There and back again...

In 1789 the reverend Gilbert White wrote The Natural History of Selborne. Through close observation of live animals and birds in their habitat (rather than the study of dead specimens), White could be thought of as England’s first ecologist. However, some of his observations proved to be wayward. When the swallows disappeared at summer’s end, he thought they ‘hibernated’ in the mud at the bottom of the village pond. The idea that even the young swallows could fly to sub-Saharan Africa seemed, at the time, unfeasible.

White later quoted Linnaus: “If any experienced naturalist were to make observations of birds in the far south of Spain, when they come and go southwards and northwards, that is to say by keeping a record of the days, months and species, this matter [the migration of birds], at present obscure, would in a short time be fully elucidated”. But, at the time of his death, in 1793, White was still looking for the lair where his beloved hirundines over-wintered.

The secrets of bird migration were subsequently unlocked, mostly by the fastidious record-keeping which Linnaus had recommended. Bird-ringing and satellite tracking (by fitting individual birds with tiny radio backpacks) revealed some miraculous journeys. The latest findings reveal that a male cuckoo has flown 16,000 miles from his breeding grounds in the rolling hills of the Khurkh valley in Mongolia, across the borders of 27 countries, to Kenya in Southern Africa… all in search of caterpillars! The bird subsequently returned to the Khurkh valley to breed. Gilbert White would be amazed (especially as the cuckoo is not usually considered to be a strong flier)!