Baffled bird migration

Calgary Alberta.

The entire set of seasons here was shifted by a couple of months. Spring is usually pretty short here - it is a running joke even. Still, Winter was until the end of May, Spring was like May 30-June 5, June 5-Sept 15 was Summer, and Fall was from Sept 15-Nov 15. It literally snowed a foot on my blooming flowers in the front yard in November.

I can't tell you the last time I saw so many people with flowers blooming in November. I really don't think I've ever seen it before here.

Everyone talks about how the entire set of seasons was shifted this year. And it was rainy. You notice it raining and being cloudy here. I live in the sunniest place on the planet, and it is an arid plain most of time. This has been in the wettest 100 years in many thousands here, and this year we might as well have lived on the coast and not 1200 kms from it. I can drive to a desert in about an hour.

I saw Pelicans until mid October. I saw cormorants in late September. Both of these species have been fairly new to be in such numbers in the last 20 years. I didn't see very many cormorants until 4 years ago, and the numbers have been steadily increasing. These are water fowl. You can't imagine how little water there is here for them to play in.

I live near the bird sanctuary and a wild life corridor through our city. I pay attention to the birds.

Originally posted by Cherryontop
reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

 

I have noticed very similar things here. I'm in the Great Lakes area, and never ever this late in the year have I had birds chirping outside my window in the morning. This is normally only something that happens during spring and summer. Yet for the past three weeks, I have heard them every morning. There's an unusual amount of all varieties of birds here still as well.
We also had a ridiculous acorn season this year.

I live in Colorado and aside of the mile high plus areas of the western part of the Rockie Mountains, weather here has been abnormally warm and beautiful for as late in the year as it is. We usually see our first real snow on or near Halloween, so far not one bit of snow, just some mild frost in the morning. It is definitely not normal but nothing alarming.

My friends and family that are also Colorado natives have been commenting on how late it is in the year without our first snow.

Not saying anything is extremely alarming but this is definitely not normal Colorado weather. (which is funny because the weather here is so incredibly fickle.)

Right now in the midwest maybe 30 min west of St.Louis there is a storm heading my way which is producing tornadoes.. in late November. Tomorrow it is to be freezing rain all day. Insane weather.

reply to post by Advantage

I am no expert nor am I a good observer.
Here if FL. have seen butterflies, a few honey bees..plenty of bumble bees. Bats, I don't recall seeing any of those but they could have been in another part of town so to speak. I moved to a more
woodsy area and have seen birds I think are kites maybe..I don't live right on the coast. Yard covered in
fleas..treated with lime..that helps a LOT. Saw something akin to those stink bugs? well anyway they
looked a whole lot like those insects that infested parts of MD, Washington DC area this year.
Think the cicadas were doing real fine this summer but they have a long cycle..no????
It's been rather warm for a few days but know that cold air is coming our way..if anyone says it is always
toasty warm in Fl...NOT..here in NW FL. it can get quite cold..it lets up unlike some areas but we had
a sprinkle of snow this past winter..If we have an ice storm here I am going to know for a fact something
BIG is happening...otherwise one might not take too much notice..until it is too late that is.
Animals like dogs will grow thick coats for the winter..any observations in that area folks?????

Originally posted by HunkaHunka

Originally posted by Aeons

Originally posted by KatieVA
The birds were displaying bizaare behaviour throughout the springtime as well, singing and screeching all through the night - unusual to say the least.

When you hear birds at night - they are usually bats.

That's not true at all... plenty of birds have been chirping in the evenings...

Not evenings - Night. If you hear birds singing at night, it is likely bats.

I thought we would be in for a cold winter. I noticed geese flying south about a month ago. I thought, "they're early."
Then last night I was outside and heard geese overhead, they seemed to be going north. Akwesasne is a stopping off place. They have a place where the Racquette and St. Lawrence rivers meet. They're usually there for two to three days every spring and every fall. The geese I heard last night could have been lost. They're really neat birds.

Originally posted by xizd1
Could it be from polar shift?
Things aren't where they were and animals are confused?

Are peoples satnav still working or compasses pointing in the right direction?

