MIGRATIONS OF WATERFOWL 

 Solitary fall migration 



I have never seen a duck migrating by itself without companions. I have 

 seen lone flocks of ducks, beyond sight of any other traveling groups, fol- 

 lowing the standard direction to the southeast, as if in migration. No doubt 

 in higher latitudes where numbers are thin, some migration in ducks begins 

 with one flock; but such isolated migration is an extreme rarity in the lati- 

 tude of southern Manitoba. 



Nor in the geese have I ever seen a lone migrant. Strays are occasional 

 in autumn, undoubtedly from flocks which have been broken by hunters. 

 But these quickly join other flocks. Migrating Canada Geese, Richardson's 

 Geese, and White-fronted Geese often move en masse, either by themselves 

 or at the same times as the grand duck migrations. But, much more often than 

 is found with ducks, single flocks are seen following standard directions in 

 migration; such aggregations are probably made up of several families 

 moving as a unit from an isolated range. 



In our experience at Delta migration by isolated individuals is nearly as 

 rare in other species as it is in ducks. During late August and September 

 there is a drift of Flickers through Delta and across the prairies. These birds 

 retrace their path of spring migration, going east along the lakeshore past 

 Delta and southeast across the prairie. In passage, each Flicker is usually by 

 itself, flying low just over the treetops. But they go in waves, so that as 

 many as fifty birds have been counted in an hour; and again and again they 

 stop at places of rendezvous, where several, usually a dozen or more, Flick- 

 ers may be seen together. I once saw a Bittern take wing just at dusk from 

 behind my house (surely he must have been the bird that had been there 

 through the late summer and early fall). He left with a northwest wind of 

 twenty-five miles per hour and started out alone into the southeast. I watched 

 him disappear out over Cadham Bay, and am sure he hacLcommitted him- 

 self to migration. Black-crowned Night Herons usually migrate southward 

 from Delta in small groups, although I have seen single autumn travelers. 

 The Goshawk, Sharp-skinned Hawk, and Cooper's Hawk are seen as isolated 

 migrants at Delta, in contrast to the grand movements of the Red-tailed 

 Hawk and other Buteos. So, too, the Duck Hawk travels by itself. Among 

 many of the passerines there is no autumnal period of foregathering. The 

 Catbird and the Baltimore Oriole in our yard are there today by them- 

 selves, and gone tomorrow. And yet among the night migrants, if individ- 

 uals of a kind start out by themselves, there is evidence of mass movements 

 of different kinds traveling together at night. During nights when passerines 



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