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This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --Boundary_(ID_1VDnSPPMpP0Jk1NelDEmGg) Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Hi all, Last year was memorable for the Northern Wheatear with 12 birds reported in 10 Nova Scotia locations. This diminutive thrush nests on the tundra or the wind swept hills and short grasslands of our north, especially on Baffin Island. There are two distinct continental populations, the western population of western Canada and Alaska and the eastern population of eastern Canada and Greenland. These two populations do not appear to overlap. The western group migrates to the west and then southwest. It is believed that the eastern population migrates east through Greenland and Europe and then southward to Africa where they over-winter. If this migration pattern theory is correct then strong northerly winds would be the culprit wind that drives this bird into our province in the fall. Research by Dutch scientist Kaspert Thorup and his colleagues have an alternate explanation. They theorize that the Northern Wheatear's migration route is not through Europe but directly from their eastern Canada and Greenland nesting grounds across the Atlantic to Africa, a distance of 4000km. In this case the birds that show up in Europe are off course and driven there by south-westerly and westerly winds and the birds that arrive in southern Canada in our fall are driven here not by northerly winds as currently believed but by easterly or north easterly winds. A remarkable bird, indeed! Here's the text of the article from Birder's World: http://www.birdersworld.com/brd/default.aspx?c=a&id=822 OK, so how cold has it been? Here's two photos from yesterday morning at Portuguese Cove: http://www.hanstoom.com/Highlights/Highlights15.html Hans _______________________________________________________________ Hans Toom E-mail: htoom@hfx.eastlink.ca Migration Count: http://hanstoom.com/NAMC/Index.html Nature Website: http://hanstoom.com _____________________________________________________________ --Boundary_(ID_1VDnSPPMpP0Jk1NelDEmGg) Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.5730.11" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi all, </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </DIV> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Last year was memorable for the Northern Wheatear with 12 birds reported in 10 Nova Scotia locations. </SPAN></P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN> </P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This diminutive thrush nests on the tundra or the wind swept hills and short grasslands of our north, especially on Baffin Island.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are two distinct continental populations, the western population of western Canada and Alaska and the eastern population of eastern Canada and Greenland. These two populations do not appear to overlap. The western group migrates to the west and then southwest.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> It is believed that t</SPAN>he eastern population migrates east through Greenland and Europe and then southward to Africa where they over-winter. If this migration pattern theory is correct then strong northerly winds would be the culprit wind that drives this bird into our province in the fall. </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </SPAN></P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN> </P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Research by Dutch scientist Kaspert Thorup and his colleagues have an alternate explanation. They theorize that the Northern Wheatear's migration route is not through Europe but directly from their eastern Canada and Greenland nesting grounds across the Atlantic to Africa, a distance of 4000km. In this case the birds that show up in Europe are off course and driven there by south-westerly and westerly winds and the birds that arrive in southern Canada in our fall are driven here not by northerly winds as currently believed but by easterly or north easterly winds. </SPAN></P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN> </P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">A remarkable bird, indeed!</SPAN></P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN> </P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Here's the text of the article from Birder's World: <A href="http://www.birdersworld.com/brd/default.aspx?c=a&id=822">http://www.birdersworld.com/brd/default.aspx?c=a&id=822</A></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN> </P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">OK, so how cold has it been? Here's two photos from yesterday morning at Portuguese Cove: <A href="http://www.hanstoom.com/Highlights/Highlights15.html">http://www.hanstoom.com/Highlights/Highlights15.html</A></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN> </P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Hans</SPAN></P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN> </P> <P class=MsoPlainText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>_______________________________________________________________<BR>Hans Toom<BR>E-mail: <A href="mailto:htoom@hfx.eastlink.ca">htoom@hfx.eastlink.ca</A><BR>Migration Count: <A href="http://hanstoom.com/NAMC/Index.html">http://hanstoom.com/NAMC/Index.html</A><BR>Nature Website: http://hanstoom.com <BR>_____________________________________________________________</FONT></P></BODY></HTML> --Boundary_(ID_1VDnSPPMpP0Jk1NelDEmGg)--
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