BIRDS ON THE WING.

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 32, 16 January 1930, Page 5

BIRDS ON THE WING.

FLIGHT OF THE MIGRANTS.

With the approach of autumn it is the custom for most English birds to make their way south, Many of the real migrants that come to us from differert countries have already left; others are 'on their Tray, travelling down from the northern countries. Man;. must have noticed hosts of tSiotsc-martins, swallows, and sand-mar-tins on the telegraph wires,' where they congregate preparatory to staTting. In places where these birds are common,and where wires are absent,"we find them oii N trecs, but they prefer the slender wire pere-hes over the roadway (writes Oliver Pike in the Daily Telegraph). - • ■ '

_A number of species, instead of leaving altogether, just move a few miles south Some of the- birds reared in Scotland, such as lapwings, travel only as fir south as Ireland. Birds which spent the summer in out- northern, couatiesr will move about 100 to 200 milos in a.southerly direction, and those living in the southern counties cross the sea. to the Continent. Very few biris are really resident with us the whole year round. Tiae thrushes that sang to us in the sp-ring are not seen in the winter; their place is taken by other thrush visitors from the north.

This great trek is one of the marvels of bird-life. How do the small travellers find their way? If-I could answer that question I should know the secret

of the wonderful sense of direction that birds possess, for there can be r.o doubt that birds have a r sixth sense, which shows them in some simple manner how to solve problems of which we know nothing. v

BACK TO THE OLD NEST.

- The sense of direction that birds and many animals possess cannot be put down to memory ot hereditary trait 3. We can understand birds being able to memoriso short flights by. landmarks, but when it comes to journeys of three, six and ten thousand miles across continents and trackless seas, there must be some guiding sense. The young cf many of the warblers go to the country that their parents eventually rea?h before the latter leave. /They hay« no guides to show them the way.-

Young cuckoos leave the country weeks after their parents have left,, yet they find their way "direct to their foreign liomes. It has been proved time after time that these travellers do not go a.nd return at raffdom. With the most unerring precision they Teturn to the same locality, and in many instances to the actual bush, for nesting

purposes

I have known a pair of Ted-backed shrikes to build their nests in two mecessive seasons only 6in apart, and between the two buildings the birds must have travelled not less than 8000 miles. A pair of sedge-warblers that I have had under observation have built their small grassy nest in tie same bush for thre- years1 in succession. This bush is an isolated one, about, 2ft : in height and the, three nests may still be seen, all within a radius of 12in.

The majority of our summer migrants art- insect-eating birds. It is. impossible to estimate the amount 'of gouJ tbetf birds do during their stay in our country. They arrive in the early spring, spend their summer • with ys, and leave in the autumn. Without them -wo should have no crops worth speaking of, and tih.ere would .be r.o green foliage on out trees and hedges. HAKDSHIPS ON THE JOUENEY.

Only those, like myself, who ha?e waited many hours near their homes" and watched their liveg>/ can realise | how useful t&ey are in destroying insects . In my own garden this year, several warblers have nested, and I have seen then* when they ate feeding their young bring large beakfuls of j insects to them at intervals of about two minutes throughout the" day. This means that in the acre of garden inwhich the birds were working thousands of injurious insects were being destroyed. k

But- it is not only among the foliage that -we find these useful birds, All tie summer there are others Working in the air around. By day, swallows, swifts, and martins keep in check the hosts of flies, while at night the nightjars do their part in destroying moths. iSver t&e bleak mountains have their migrants ; in "fact, there are few spots away frpm the towns where a useful

bird visitor is not to be found.

It is a wonderful scheme of Nature tha+« lias provided our 'England with these millions of bird visitors. But ;t is not easy for us to realise what it / means to then£ for on t>herr journey here, and back.io their southern horn-as, they are Beset witii dangers all the way. There may ibe,strong, eontraiy winds that blow tiem • out J of their course; many land to rest in coun/ferias that do not treat their birds as we do. For thousands of years, these useful travellers have been coming and going as regularly as the .seasons, and they have been unmolested.

Now, Jiowever, the dwellers in the countries around the Mediterranean have found that these small birds are a delicacy,, and they are being trapped and killed in their thousands. Swallows martins, warblers, flycatchers,- and hosts of ot-her useful insect-eating birds are being killed to satisfy this new

craze.

MEDITERRANEAN TRAPPERS.

Duiing migration ships that travel in the birds/ course in the Mediterranean often carry thousands of tired travellers. Almost every v perch, in the rigging is packed, wit-h birds. The trappers, having discovered this, now set out with special ships, fitted with wiies for the birds to-perch upon, and when a great number are peacefully resting, a electric current is sent through, the wires. Time after time this.is.done, and it is impossible to tell what havoc it will caivse-to \h.e crops in the" European countries.

All these migratory birds,are insect feeders, and ea,ch-pair capture about 1,006,000 insects during their stay witib. us. With such a wholesale destruction going "on in the autumn, and again in the spring, it is little wonder that oui useful little visitors are becoming fewer and fewer ea«h year.

The great lighthouses, which to the mariner are a sign of safety, are deathtraps to the travelling birds, for, flying by night they dash into the light, strike the glass and are killed in thousands.. On the chief English lighthouses in the birds' track large perches have been arranged around the light/ The birds see these in time and settle upoi; them, and thereby thousands of useful lives have been saved. ■•■.-

Although, suc-h an enormous bird population is leaving our shores, it does not mean that our country has been denuded of bird-lif e^ As these birds fly south there are millions more coming in from-the distant north; and d jting the autumn and winter hosts of thrushes, fieldfares, redwings, finches, larks/, lapwings, and countless othsrs come south to replace those that have left. ' ' : .". .