For those of us following the BTO satellite tagged Cuckoos, we can see Spring is well on its way – three birds have already left their winter locations in the Congo rainforest and are at their stopover sites in West Africa.
Later this month, rested and loaded with the fat that will fuel their journeys, they will head north across the Sahara. Fingers crossed for good weather and a safe flight.
How do pigeons navigate? Racing homing pigeons navigate incredible distances with apparent ease. A champion racing pigeon can be released 400 miles from its home loft, in a place it has never been before, and return within 1 day. The last 40 miles of its journey, the bird navigates by sight. But over the other 360…
I love this little observation by James Mather… “I was on a ladder clearing the gutters end of last week, and over a period of hours heard a number of flocks of birds gathering to migrate, and I could see them heading off in V-formation. Then, at one point, low cloud closed in, but I…
A summary 2011 The two prevailing ideas on long distance navigation are based around two ideas: Magnetic cues Olfactory cues (smell) It is clear that near home animals, birds and humans build up a map of their neighbourhood with remembered sights smells and landmarks. This is all mediated by the hippocampus. There is some evidence…
I have always been fascinated and touched by the devotion of Emperor Penguins and their rearing of a single chick in possibly the remotest and severest of environments on the planet. They breed in the depth of the Antarctic winter during 24 hours of darkness in temperatures which range from –20 C to – 50C…
http://safari-ecology.blogspot.fr/2012/03/migrant-bird-population-declines.html This web site gives us some real insight into the migratory habits of birds in Africa. Please follow the links too. We are fascinated in Wheatears as they like the Bar-tailed Godwit they breed in the Arctic and yet make a remarkable straight great circle flight alone to their wintering grounds in Africa. It is wonderful to have…
Here are the points to be added that I anticipated or predicted that they should happen as proof or implied consequences of my animal navigation model. The posting in the website is Introduction to my Ideas from Sept 2013 – “Gravity and Gyro effects are the basis of animal navigation, by Antonio Nafarrate“. Appendix. 1) From a paper by…