This paper is fascinating. This site has always been sceptical about Magnetoreception – the magnetic navigation story for the same reasons that are discussed here. No-one has found the magnetic receptors. the cryptochrome story requires conditions in the eye that are not conducive to quantum effects and knowing where North is does not help without a map showing where you are and where you are going so giving you the required bearing for navigation.
I was delighted to be able to attend the animal navigation conference at Reading University in May 2008. I attended as a dowser with the theory that animals can and do follow dowsable clues including earth energy lines as an aid to navigation. We all know that dowsers (water diviners) can find water. However what…
Analysis of GPS recorded tracks of intact trigeminal sectioned pigeons. Conditioning studies have shown that the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve is functionally involved in the perception of the geomagnetic field intensity. However, homing experiments conducted in the field with homing pigeons demonstrated that trigeminal mediation of magnetoreception is neither necessary nor sufficient for…
There has been a recent article in the New Scientist 9 August 2014 entitled: “Songbirds really do fly south for the winter” Scientists had postulated that intercontinental migratory songbirds flew north for the summer to breed in order to escape overcrowding and intense competition in the tropics. Most of us had always though that the…
http://www.2physics.com/2012/10/avian-compass-reloaded.html Please find this interesting piece entitled The Avian Compass Reloaded by Dagomir Kaszlikowski at the Centre for Quantum Technologies, Department of Physics, National University of Singapore. Kaszlikowski talks about the the quantum effect that is required to enable the Cryptochromes in the eye of the European Robin to be sensitive to the earth’s magnetic field….
Useful links wikipedia.org/wiki/Swallow birdsofbritain.co.uk/bird-guide/swallow.asp Below is the of the swallow migration map: www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/autumnwatch/2009/11/lates… We, in Europe, measure the beginning of Spring by the arrival of the swallows. Many swallows make a 6,000 mile journey from Europe to winter in South Africa and back. I believe, that the way that swallows make this migration is by…
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…