My spirits were buoyed up last week by reading about bar-tailed godwits. These small birds are based in southern Alaska in the warmer months there. When it turns cold, they take flight to New Zealand but not before they stuff themselves with food for the trip.

Then, almost incredibly, they fly 7,100 miles nonstop at 40 miles an hour and arrive at their destination in nine days. What a feat of navigation and endurance comes naturally to them!

These facts we know thanks to biologists who have been studying these birds for decades. The data about their migration comes thanks to the scientists surgically implanting satellite transmitters in their bodies.