A tale of migration... (1 Viewer)

[Campercaillie]

Each and every year I marvel as the swallows line up on the telephone wires in preparation for their migration to Sub-Saharan Africa. Not so long before, some of them will have been tiny little scraps of life in the nest - so what an undertaking for such a delicate little bird. Anyway - I digress....In 2012, a red-necked phalarope, itself a very delicate little bird, was tagged prior to migration from The Shetlands. Its little tag showed it had migrated NW initially, against the prevailing winds - to Iceland, Greenland, down the east coast of Canada and the USA, into The Carribean, and finally, ending up on the Pacific shores of Peru and Ecuador, a trip of 8,000 miles - and then of course, after a bit of R & R, it was back again to The Shetlands. Quite remarkable.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-25661650

 

[keith]

Each and every year I marvel as the swallows line up on the telephone wires in preparation for their migration to Sub-Saharan Africa. Not so long before, some of them will have been tiny little scraps of life in the nest - so what an undertaking for such a delicate little bird. Anyway - I digress....In 2012, a red-necked phalarope, itself a very delicate little bird, was tagged prior to migration from The Shetlands. Its little tag showed it had migrated NW initially, against the prevailing winds - to Iceland, Greenland, down the east coast of Canada and the USA, into The Carribean, and finally, ending up on the Pacific shores of Peru and Ecuador, a trip of 8,000 miles - and then of course, after a bit of R & R, it was back again to The Shetlands. Quite remarkable.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-25661650

Incredable, and we need a sat nav to get anywhere.

 

[DBK]

I remember seeing a Red Necked Phalarope on the Solway Firth many years ago, at a place called Grune Point. It was only there a few days but it behaved exactly as they say they do in the book - riding buoyantly in the water and frequently swimming round in circles. Obviously its migration is a slightly bigger circle.

The geolocator they used works on measuring light levels not GPS. By measuring the time of first and last light and comparing it against a clock they can work out where it was on any particular day. I guess the one fitted to the bird was a bit smaller than the one shown in the picture. http://www.birdtracker.co.uk/

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[Jim]

We always await the arrival of our Swifts, though they've been getting later and mid to late May is now the norm, ten years ago we'd see them at the start of May. The excitement they show after their long flight from Africa is amazing to watch, you'd think they'd be knackered but they chase each other and play, zooming in and out of the barns and eating on the wing, before all sitting on a length of telephone wire and make loud chatter

 

[jumar]

In the Natural Park of El Hondo (Fondo) near Marjal in Spain every winter there are Great Spotted Eagles. One of them (Tonn) has a tag and he goes to Estonia for the summer and Spain for the winter. Not so different to some of us?