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GORP Guests
Scott Weidensaul - Following Birds
GORP Guest from September 20 to October 10
Scott Weidensaul
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Ever idly wonder where the passing birds go in autumn, and where they came from? Scott Weidensaul has done way more than wonder. Researching and writing Living on the Wind, his new book about bird migration, took Scott more than six years, traveling more than 70,000 miles across North, Central and South America, from the Bering Strait in Alaska to the pampas of Argentina. The masterful result challenges many of the myths about bird migration. . .
Myth: Birds learn where, when, and how to migrate by following their elders.
Truth: Young birds rarely migrate with old ones, instead relying on genetically programmed instructions that send them in a predetermined direction for a certain length of time, leading them to their ancestral wintering grounds. Most migrate alone, or with their own age group. Only a few, like waterfowl and cranes, learn migration routes from older birds.Myth: Only large birds can migrate thousands of miles or cross wide expanses of water.
Truth:Even the tiniest songbirds make epic journeys hummingbirds cross the Gulf of Mexico twice each year, and half-ounce warblers fly nonstop from New England to South America over the Atlantic Ocean.
Myth: Birds migrate to escape cold weather.
Truth: Birds actually migrate to eat, not to stay warm many species can tolerate the coldest weather on the planet without migrating, as long as they have enough to eat. Most migratory species depend on foods that are seasonal, like insects, or on habitats like marshes and lakes that freeze in winter.
Scott Weidensaul is the author of more than two dozen books on natural history, including Mountains of the Heart: A Natural History of the Appalachians, Raptors: The Birds of Prey, and the first two volumes of the acclaimed"Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year" series (which he created). He writes the "NatureWatch" column for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and recently revised the bird study merit badge book for the Boy Scouts of America.
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| Where to see them. . .
On the Wing - GORP's picks for observing the fall bird migration.
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Weidensaul writes regularly for Smithsonian magazine, and his work has appeared in such publications as Natural History, International Wildlife, Orion, Bird Watcher's Digest and Audubon. He lectures widely in the United States, and his photography and artwork have been published frequently in books and periodicals. Weidensaul, who lives along the Kittatinny Ridge in eastern Pennsylvania, is a licensed bird bander specializing in the study of hawk and owl migration. This year, he and his team of volunteers are mounting an ambitious effort to learn more about the nocturnal migration of the northern saw-whet owl, a tiny forest owl about which relatively little is known.Scott Weidensaul will be GORP's guest from Monday, September 20, to Sunday, October 10. He'll be discussing birding and bird migration with GORP's readers: where birds go, why birds go, and the environmental issues that are impacting their seasonal sojourns.
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