A Quantitative Study of the Nocturnal Migration of BirdsLowery, George H., Jr.
Science
A Quantitative Study of the Nocturnal Migration of Birds
Lowery, George H., Jr.
Birds -- Migration
Unfortunately only a few data on flight density are available from
critical localities on the northern shores of the Gulf in spring. As
the density curves in Figure 30 demonstrate, several sets of
observation, including some phenomenal flights, have been recorded at
Baton Rouge. This locality, however, lies sixty-four miles from the
closest point on the Gulf coast, and the point due southward on the
coast is eighty-four miles distant. Since all of the birds seen at
Baton Rouge on any one night may have come from the heavily forested
area between Baton Rouge and the coast of the Gulf, we cannot use data
from Baton Rouge as certainly representative of incoming trans-Gulf
flights. Data from repeated observations at stations on the coast
itself are needed to judge the degree of trans-Gulf migration
northward. On the few nights of observation at such localities
(Cameron and Grand Isle, Louisiana, and Pensacola, Florida), flight
densities have been zero or negligible. To be sure, negative results
have been obtained at stations in the interior of the United States,
and flights of low density have been recorded on occasion at stations
where the flight densities are otherwise high. Nevertheless, in view
of the volume of migration departing from Progreso, Yucatán, it would
appear, upon first consideration, that we should at times record on
the coast of Louisiana enough birds arriving in a night of continuous
observation to yield a high density figure.
Upon further consideration, however, there are factors mitigating
against heavy densities of birds in northern flight on the northern
coast of the Gulf. In the first place, presuming the main trans-Gulf
flight to originate from northern Yucatán, and that there is a
directional fanning to the northward, the birds leave on a 260-mile
front, and arrive on a front 400 miles or more wide. Consequently,
other factors remaining the same, there would be only approximately
half the number of birds on the coast of arrival, at a given time and
place, as there was on the coast of departure. Secondly, we may now
presume on the basis of the telescopic studies at Progreso, that most
migrants leaving northern Yucatán do so in the few hours centering
about midnight. The varying speeds of the birds making the 580-mile
flight across the Gulf distribute them still more sparsely on the
north coast of the Gulf both in time and in space. Also we can see
only that segment of the flight, which arrives in that part of a
twenty-four hour period when the moon is up. This circumstance further
reduces the interceptive potential because the hours after dark, to
which the present telescopic studies have been restricted, comprise
the period in which the fewest migrants arrive from over the water. To
illustrate: it is a mathematical certainty that _none_ of the birds
leaving Yucatán in the hours of heaviest flight, before 12 P. M.,
and flying on a straight course at a speed of approximately 33 mph
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