For thousands of years, people have marveled at bird migration. Scientists report that a godwit tracked by satellite flew 7,145 miles without landing, though such feats are routine for birds that travel these distances every year. Many migratory birds that frequent these wetlands breed in the arctic, then fly south as far as the tip of South America, depending along the way on a network of wetlands for rest and refueling. The marshes of the Texas Gulf Coast, the Great Salt Plains of Oklahoma, Quivira and Cheyenne Bottoms in Kansas, the Rainwater Basin in Nebraska, and the Missouri Couteu region of North Dakota and Canada are interconnected by the birds that migrate between them. For waterfowl and shorebirds, these wetlands are like stepping stones across a stream, and one missing stone can be ruinous. Shorebirds often arrive at these wetlands with little fat for continuing migration, but once there they may double their body weight, sometimes fattening to the point where an extra ounce would prevent them from taking off. Scientists have many high-tech ways to monitor bird migration, but much of what is now known came from researchers who worked before the days of satellites and radio transmitters, including local bird banders such as Frank Robl and Ed Martinez, who tirelessly netted, measured, banded, and released birds.