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…
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,…
This site has been created to share information and invite you to contribute in order to see if we can find out how animals and humans navigate without aids. There has been a lot of academic work in this field which is difficult to follow without interpretation. We shall try to put as much of…
Click here for Wikipedia’s explanation of the Arctic Tern.
The avian navigation system is rather complex, based on many factors, and it even used two aspects of the magnetic field. If, in a given situation, one can show that the receptors in the beak have no effect, that does not mean that they do not have one in another situation! Anaesthesia of the upper…
I hold the view that animals, the ancient peoples and the Aborigines navigate perfectly well without compasses. This we often call a sense of direction. People with a sense of direction very seldom get lost even on dark nights even in unfamiliar territory. Not everyone has a sense of direction but those who do rely on…
See www.arctictern.info see the google tour You can see the tern’s tracks from their breeding grounds in Greenland in the Arctic (in yellow) to their wintering grounds in Antarctica. The white track is the averaged return flight. The terns dawdle down to their Antarctic wintering grounds looking for food etc. The Earth’s Prevailing winds. Note:…