This is Bird Note.

Millions of birds began their lives in the Arctic wetlands of northern Alaska.

Environment reporter and author Linda Mapes visited a few of them on a small pond near Teshapook Lake.

There was a family of red-throated loons right in the center of the pond. The mother, the father, and two very fluffy chicks.

She watched the mother tend her chicks as their father flew off.

And eventually, there's this great commotion, this great flurry.

And he arrives with his perfect little silvery fish in his mouth.

And he comes up to one of the chicks and he passes it to the

chick and the chick drops it in the water. Was it an accident? A fishing lesson? Linda couldn't say,

but she was struck by her own immense privilege of sharing their family time with them as these beings, doing the things that we all need to do,

to eat, to take care of one another, to persist into the next generation.

But now, fossil fuel development in the Teshipuk wetlands is encroaching on their home.

It means disturbance. It means danger.

They don't have another place they can go to like this.

This is their place.

They will come back here next year looking for the very same nest sites.

What will they come back to?

Learn more about what you can do to protect America's Arctic when you visit our website,

birdnote.org.

I'm Ariana Rimmel.