Migration of Birds (1979)Lincoln, Frederick Charles
Science
Migration of Birds (1979)
Lincoln, Frederick Charles
Birds; Birds -- Migration
Another example of rapid migration is furnished by the yellow
warbler. This species winters in the Tropics and reaches New Orleans
about April 5, when the average temperature is 65° F. By traveling
north much faster than the spring season progresses, this warbler
reaches its breeding grounds in Manitoba the latter part of May, when
the average temperature is only 47° F. They encounter progressively
colder weather over their entire route and cross a strip of country
in the 15 days from May 11 to 25 that spring temperatures normally
take 35 days to cross. This "catching up" with spring is habitual in
species that winter south of the United States as well as in most
northern species that winter in the Gulf States. There appears to be
only six exceptions to this rule: the Canada goose, the mallard, the
pintail, the common crow, the red-winged blackbird, and the robin.
The snow goose presents a striking example of a late but very rapid
spring migration. Most all of these geese winter in the great coastal
marshes of Louisiana, where every year over 400,000 spend the
winter and congregations of 50,000 or more may be seen grazing in
the "pastures" or flying overhead in flocks of various sizes. Their
breeding grounds are chiefly on Baffin and Southampton Islands in the
northern part of Hudson Bay where conditions of severe cold prevail
except for a few weeks each year. The birds are not stimulated to
migrate even though the season in their winter quarters is advancing
rapidly while their nesting grounds are still covered with a heavy
blanket of ice and snow. This suggests the stimulus for spring
departure is regulated by an internal mechanism, such as development
of the gonads. Accordingly, blue geese remain in the coastal marshes
until the last of March or the first of April, when the local birds
are already busily engaged in reproduction. The flight northward
is rapid, almost nonstop so far as the United States is concerned;
although the birds are sometimes recorded in large numbers in the
Mississippi Valley, eastern South Dakota, and southeastern Manitoba,
there are few records anywhere along the route of the great flocks
that winter in Louisiana. When the birds arrive in the James Bay
region, they apparently enjoy a prolonged period of rest because they
are not seen in the vicinity of their breeding grounds until the
first of June. During the first 2 weeks of that month, they pour onto
the Arctic tundra by the thousands, and each pair immediately sets
about the business of rearing a brood.
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