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Cuckoo Navigation a Theory

We know that cuckoos nest over winter in the Congo and breed in Europe. UK cuckoos arrive in the latter part of April and lay their eggs in another bird’s nest. The common host of cuckoos are Reed warblers, Meadow pipits and even non-migratory Robins.  The juveniles a month later in May. The fledgling casts out the other…

Migratory Songbird

Phenotypic response to environmental cues, orientation and migration costs in songbirds flying halfway around the world by Heiko Schmaljohann et al. A polar system of intercontinental bird migration by Prof Thomas Alerstam et al. Cross-hemisphere migration of a 25 g songbird by Franz Bairlein et al. One of our heroes Prof Tomas Alerstam has directed us to this fascinating paper by Heiko…

Migrant bird population declines, an African perspective

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…

How do dogs know the right direction and yet when they do know the route home, why do they not take it but sit and wait to be found?

Examples with my Welsh terrier  Rhubarbe. Living in Paris, he and I used to walk in the Champs de Mars by the Eiffel Tower at least twice a week and sometimes more. He knew the way there and back by heart. He walked without a lead and once in the park, which is not closed,…