[NatureNS] The Remarkable Northern Wheatear, and Cranes

Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 18:44:28 -0400
From: Hans Toom <Htoom@hfx.eastlink.ca>
To: "Naturens@Chebucto.Ns.Ca" <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
References: <3484d1c80701181356o444dad09l7c2c6a7c6a3cd2b9@mail.gmail.com>
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Original-Recipient: rfc822;"| (cd /csuite/info/Environment/FNSN/MList; /csuite/lib/arch2html)"

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Hi Richard and all,

This the Birder's World homepage where you can browse most of the magazine 
and save links to any section  http://www.birdersworld.com/

If you want to contribute to the forum(discussion groups) you have to become 
a member. The form you have to fill out starts on the home page.  There is 
no charge or queries on personal information.  I haven't tried to post a 
photo yet so I don't know what the drill is for that.

Hans





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Stern" <sternrichard@gmail.com>
To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 5:56 PM
Subject: Re: [NatureNS] The Remarkable Northern Wheatear, and Cranes


> Hi,
>
> Neat article in Birder's World. But I also noticed the 3rd article,
> about birds caught in the DMZ in Korea. There is a NS connection, in
> that George Archibald, a remarkable Nova Scotian who runs the
> International Crane Foundation in Wisconsin, has been instrumental in
> maintaining habitat and helping to conserve Siberian and White-naped
> Cranes there.
>
> And - that appears to be a free, full text, on-line  edition of the
> magazine. Is that normally available, or did you scan this particular
> edition into your computer?
>
> Richard
>
> On 1/18/07, Hans Toom <Htoom@hfx.eastlink.ca> wrote:
>>
>>
>> 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
>> _____________________________________________________________
>
>
> -- 
> #################
> Richard Stern,
> 317 Middle Dyke Rd.,
> RR#1 Port Williams,
> NS, Canada B0P 1T0
>
> rbstern@ns.sympatico.ca
> rbstern@xcountry.tv
> sternrichard@gmail.com
> ###################
> 

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