In Czech republic ravens came 10 days earlier then usually (not seen for 40 years of systemic observation). One week ago I heard flock of wild geese. It was strange because they usually migrate during October. I didn't see the flock but by listening to moving sounds it seemed that they are heading north. I remember it because of this double anomaly.

a) climate change

b) earths magnetic field

c) all the wireless we have going on in the earth messing up the birds and the bees cordination

d) toxins induced by the birds by various means

e) beef in the animal kingdom turf takeovers

f) isolated inicdent

e) bush did it.....

reply to post by Aeons


Bats sounds exactly like seagulls do they?

reply to post by Aeons


Yes - at night. Until 3 o'clock in the morning, all through the springtime and into the summer. The seagulls were going nuts! I repeat, seagulls. Not bats.

If the animals can sense dangers, that place where they were spotted is a good place to stay. These birds know that that place is safe and that is why they are going there.

reply to post by Kantele


just a bit of pseudo science here, but I wonder if this has anything to do with how insanely off the temperature has been this year, nationally.

I live in southern CA, this has been the coldest year I can remember in a long time. I also know during my very cold summer, NYC was having a record high heatwave.

Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather

so maybeeee weather irregularities?

I don't know what would cause it, but it seems to me the Earth's magnetic field which plays a major part in the navigation system of migratory birds, especially when flying at night, might be screwed up.

reply to post by Kantele


I thought animals who migrated used the electromagnetic field to navigate? That would kinda rule out climate change scenarios. Would it not be more sensible to look at the electromagnetic field?

Its funny seeing this post.

I watched flocks of geese leaving about month ago. I live in a rural area an have a great sight of the skies on a good day.

I live in Ireland so it wouldn't be huge numbers but over a couple of days I would see many hundreds moving. Seen this for good few years now. They fly a very high altitude in their V formation.

This year was bizzare. I thought there was more than normal moving but maybe I just got lucky with spotting them. Many of the flocks did not seem to have a clue what they were at. There were really flying back and forth , side to side. Many genuinely looked lost. I actually seen several flocks flying into each other. I have never seen this before.

I have also noticed in the last few days the sun is rising and setting in a very small area in the sky.I know it changes a little over the time of the year but Its setting is most worrying at the minute. .I have never seen the sun setting where it is at the minute. Its much closer to setting in the south now.

I never give the polar shift theory much time before but things like this would make me wonder. I also think its getting a lot colder and wouln't be surprised if we are hit with a mini ice age. Last winter was severe and its starting earlier this year with a severe cold spell hitting already which is not normal.

We also had totally different snow last year which we never had in my country before. Weatherforecasters brushed this off saying it was because it cold dry air and not damp air like we usually have.Fine, but what caused this? I never seen snow like this ever and I have been around for 4 decades.

Anyway thats my 2cents and I am sure someone can expalin all of this away because of something they read in a book somewhere. Great. Good for you. Sometimes you need to put the books away and open your eyes. Something is happening.

(A lot of the threads that are on this site often make me wonder is it intelligence gathering to see if people are noticing what is going on)

Ahh lets just blame it on HAARP like everything else.

But seriously this is very odd birds have migration timing and pattens hard wired in their brain from the time they are born.
Its odd that this is happening probably being caused by human interference ex:gulf oil spill but who knows.

The humming birds left two weeks earlier this year for Mexico than last year. I worried about them flying over the oil in the Gulf of Mexico.The normal birds showed up on schedual here in SC. The fleas are the worst ever in the six years we have lived here, I have seen bees , butterflies, and bats this past week. I have a reblooming irus getting ready to bloom in December. We still have flowers blooming in the yard more than last year. The acorn crop was massive here in SC, and in Cincinnati, Ohio according to friends.
Last year in December, my 70 year old neighbor stopped me and asked about the irus, I told her it was a rebloomer from up North. She says to me that its the end of days when we no longer know what season it is. What a creepy thing to hear. We had our first snow storm in six years last yea, it lasted 10 hours, before it melted away totally.

I know where I live in Canada it's unseasonably warmer and it's been a very mild winter by now we normally have snow but we haven't had a snowfall since Halloween. Intact on Tuesday it was mild enough to wear only a t shirt and light pants. Maybe the birds haven't migrated since it's not cold enough and not time yet. They know the weather better than we do.

reply to post by JohnySeagull

Interesting information about the geese. Thanks for sharing that. I also have never seen migratory flights of geese where two groups have actually collided and/or there has been apparent confusion. That's very odd and a touch disturbing.

