Evening star., 1946-03-29
This and That
By Charles E. TraceDeH.
"GAMBRIILS, Nd.


Dear Sir:
Last night about 1880 o'clock our
household was aroused by the calling of
flock of wild geese in fight.
although there was full moon and
the night was bright, we were unable
to see them. They passed over for about
10 minutes, calling musically all the
while.
They were headed Northwest.
The combination of full moon, starry
sky, and the sound of wild geese, was a
thrill to all of us.
I'VE are quite close to the Patuxent
River, and have heard that the river
parallels the overhead migratory bird
route.
Can you tell me anything about it?
Sincerely, M. j. L."
The migrants probably were the
Canada geese.
There is one theory that all birds
migrate along streams, whose reflections
they can see, except when they might be
above clouds.
Normally birds do not like to be above
clouds, and so fly below them, often as
far down as to be dangerous.
Small migrators, such as warblers,
often fly so low, comparatively speaking
that they dash their lives out against the
Washington Monument.
On some spring mornings as many as
$50 birds have been picked up dead
around the base of this shaft.
The glitter of water reaches high
The birds may be kept to water courses
by other factors beside sight.
Food is essential, and there are more
wild berries along streams than else
where.
1t is doubtful if the lights in the
monument have anything to do with
these bird tragedies.
Lighthouses with off-and-on lights do
not harm birds, but it is said that
thousands of migrating species are
killed each year by very powerful steady
lights.
Two lighthouses on the southern tin
OF Florida are held to be especially de-
structive of bird life. These great lights
seem to lure birds as smaller lights do
moths.
1t is said that the flyers will pass
around the light, and then head back
into it.
A red light is avoided much as if it
meant danger" to birds, too.
Manv species of warblers will fly to-
gether along the great migration routes.
AS many as 40 different kinds of warb-
lers will live amicably together for the
entire time of the migration, flying and
resting together. But after they reach
their destined places, they separate,
and do not see each other again until
the next migrating period.
Despite intense observation over many
years, scientists have never agreed on
the main why" of migration. It still
remains great mystery, almost as
much of one as when Audubon walked
the forests of the West. Get us insist on
that phrase, "as much of one";; we like
it. Normal phrasing is well, but the
slightly out of the usual is well, too)
Birds fly far and fast. They are not
afraid of immense bodies of water, but
many of them lose their lives in crossing
such expanses.
That tiny thing, only an ounce in
weight, could make a trip of 5000 miles,
an unerringly return-by means of an
other like journey-to the very exact
spot from which it started, is truly one
of the greatest of all living mysteries.
Yet this has been proved time and
again by bird banding.
Just how the birds get back to the
same place. after so many days and such
trip, is a mystery along with the
stable states of the human body. One
is mystery in extent, the other Of con-
tent, but both speak of things as yetun-
known to the mind of man. despite his
ability to destroy.