The Mahnomen Pioneer

Transatlantic Flights

Long distance flights of birds are common. Many species that spend their summers in the United States and Canada fly almost the length of the Western Hemisphere and spend the northern winter in the summer of Argentina and Chile. Long distance flights over water may be less common, but the biological survey of the United States Department of Agriculture has conclusive evidence that some birds do fly across the Atlantic. This evidence is the result of bird banding activities that have proved so useful in the study of the flight habits of birds.

Two black headed gulls banded at Rossiten, Germany were recaptured one at Bridgetown, Barbadoes, in the British West Indies, and the other on the mainland of Mexico, near Vera Cruz. Two kittiwakes, banded at the Farns Islands, Northumberland, England, were recovered almost directly across the Atlantic at points on the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland. A common tern leg banded at Eastern Egg Rock, Maine, crossed both the Atlantic ocean and the Equator and was recovered from the delta of the Niger River, British West Africa. A young Arctic tern, banded in Labrador was recently found dead near LaRochelle on the coast of France.