www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17855194
Please look at this link as it covers important ground on Avian Navigation. You will see that one of our heroes David Keays has established that the magnetite structure in the beaks of pigeons does not exist. The magnetic theory still has problems because you cannot navigate using a compass without knowing where you are, where you are heading and a map.
Richard Nissen
Editor
Questions by Richard Nissen. Replies by David Higgins – President of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. If pigeons are not trained do pigeons roam far from their lofts? Probably no more than a mile. Do you think that homing into the loft when it is near by is done using geographical features such as roads…
Intro This piece has been forwarded to me by one of our editors: Simon Raggett. He gives us the quantum twist. You will also find much written here on the subject of avian navigation based around gravity from our editor Antonio Nafarrate, who has been in communication with the authors of this piece. Please follow…
Intro>> The Rutland (England) Osprey Project has been running for 18 years when Ospreys began to breed again on Rutland Water in the UK after 150 years. These birds are cared for by the Rutland Osprey Project who have fitted GPS trackers to some of these birds which give very accurate and detailed data of…
Evidence for a critical role of olfactory cues for homing after displacement in open ocean. Procellariiformes are pelagic birds which wander in the open sea most of the year and often nest in remote oceanic islands. These birds are able to pinpoint their breeding sites following straight routes even if their nesting island is located…
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…
The Economist have just published a letter I wrote to them regarding a recent academic article on Viking sunstones. In the following letter I put forward what I believe to be an original argument on this popular subject. I have no way of proving this theory, which puts me in good company with the scientists…