Hi Tweeters

re: Michael Toule's query about pelagic birds avoiding storms.

I don't know the big answers to that query, but one Sept several yrs ago at
Ocean Shores, Washington, a bunch of us at the base of the big rock jetty
there watched flox of Sooty (& the occasional Pink-footed) Shearwaters
passing within a few meters as they evaded very local turbulent squalls. We
noted that every time a lump of cumulonimbus rumbled over toward us, a fan
of shearwaters preceded it, just about where the local downdrafting from
the cell would be, and travelling in the same directions. My guess is they
ride that downdraft to stay ahead of the storm. Do they have internal cloud
charts to help them decide visually if the weather looks bad, or feel the
steepening pressure-gradient, or both?