October 5th is the Day of Farewell to Flying Birds. Once again, watching them leave their native land, you need to mentally or out loud say something good after them. Why give parting words to birds? Because only they know where the spring winters, which they will bring home on their wings. A few special words for the departing birds - there is some light romance in this.
Of course, not all birds leave their native lands, but only those species that are called migratory. Pigeons, crows, rooks, tits, sparrows, crossbills - sedentary species stay at home. Harsh winters are conditions in which migratory birds simply cannot survive due to lack of food. These species include swallows, orioles, larks, finches, robins, swifts, and cuckoos.
Seasonal migration has become a subject of study relatively recently. Just two hundred years ago, people had no idea where birds disappeared in the fall. What fantastic versions have not been put forward. For example, Carl Linnaeus was sure that swallows spend the winter underwater. The most amazing thing is that these were not the words of a stupid, uneducated person, but of a certified physician, a famous natural scientist and the founder of modern biology.
In those days, people could not even imagine that small birds were capable of covering such vast distances. Among them there are record holders. The Arctic tern travels the longest distance. She flies 71,000 kilometers between Antarctica and Greenland. The result is more modest for the gray petrel, which leaves its native New Zealand every year to spend the winter in the Aleutian Islands. On this long journey, the bird flies 64,000 kilometers. Our birds also set their own records and winter in Iran, India, Africa, and Iraq.
Migratory birds never travel in a straight line. They have their own camps where travelers rest and eat. Typically males and females leave home together, although there are some exceptions. Birds are warned by their biological clock that it is time to leave. Researchers have conducted many experiments that have proven that the desire to go for the winter is inherent in them by nature itself. Some birds were specially kept in captivity in comfortable conditions. They had a lot of food. They lived in a warm place, but with the onset of autumn, their charges began to behave restlessly, because it is impossible to deceive the biological clock.
How do they find their way? Scientists do not have a clear answer to this question. Most likely, birds are driven by instinct. Researchers have also studied this issue. They took the eggs of Finland ducks and transported them to another place. The ducklings hatched and lived under human control. They had no contact with their relatives, but with the onset of autumn, the grown-up chicks set off and arrived exactly at the wintering place of Finland ducks, where they mixed with their flock.
“Nature has no bad weather,” Alisa Freundlich sang in one famous film. Each season has its own charm, but still, many associate autumn with warm sadness and slight melancholy, when you can think about the eternal with a cup of hot tea in your hands. The golden time of withering comes unnoticed. Autumn creeps in on soft paws under the rustle of falling leaves and the crackle of dry branches. She quietly makes her way into every corner and slowly wins her place on the pedestal of the seasons. Just yesterday it was hot summer outside, but today you can already feel its cold, sharp breath in the air.
Nature dresses in red and yellow tones, weightless cobwebs fly around, and birds fly in slender flocks to mysterious “warm lands.” Probably everyone had an irresistible desire to flap their wings and, together with them, go into the unknown in the hope of catching up with the fleeing summer. Alas, we remain at home to wait for spring, and we need to say a few special words to those who have a difficult path ahead. Then they will definitely return and bring the long-awaited warmth on their wings.