"Nature Guide Journal"
27 December 2001
Migration has fascinated humans for a very long time; the oldest
remaining written observations were made over 3,000 years ago. Although
our interest began with hunting and trapping the large groups of animals
that passed a region on a predictable basis, today many people are drawn
to simply witness intriguing migrations—particularly those of birds
and whales.
The migration pattern familiar to most of us is to winter in warm
tropical or neotropical environments and move north to higher latitudes
in the summer to breed.
Some animals migrate by moving up and down elevation, others travel
between inland and coast or between deep water and shallows or between
freshwater and saltwater, still others move around a smaller geographic
area. In any case, migration generally affords benefits in avoiding
challenges (such as cold, drought, flood, predators, or competition) or
exploiting seasonal abundance (including longer summer days found at
higher latitudes).
Coos County birders watch as winter brings an increase in many kinds
of ducks, gulls, and shorebirds, as well as a decrease in various small
birds, such as warblers, hummingbirds, and swallows. These patterns may
vary greatly among related species: winter wrens are year-round
residents here, while house wrens breed in our region but spend winters
in the south; Anna's hummingbirds reside in Coos County year-round, but
Rufous and Allen's hummingbirds fly south for the winter.
Besides the well-known bird migrations, many other animals catch our
interest as they regularly move from place to place, including certain
butterflies, bats, sea turtles, fish, and, of course, whales.
We watch California gray whales pass our shores as they undertake the
longest migration of any mammal, traveling back-and-forth each year
between the Arctic and Mexico—5,000 miles each way. The gray whales
spend February in warm Mexican lagoons, breeding and calving; the long
Arctic summer days are spent feeding on abundant invertebrates. Yes, you
may have seen whales spouting in summer: a handful of gray whales spend
the summer feeding off our coast instead of completing the arduous
journey to Arctic waters.
Gray whales migrate close enough to shore for land-lubbers to glimpse
wispy spouts and dark backs as the school-bus-sized mammals rise to the
surface to breathe. Whale-watchers may also see flukes (the wide part at
the end of the tail) flip into the air as the whales dive, or may
witness breaching (leaping partly out of the water) or spy-hopping
(poking out of the water—probably to look for landmarks). During the
November-through-January leg of their journey, gray whales may also be
seen courting.
This week is the best time for watching the southward migration of
the California gray whale for a couple of reasons: there are usually
large numbers of animals passing by at this time and there are people
who "speak whale watching" available to help novice
whale-watchers.
From December 26th to January 2nd (and again
during Spring Break in March for the northward migration) hundreds of
volunteers staff 30 "Whale Watching Spoken Here" sites between
Ilwaco, Washington and Crescent City, California, from 10am to 1pm.
Local sites include Shore Acres State Park and Face Rock Wayside in
Bandon.
The specially trained Whale Watch volunteers offer information,
interpretive materials, and whale-watching savvy for today's humans
fascinated by this species' migration.
For more information about the Whale Watching Spoken Here program—and
for more links to information on whales and whale watching, visit www.whalespoken.org
.
~~~~
Visit our pages on related topics:
bird migration
navigation
watching gray whales
