FLIGHT TRAILS SOUTH 



years 1940-1945 (Mann, Thompson, and Jedlicka, 1947:206). Of these 

 banded birds, there were 3,393 recoveries, 659 of which were recaptures at 

 McGinnis Slough.* Here is the remarkable chronicle of approximately one- 

 fifth of all recoveries being made at the point of first capture, a stopping 

 place on the migratory highway. In the Blue-winged Teal, nearly half of 

 the recoveries were made at McGinnis Slough, and, considering survival 

 rates, these indicate that a large proportion of bluewings followed a migra- 

 tory lane that brought them south again by way of the same stop-over (for 

 Blue-winged Teal do not winter in northern Illinois. 



Many other banding stations between the breeding grounds and winter- 

 ing quarters show the return of experienced waterfowl. Some stray, some 

 become lost, traveling another route; but the volume of return is sufficient 

 to establish the repeated visit as typical behavior. This return is typical also 

 of many other birds, a characteristic prompting Lincoln ( 1935b: 23) to make 

 the general statement that "many individuals migrate in fall over the same 

 route, year after year, making the same stops and finally arriving at the 

 same precise thicket that served them in previous winters." 



I think this evidence of banding allows another conclusion regarding the 

 migration of waterfowl : not only do they start and end the annual cycle of 

 travel at a familiar home range, but the adults visit familiar stopping places 

 along the routes of migration. As the young fly in company with the adults 

 each year, these places and the connecting routes are passed along from one 

 generation to the next in a traditional manner. 



The force of these mass migrations, their volume, their local concentra- 

 tions, their regional width, and the fidelity of adults to a given route all fit 

 into a pattern that has been established by field and banding observations in 

 many places. Let us hasten to admit, however, that this is only part of the 

 story. Matched against this swift, massive precision of the grand fall pas- 

 sages are the random travels of juveniles already discussed (p. 94). The 

 wanderings of young ducks start without the company of adults. As these 

 vagabonds move from one area to another, we see, by their growing num- 

 bers, that the dispersals away from home eventually lead to places where 

 waterfowl concentrate in major numbers, places where the young join com- 

 pany with all sex and age classes. Here many young take direct passage 

 with adults in the mass migrations, but we must not conclude that all young 

 gain the southland in this way. 



Nor are wanderings confined to young birds. Records of banding sta- 



• This refers only to recaptures in years following the year of banding. 



Ill 



