The Journey Of The Sanderlings Poem by Francis Duggan

From their northern breeding grounds in the early Fall they take to wing
And fly towards their wintering beaches in the southern Spring
The mystery of their long journeys quite an amazing thing
These tiniest of migratory waders the brown and gray sanderling

They even reach the beach at Killarney of their birthplace far south
Where in Spring and Summer one sees them race about
Picking up the insects each wave does wash in
And their race to avoid the incoming wave they always does win

One can say of the migratory sanderling how amazing they are
Killarney beach in the Moyne Shire of south western Victoria from their birthplace seems far
A journey they undertake twice every year
That Nature does have it's mysteries is so obviously clear

On their journey to their wintering beaches from where they first saw light of day
Some of the aged and young die on the way
To Killarney beach in the early Spring they always arrive
In Nature only the strongest and fittest survive

So many things about Nature to wonder gives rise
How the migratory sanderling so tiny in our eyes
Can travel so far south and to breed return home again
Is one more thing about Nature that as a mystery remain

My wonder of Nature only does seem to grow
Yet so little of her ways i can claim of to know
In Spring and Summer on the beach at Killarney sanderlings i often see
And as a mystery of Nature their ways remain to me.