birding-aus

Waterfowl - how do they know??

To: "Birding-Aus" <>
Subject: Waterfowl - how do they know??
From: "Paul Taylor" <>
Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 00:18:03 +1000
> Isn't everyone asking the same question lately? Like the Stilts and all 
> the ducks went too. I think they must have scouts with satellite phones -
> although - they are expensive.

Pelivision?  ;-)

The comments about pelicans and infrasound is certainly an interesting
one, though in the case of elephants, infrasound communication is 
limited to a range of approximately 4-10km depending upon conditions.
Infrasound from weather phenomenon (thunderstorms, flood waters?) may
travel further, but perhaps not far enough to reach the coast.

Given the Lake Eyre is a salt lake and that salt water is conductive,
it's possible that the salt water has a measurable effect on the
Earth's magnetic fields.  Birds are known to use magnetic fields for
navigation, so it's not unreasonable that they can detect such
changes.  They may also detect air pressure and/or humidity changes
accompanying the weather systems likely to fill the lake.

Cases where flocks of waterfowl have turned up unexpectantly in arid
areas after being "tricked" into thinking water was present would be
very interesting to hear about.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
   Paul Taylor                                  Veni, vidi, tici -
                           I came, I saw, I ticked.


To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to

Include ONLY "unsubscribe birding-aus"
in the message body (without the quotes)

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU