Comments on: Bird Migration and Global Change

By: Joseph Ting

Joseph Ting — Fri, 11 May 2012 01:44:16 +0000

The stellar distances travelled by several tracked feathered flyers are truly astonishing and inspirational . In my trips to the Antarctic, I would marvel for hours at the albatrosses that effortlessly glided on the winds generated by the ceaselessly turbulent southern ocean, following in our shipâ??s wake. Maybe we are seen as fishing vessels with the prospects of discarded fish and squid. To add import to the flying feat of birds, it is worthwhile mentioning that albatrosses have also been tracked to fly the phenomenal distances . Their continuous journeys have been without respite at any intervening land mass in the circumpolar southern ocean, a feat aided by expertly using the updrafts generated by stormy ocean waves. I wonder whether smaller non sea going birds are similarly attuned in using jet streams to aid their gargantuan journeys-to physiological adaptation for marathon flights add attunement to, and intelligence in using, natureâ??s helping hand.

By: Daniel J. Andrews

Daniel J. Andrews — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:09:13 +0000

Damn it! It’s not available in Kindle. I have no more room on shelves in the house. I have an 8×10 storage shed with milk crates lining one entire wall to the roof (7′), all filled with text and reference books, and I’m out of room there too. I ‘stole’ another milk crate for more storage, but nowhere to put it. But I will have to order this book anyway as I can justify it as being work-related.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:54:52 +0000

For a long time researchers in the Ituri Forest in the Congo thought that a certain call heard at night was a snipe. The locals insisted it was a chameleon. But scientists knew that chameleons never made any noise and assume the locals were wrong.

But the locals there are very rarely wrong about the wildlife. It was a chameleon. The first noisy one on record.

By: dhogaza

dhogaza — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:27:15 +0000

According to the researchers, who followed snipe with so-called position gauges, are known to the other cases where an animal traveled so quickly across such a long stretch.

Probably a GPS unit with satellite transmitter. I’ve worked with these and red-tailed hawks and golden eagles. For migratory work, typically one programs them to transmit a location once a day, and they also are programmed to call home if they don’t detect movement for a certain amount of time (which indicates a likely dead subject). Snipe are small so the battery would have to be much smaller than those we’ve used for larger raptors, but it’s possible transmitters have been further minaturized (it’s been about 10 years since I’ve worked with them).

By: Lars Karlsson

Lars Karlsson — Wed, 25 May 2011 18:14:58 +0000

I read this in a Swedish newspaper today, maybe you will find it interesting:

Three Swedish birds have set a new record in long-haul flight. The birds, three Snipe, started their autumn migration at Ã?nnsjÃ¶n in JÃ¤mtland and then flew with an average speed of 90 km / h non-stop to West Africa.
The total flight distance was about 6000 kilometers. According to the researchers, who followed snipe with so-called position gauges, are known to the other cases where an animal traveled so quickly across such a long stretch.
Ake Lindstrom, researchers at Lund University, says that the birds could well rest during the flight down to Africa, since there are plenty of suitable resting places on the way down. But by all appearances, the snipe “chosen” a different approach – although the non-stop flight must be extremely expensive and involve a huge energy consumption.
The advantages of flight quickly in one go may be to avoid birds of prey and predators during the journey.
Having landed in Nigeria since the birds flew to the rainforest in Congo-Kinshasa, where they spent the winter. This was also a surprise. Previously, snipe wintering areas were unknown, but no one believed that their final destination was the rainforest belt.
Snipe were once a very common breeding bird in Sweden, but it exists now almost entirely in the mountains.