Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 14:00:56 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Walter Ellison Subject: Re: Grumpy questions about the rain MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi All, Having been under the influence of Ken Able for a few years I take this semi-seriously. I am pretty sure even this Biblical weather will have at most a minor effect on navigation among this year's crop of fledglings. Firstly even a few clear days and nights, and face it, we have had a few of these, will allow young birds to see the sun, skylight polarization, and Polaris. I don't know how long an exposure is required, but the sun and polarized light can even be tracked through an overcast, although Polaris can't be detected through clouds. Combine all this with the fact that these visual cues merely calibrate an internal magnetic compass and I think most fledglings will head the right way when the time comes to move along. Then again maybe there will be lots of reverse migration along the coast this fall, perhaps we should be looking for vagrants by August. I know I am taking the question way too seriously, but I'm cooped up with no birds to look at and too much education in my head. BTW there was an adult male Lesser Scaup on Great Oak Pd this afternoon. Good Birding & Atlasing, Walter Ellison MD-DC Atlas Coordinator - MOS 23460 Clarissa Road Chestertown, MD 21620 phone: 410-778-9568 e-mail: rossgull@crosslink.net "A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B. White (in "Stuart Little") ----- Original Message ----- From: "Janet Millenson" To: Sent: Friday, June 20, 2003 11:12 AM Subject: [MDOSPREY] Grumpy questions about the rain > Don't take this seriously, but do you think this year's hatchlings will be > able to migrate properly in the fall? After all, most birds navigate using > the sun, the moon and the stars -- and when's the last time the sky was > clear enough to see ANY of those?! Older birds will have some memory of the > terrain, but the young 'uns won't have a clue what to look for, above or > below. Those who make it to the tropics will be totally unprepared for the > sunshine. (There's a market opportunity for someone to sell them little hats > and sunglasses!) > > "Good weather for ducks," the saying goes. Oh, yeah? Any empirical evidence > for that? > > Janet Millenson > Potomac, MD (Montgomery County) > janet@twocrows.com > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > "Look at the birds!" -- Pascal the parrot > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================