Please meet the Eco Huellas (Ecological Footprints), a teen group based in General Roca, Rio Negro Argentina. Their mission is to protect our “Mother Earth”. As part of this work, they are committed to shorebird conservation and have “adopted” a red knot marked with Flag Orange H3H. This bird was first banded in San Antonio Bay, Argentina in March 2008 and was recaptured along the Delaware Bay in New Jersey in May 2012. Remarkably, the bander to pull re-trapped FO(H3H) from the box was Guy Morrison, recently of the Canadian Wildlife Service, who instantly recognized the bird. A friend of the Eco Huellas, he is also the original bander of H3H! The excitement and sense of hemispheric connection was immediate and spread to the entire shorebird team. (Please check out http://www.facebook.com/CelebrateDelawareBay for an account of H3H and photos of the recapture.)
Share in that connection by reading the article below by Eco Huellas about how they came to take up the cause of shorebird conservation. The English text was translated by member, Julieta Capuj. Their spirit, enthusiasm and heart shine. If you are lucky enough to see FO(H3H), take a moment to appreciate how the adoption of this bird by Eco Huellas exemplifies what can be accomplished when diverse groups reach across boundaries to ensure the conservation and recovery of shorebirds. http://grupoecohuellas.blogspot.com.ar
To start, we want to say who we are: Eco Huellas (Ecological Footprints) an ecological Argentine group of young people interested in saving, taking care of, and protecting the world - our home and our mother. Gustavo García founded this group as a school project some years ago. Our "role" is to work on any project that could help the world. For example, we are starting a project called "Bottle Woman" to collect and recycle plastic bottles. One of the girls of our group gets into a costume of a bottle and goes to primary schools with a bag and collects plastic bottles; we also do the same with a "Battery Man". They're a motivation to little children.
In 2009 we did something bigger. Gustavo got in touch with the biologist Patricia González and with Mirta Carabajal, the chairwoman of the Inalafquen Foundation in San Antonio Oeste (SAO) - Argentina, because they wanted us to help them on the Red Knots Campaign. We went to SAO and helped and met lots of people who taught us a lot. We are so grateful because everyone who took part in this campaign gave us the opportunity of taking part in it; that is so important. Because of this you made possible our knowledge of the knot with the flag H3H, who actually is our “Godson”.
We would like to use this article to say “thank-you” to Allan Baker and Patricia González, who are the principal “reasons” for us to be here, doing this work, taking part in the project, reading and learning more each day about red knots, birds and the world…, and also to Patrick Leary, Eveling Tavera Fernández, Rob Robinson, Larry Niles, Guy Morrison and Charles Duncan for sending us every little bit about H3H wanderings. We want to say how important it is to us that you send us the information about H3H. You all teach us day by day, email by email, comment by comment, the importance of reaching our goals in our lives.
It’s wonderful to see the enthusiasm and the interest with which the whole team works every day making us (and the world) know day-by-day the importance of migratory birds. And it’s more than just “important”; what you do is enormous, huge, and you include us in it, because, most of all, many young people don’t even know what a migratory bird is or its role in the world. That’s why it’s important that we (young people, teenagers) know about these birds and how important they are, what they do during their lives, and why! Because we share the world with them, and they have the same right of “living in this planet without disturbance” that we have (or we think we have) because of being (supposedly) the most intelligent species that lives on the planet.
We, the group Eco Huellas, are doing our best to make red knots as well-known as we can make a bird be. By sharing our knowledge, as you did with us, we’re also making people (most of all little children and teenagers) know how they can help us and how easy it is! That’s our contribution to the cause, and we hope it will help - sorry, we KNOW it helps.
It’s incredible to know that a bird (not just a bird) can make people, like us, from different countries, who are separated by kilometers and kilometers, get in touch and share more than information.
So we got in touch with the Inalafquen foundation, with Patricia González, then with Allan, then with all of you, then we learned of the place in San Antonio Oeste, Argentina where you work, then we helped you, then…here we are.
What are we?
We don't fully know,
but we know who we are,
and where we do want to go.
Belen of Eco Huellas holds a Red Knot
North American Resightings for FO(H3H)
please check back later for updates
Captures:
5/22/2012 8:50:00 AM - Kimbles Beach - South, New Jersey, United States
Resightings:
5/10/2010 - Fort George Inlet area - shoals and Little Talbot Island - South, Florida, United States
5/22/2011 - Reeds Beach - North, New Jersey, United States
5/27/2011 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States 
5/28/2011 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States
5/29/2011 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States
5/20/2012 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States
5/21/2012 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States
Kimbles Beach, NJ USA May 22, 2012