Some members have asked or commented on how birds might be able to sense the planet's magnetic field, so I'd like to provide some references to back this up in case anyone is dubious or skeptical about it. (And it's not only been scientifically evaluated in birds, either.)

It's a fact that some species of birds are able to see magnetic fields (meaning via their eyes). A report in National Geographic News dated Sept 27, 2007 says in part:

Scientists already suspected birds' eyes contain molecules that are thought to sense Earth's magnetic field. In a new study, German researchers found that these molecules are linked to an area of the brain known to process visual information. In that sense, "birds may see the magnetic field," said study lead author Dominik Heyers, a biologist at the University of Oldenburg. [...] The finding strongly supports the hypothesis that migratory birds use their visual system to navigate using the magnetic field.

More recent research has been able to expand on this knowledge. Referring to a report published in Current Biology, an article in Indiana Public Media says in part:

Scientists have known that birds can detect the Earth’s magnetic fields since 1968, but a new study published in this month’s issue of Current Biology asserts that birds can actually see them.
European robins were outfitted with “somewhat unflattering goggles” that helped researchers determine how the magnetic fields appear to the subjects.
The experiment showed that robins’ sight of magnetic fields uses a molecule called cryptochrome found in avian retinas.

There are other studies discussing the fact that some birds have trace amounts of a mineral called magnetite in their brains, and there is a hypothesis that this might also have some effect on their ability to sense magnetic fields. Lab tests done on pigeons found they had behaviour patterns that varied in relation to magnetic fields, but it's unclear if this is just an anomaly relating to Pigeons or not. Studies have also shown that rainbow trout manage migration via the use of magnetite in their olfactory cavities! Refer to The Compasses of Birds in the Science Creative Quarterly for more details.

Now here's something very interesting: bats also use magnetite to find their way! In an abstract from the research paper entitled Bats Use Magnetite to Detect the Earth's Magnetic Field, found on Plosone.org's website, it says in part:

The results demonstrate that the big brown bat Eptesicus fuscus uses single domain magnetite to detect the Earths magnetic field and the response indicates a polarity based receptor. Polarity detection is a prerequisite for the use of magnetite as a compass and suggests that big brown bats use magnetite to detect the magnetic field as a compass.

What makes this so interesting is that bats are mammals. So are we... And yes, there is research that shows we also have magnetite in our brains. At the present time, its precise purpose or value (if any) has not been definitively determined. All the same, it's worth bearing in mind (pun intended) that if some animal species are apparently showing behavioural changes that might be related to magnetic field fluctuations -- especially the planet's -- then it's not completely unreasonable to hypothesize that there might be some effects on us as well.

Getting back to JohnySeagull's comments that the sun appears to be rising and setting in a narrow range, and setting much more south, I'd like to offer the following map, which I created using a resource on NOAA that can be found HERE :

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/19202456aaa1.jpg[/atsimg]

Johny, all I know is that you're in Ireland somewhere and in a rural area. I simply chose a location between Dublin and Limerick as an example. The actual angles for sunrise and sunset won't vary a great deal if you're elsewhere in Ireland. The main thing is to note the basic directions. As you can see, sunrise (the green line) from the position I've marked appears to be off in the direction of Kilkenny, while sunset (the red line) is over past Tipperary. If you use the link I've given and try it for yourself with your real location then you can see if what they give you corresponds to what you actually see. It ought to... If you then put a Summer date (say July 1st) you'll see that the sun appears to rise up towards Kildare and sets over in the direction of Loughrea. Oh, please make sure you set the time zone correctly. (Right now it should be a "0" as I have it because you use GMT).

Observation is made more difficult if you're in a valley with high hills close by. It cuts down on the line of sight and can make it hard to get a good fix on "true horizon" sunrise and sunset positions. In that situation, it's best to observe sunrise and sunset from a hilltop so you can see a good distance. Then the actual angles will be more apparent.

Anyway, I hope this helps to clarify the matter.

Best regards,

Mike