My local flock of band-tailed pigeons left here (Belfair area) about 2 weeks ago. Guess they were waiting for the kids to fatten up and put on some muscle. Yesterday I checked the telemetry for the male with the satellite transmitter and found him and his flock down on the Oregon coast near Reedsport. Amazingly they followed exactly the same route they used last year. Their last location was within a couple miles of where they were this time last year. Guess they checked their calendars and knew it was time to leave.

It was interesting to find that BT pigeons have site fidelity for breeding and feeding (coming back to my place after being tagged last August). But even more so interesting to find they are using the same migration route down to the last mile.

The more we learn about birds (or anything for that matter) the more we realize we don't know.

Mary Hrudkaj
Belfair/Tahuya
hrudkajm at hotmail.com
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