MIGRATIONS OF WATERFOWL 



hand. Although there was no precipitation, the birds' feathers were heavily 

 iced. Apparently they had been flying at a higher altitude where there was 

 sufficient moisture to cause icing." 



By and large, most of us think of birds in migration as invincible ( except 

 at lighthouses), like the Persian messengers of Herodotus for whom "neither 

 snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor darkness, are permitted to obstruct their 

 speed." One or two more examples of tragedy in other species will empha- 

 size the everlasting threat of weather. Roberts (1932:446) tells the fate of 

 migrating Lapland Longspurs on the night of March 13-14, 1904, which 

 "was very dark but not cold, and a heavy, wet snow was falling with but 

 littie wind stirring. Migrating Longspurs came from the Iowa prairies in a 

 vast horde, and from 11 p.m. until morning, incredible numbers met their 

 deaths in and about villages by flying against buildings, electric light poles 

 and wires, and by dashing themselves forcibly onto the frozen ground and 

 ice." In Worthington, Minnesota, an attempt was made to compute the 

 numbers lying dead on two lakes with an aggregate area of about two 

 square miles. "A conservative estimate showed that there were at least 

 750,000 dead Longspurs lying on the two lakes alone!" The total area on 

 which dead migrants were found covered approximately 1,500 square miles. 



In Nevada, Cottam (1929:80) describes a "shower of grebes." "During 

 an early morning hour (about 2 a.m.) of December 13, 1928, residents of 

 Caliente, Nevada, were awakened by a heavy thumping of something falling 

 on the roofs of their houses. Those who were curious enough to step out- 

 side and investigate the unusual occurrence found scores of water birds in 

 the new fallen snow. The next morning, several thousand Eared Grebes 

 were found on the ground and on flat roofs of business houses throughout 

 the city." Mr. E. C. D. Marriage, of Caliente, wrote Cottam that "literally 

 thousands of these birds were found in every portion of the town and out- 

 skirts . . . they were forced out of the air by the heavy density of the 

 snow . . . Caliente had the main bunch, but they were scattered for twenty 

 miles every way." Several himdred grebes dropped in the streets of Enter- 

 prise, Utah, about forty-five miles east and north of Caliente, and several 

 hundred more were found in the snow at Uvada and Modena, Utah. "The 

 evening of December 12," says Cottam, "the air was comparatively warm 

 and still. By midnight a general anc heavy snowstorm set in. The birds 

 appeared to be in large flocks and were probably following the Meadow 

 Valley Wash on their way to the Pacific Coast of southern California or to 

 some inland lake near there." 



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