FLIGHT TRAILS SOUTH 



rect southeasterly direction, with all flocks disappearing that way before 

 dark (Hochbaum, 1944b). (See Figure 12.) 



Trautman (1940:89) observed this bunching of migrant ducks at Buck- 

 eye Lake, Ohio ; and Chris V. Nelson, who has hunted many years on Lake 

 Christina, Minnesota, writes me that he has seen such behavior in migrating 

 geese as well as in ducks. On October 21, 1950, for example, he watched a 

 migrating flock of sixty Canada Geese crossing the lake from the northwest. 

 "Just as they were leaving Lake Christina, all bedlam seemed to break loose 

 and they flew about wildly, honking vociferously. They went in circles like a 

 dog-fight, seeming very upset — some gaining altitude, some losing altitude. 

 Then, as if responding to a command, they all joined in a perfect V forma- 

 tion and continued their flight in a southeasterly direction." 



4&£ 



Figure 12. Normal flock pattern of migrating ducks (left), and 

 "bunching" of gyrating flock 



All such gyrations of passage flocks have been seen amongst travelers 

 that reached Delta when the sky was heavily clouded. The birds appeared 

 confused, as if they were pressed by two urges, one to stay, one to travel on 

 despite the unsettled weather. I was thus interested in the observations of 

 Svardson (1949), who describes similar gyrating behavior in gulls; he con- 

 cluded that the gyrations developed as a conflict between the "drive-to-go" 

 and the "urge-to-rest." Waterhouse (1949), who has seen gyrations in mi- 

 grating Rooks and Jackdaws, suggests that they "occasionally become un- 

 certain of direction, sometimes on taking off, sometimes in course of flight. 

 ... To the resultant state of feeling — assumed to be a compound of desire- 

 to-fly and uncertainty-which-way-to-fly — they react by gyrating." 



Other great marshes and lakes are the crossing places for the mass 

 autumn migrations. On the Libau Marsh, at the southeast end of Lake Win- 

 nipeg, Colonel Arthur Sullivan and George Longbottom, veteran observers 

 of the fall flight there, tell me the migration is constantly to the southeast in 



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