The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-02-09
GREAT STREAM OF BIRDS.
Millions of Voyagers in Migration Fill
 the Air.

Millions of Voyagers in Migration Fill the Air.
 Unless we live under one of the fixed
 highways of the air, llke Heligolahd, or | spend time in lighthouses at night dur
 ing the migration, fancy there is little l chance to see twice in a life such a | movement of birds as that of Decem- | Der 27 and 2S The migration was then
 at it's height. The second day saw the beginning of the return journey, and
 the movement was on the wane before sunset, not that it was actually com- plete by the end of the second day, the last loiterers who dropped out of the
 ranks on the way back may not have all regained their fixed winter quarters even by now
 On the first day, when I looked out of the window, writes ascorrespondent of
 the London Standard, I saw birds in fioeks and small parties, flying due
 west into the small strip of hilly coun- try which makes tho extreme western
 corner of England The strip would
 be scarcely more than sixteen miles
 long by half as many broad yet on the Friday it held millions of birds. I be- 'lieye they roasted that night so thick
 that if gun had been discharged on chance in many places birds not aimed
 at might have been killed in numbers.
 for ] doubt whethersthe distribution
 over this bit of country was general
 and even, the travellers preferring to
 settle and spend the night in great con-
 courses at sheltered spots
 l first noticed this marvellous bird
 stream at about half-past nine. It was
 flowing due west across St. Ives Bay
 and the strip of coast just south of the
 bay. Two hours later it was still flow
 ing, though in lessoning strength, and 1 think that, save for q few stragglers, it was over by about midday. But how
 long had 1t been flowing when [ first noticed it? One man told me he saw the birds coming heross the water and land at dawn! The stream was a full mile broad-perhaps broader-and. looking constantly across the water, do not think I once saw the sky clear of birds for half minute at a stretch. There came parties, more or less com pact, with hundreds of members, other parties seemed to have thousands, and the gaps between the larger fioeks were filled bl little bands of half dozei, a dozen, score, by birds flying in cou- ples, by birds flying singly. All tray eled across the wind which was blow ing strongly on the coast.
 At times the air seemed full of birds. | First I saw strallngs. Their straight | line style of flight and the neat, trian- | gular appearance of their wings in &C., tion always make starlings conspicu- | ous in a great caravan of birds. But I | soon found that this was not particu- | larly a starling occasion. Fiel1fare l tail was as plentiful as starling wing. | Fieldfares were in every large flock.
 As for redwings, I had not thought l all England held as many as crowded | over St Ives Bay in this wondrous stream of life.
 That day and next day grassy spots near the sea were alive with redwlngs l which suffered me to come near enough l to admire their rose tinted Hanks There were skylarks, too, and linnets md song thrushes, and doubtless other kinds of birds, though I did not see a single blackbird. Many thousands of | birds dropped weary on the blown sand l tunes just east of the estuary, where I 'ound song thrushes and redwings so weak that they crept and dodged lmong the grass tufts rather than take light l saw four or five song thrushes ,linging to a berberis against the south wall of a cottage and eating the fruit; tnd the effect of the bright berries and he fluttering, speekled breasts was harming. PeeWits. golden piovers and inged polvers were swept by the torn into the stream of migration. hough l think they were no regular ,art of it. Whole fields were thicklv prinkled with the tired. hungry trav- lers. A party of circling curlew wung by accident into a rising cloud f redwings, thrushes and starlings nd got mixed up with them, barely es- aping collision.