes stop in Utah to fatten up.
"Actually they can double (their) body weight in a month or less," Castellino said. "So it's very impressive."
They're taking on fuel for one of the most impressive migrations anywhere on the globe. It's a non-stop flight — 5,000 miles — to that similar lake in Argentina. Because they're so dependent on two lakes in different hemispheres, bird lovers worry they are exceptionally vulnerable.
"They use both places. So if we don't conserve, if we only take care of one of these places, we don't take care of the other one, the species (will) not survive," Castellino said.
The problem is, scientists don't know which parts of the lake are important to the Phalaropes.
"We don't know a lot about their behavior once they're here," Cavitt said.
No one knows why they're always taking off and landing, or where they go after the sun sets.
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Story of Great Salt Lake's origin may have been mistaken"It's really hard to see them because they are so small," Castellino said. "And when they fly at night, sometimes it's 10 p.m., and you can hear them flying over you but you cannot see it."
One hypothesis is it's possible the birds have to go to the saltier parts of the lake to get the feed, but then have to come back to fresher parts of the lake, where the Jordan and Weber rivers come in, to get the water they need.
"So we really have to be careful about how the Great Salt Lake is managed, for the protection of such large proportions of the global population," Cavitt said.
This year, all systems appear to be go. Flights departing to Argentina are expected any day now.
The international study is a partnership of Weber State University and the National Audubon Society. It's primarily funded by Moab philanthropist Jennifer Speers.
