T 



he Carolina Flyway 



X3 > We'll probably see fewer 

 waterfowl on the North Carolina 

 coast this yea, 

 Droughts in the northern 

 breeding grounds of the birds 

 reduced the number of suc- 

 cessful nests. State wildlife 

 officials have responded by 

 reducing the season for water- 

 fowl hunting. 

 At the same time, farmers in 

 Delaware, Maryland and 

 Virginia are growing more 

 wheat and corn. That means 

 waterfowl can find a plentiful 

 food supply there without flying 

 this far south. 



By Nancy Davis 



For 10 days in the early fall, the 

 sandpiper gorged herself on the 

 crustaceans that were so abundant 

 that time of year in Canada ; s Bay 

 of Fundy. 



She ate so much 7 in fact, that 

 she nearly doubled her weight. 



She would need the energy. She 

 was about to make a non-stop ; in- 

 tercontinental flight to Surinam on 

 the North Coast of South 

 America. 



This trip was just for the girls. 

 The rest of the flock would fly 

 down later on a series of much 

 shorter trips. 



It 7 s the same every year. 



After nesting in the spring and 

 molting in the summer— both 

 energy-demanding activities— these 

 and other birds of passage go on a 

 binge to build up a layer of fat that 

 will provide them with enough 

 fuel for a long trip South. 



Then, as the days grow shorter 

 and temperatures get cooler, they 

 get restless to spread their wings. 



But what finally sends them 

 packing is a cold front. 



The barometric pressure drops 

 and the wind changes direction. 

 They can always count on a good 

 tail wind when a front passes 

 through. 



Each year about this time, mil- 

 lions of birds travel from their 

 breeding grounds in the northern 

 United States and Canada to win- 

 tering spots in the southern United 

 States or South America ; says 

 James Parnell ; an ornithologist at 

 the University of North Carolina 

 at Wilmington. 



And since coastal North Caro- 

 lina is in the flight path of many 

 of the migratory birds ; the state's 

 beaches and the skies overhead are 

 usually flooded with transients 

 this time of year. 



But even though ornithologists 

 can predict almost to the day 

 when certain species will arrive on 

 our coast, they say it ; s much 

 harder to say why they arrive. Ob- 

 viously-; the birds have it figured 

 out, they say. But scientists are still 

 guessing at what makes birds pick 

 up and move on, year after year 7 

 often to the same place. 



Ornithologist Tom Quay says 

 that birds don ; t "know" that it ; s 

 time to migrate. Instead, they 

 "sense 77 it, he says. "It 7 s an innate ; 

 internal 7 annual mechanism/ 7 he 

 says. "It 7 s a built-in response to the 

 weather and climate. 77 



The need to eat also plays a 

 part ; says Jeff Walters, a North 

 Carolina State University ornithol- 

 ogist. "For any animal, migration 

 is tied to the food supply. If the 

 feeding conditions change enough 

 so that survival is better in a new 

 area, they 7 U move on. And birds 

 are real mobile. They can cover 

 such long distances so cheaply in 

 terms of food, it pays for them to 

 move, 77 Walters says. 



Parnell has another perspective. 

 "Essentially, birds migrate for the 

 most part from a difficult, harsh 

 winter environment to one that is 

 less difficult, 77 he says. 



Whatever the reason, most birds 

 in the Northern Hemisphere mi- 

 grate in the spring to nest and in 

 the fall to pass the winter. 



