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Delaware Celebrates Shorebirds and Horsheshoe Crabs

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WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - State officials are celebrating a new film that documents the important ecological relationship between horseshoe crabs and migratory shorebirds.

Gov. John Carney is among those scheduled to get a preview of the film Tuesday at the Delaware Museum of Natural History in Wilmington.  The film will premiere to the general public on Saturday as part of a Shorebirds and Horseshoe Crabs day at the museum.

Every spring, hundreds of thousands of birds stop along the shores of the Delaware Bay as they migrate from areas as far as southern South America to summer breeding grounds in the Arctic.

During the stopover, the birds gorge on horseshoe crab eggs to build up their fat reserves before continuing their journey northward.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.