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
Charleston, South Carolina, which does not conveniently fall in any of
the geographic regions so far discussed, had, to me, a surprisingly
low flight density; twenty-two hours of observation there in March,
April, and May yielded a total flight density of only 3,000 birds.
This is less, for example, than the number of birds computed to have
passed Lawrence, Kansas, in one hour, or to have passed Progreso,
Yucatán, in one twenty-minute interval! Possibly observations at
Charleston merely chanced to fall on nights of inexplicably low
densities; further observations will be required to clear up this
uncertainty.
E. MIGRATION AND METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS
The belief that winds affect the migration of birds is an old one. The
extent to which winds do so, and the precise manner in which they
operate, have not until rather recently been the subject of real
investigation. With modern advances in aerodynamics and the
development of the pressure-pattern system of flying in aviation,
attention of ornithologists has been directed anew to the part that
air currents may play in the normal migrations of birds. In America, a
brief article by Bagg (1948), correlating the observed abundance of
migrants in New England with the pressure pattern obtaining at the
time, has been supplemented by the unpublished work of Winnifred
Smith. Also Landsberg (1948) has pointed out the close correspondence
between the routes of certain long-distance migrants and prevailing
wind trajectories. All of this is basis for the hypothesis that most
birds travel along definite air currents, riding with the wind. Since
the flow of the air moves clockwise around a high pressure area and
counterclockwise around a low pressure area, the birds are directed
away from the "high" and toward the center of the "low." The arrival
of birds in a particular area can be predicted from a study of the
surrounding meteorological conditions, and the evidence in support of
the hypothesis rests mainly upon the success of these predictions in
terms of observations in the field.
From some points of view, this hypothesis is an attractive one. It
explains how long distances involved in many migrations may be
accomplished with a minimum of effort. But the ways in which winds
affect migration need analysis on a broader scale than can be made
from purely local vantage points. Studies of the problem must be
implemented by data accumulated from a study of the process in action,
not merely from evidence inferred from the visible results that follow
it. Although several hundred stations operating simultaneously would
surely yield more definite results, the telescopic observations in
1948 offer a splendid opportunity to test the theory on a continental
scale.
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