“Those who work dogs in the field seem to enjoy a closer, sometimes telepathic relationship with their charges that ’s obvious if you know what to look for. A good huntsman’s rapport with his pack – “the golden thread” – is much admired, but so are the feats of gundogs indispensable to every day’s shooting”.

Showcased at the Royal Institute of Navigation is this interesting piece on animal migration. Maura O’Connor is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn. Her first book is: “Resurrection Science: Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things,” from St. Martin’s Press. She is currently at work on a second book – an exploration of navigation traditions, neuroscience, and…

This paper is a very good overview of the thinking about avian migratory navigation and acknowledges that birds use all the cues that are available to them to navigate successfully. Magnetic Compass Orientation in a Palaearctic–Indian Night Migrant, the Red-Headed Bunting Summary The earth’s magnetic field, celestial cues, and retention of geographical cues en route…

Recently Vera Brust, Bianca Michalik and Ommo Hüppop  have produced a paper called “To cross or not to cross – thrushes at the German North Sea coast adapt flight and routing to wind conditions in autumn”. They looked at some of the thrush family (blackbirds, redwings and song thrushes) that migrate across the North sea from the German…