Shorebirds will soon be back in Alaska for the breeding season. How much depends on Cook Inlet’s bogs? There may still be ice in the rivers and snow on the ground, but spring is in the air—and that means migrating shorebirds are, too. Millions of feathered travelers cross whole hemispheres in their annual trek northward to find a place to nest and raise chicks. One notable destination is Alaska’s own Cook Inlet, but there’s not enough scientific data to know just how important a role it plays for breeding shorebirds. That’s set to change this spring. Many shorebirds pause in Cook Inlet only long enough to refuel. They gorge on the banquet of invertebrates and other organisms laid out in our vast intertidal mudflats, then set off deeper north or west into Alaska. But for thousands of individuals from at least 10 different species, Cook Inlet is home. Many of these birds may have hatched from eggs laid right here, in the boreal bogs and salt marshes that ring the coastline.…