[HN Gopher] With ships, birds find an easier way to travel
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       With ships, birds find an easier way to travel
        
       Author : sohkamyung
       Score  : 92 points
       Date   : 2023-03-16 08:52 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (hakaimagazine.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (hakaimagazine.com)
        
       | nohuck13 wrote:
       | Blackburnian warbler in Cornwall:
       | 
       | https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-twitchers-floc...
        
       | supernova87a wrote:
       | I wonder if, even if the bird doesn't take the boat for a long
       | distance (i.e. cutting off time spent flapping), just having the
       | ability to rest and recover in the middle of the ocean provides
       | it the boost to keep on going. Or some safety factor. Just like
       | Midway Atoll for us...hah.
        
         | p1mrx wrote:
         | Landing and taking off again doesn't obviously conserve energy.
         | Midway has fuel, but there's probably not much accessible food
         | on a cargo ship.
         | 
         | I wonder if birds are smart enough to notice which direction
         | the ship is moving?
        
       | daverol wrote:
       | Consider this Osprey taking a rest on a boat during migration
       | from the UK to Spain -
       | https://twitter.com/sachadench/status/1569801627757838338
        
       | sicher wrote:
       | Interesting. Related: I've seen pigeons using the subway to
       | travel here in Stockholm.
       | (https://www.thelocal.se/20111110/37278/)
        
         | bcl wrote:
         | Just don't let the Pigeon drive the bus!
         | 
         | https://pigeonpresents.com/books/dont-let-the-pigeon-drive-t...
        
         | unxdfa wrote:
         | They do that in London too. Strangely they seem to actually
         | know where they are going.
        
           | spywaregorilla wrote:
           | that seems like the opposite of strange
        
       | lalos wrote:
       | If you zoom-out a ship is just a small island, a rock or
       | something floating around in the water that can be used as a pit-
       | stop. If birds evolved to judge something as useful to rest -
       | these birds just see a higher quantity of pit stops. Would be
       | interesting if they lower the required calories to make the trip
       | beforehand as time passes.
        
       | mindracer wrote:
       | My dad used to work on oil carriers in the North Sea, he said an
       | owl had stowed away and nested on one of bouys near a field. The
       | place was covered with skeletons of birds
        
       | tough wrote:
       | I was once in a transatlantic cruise, wild how birds would appear
       | on deck randomly (probably coming from other ships) in the middle
       | of the ocean.
        
       | 323 wrote:
       | Nature, uh, finds a way...
       | 
       | Related:
       | 
       | > _Storks give up migrating to live on landfill in Spain_
       | 
       | https://phys.org/news/2022-07-storks-migrating-landfill-spai...
        
       | ibn_khaldun wrote:
       | This was a delightful read. I wonder what the consequences will
       | be
        
         | nerdponx wrote:
         | We've been sailing around the world for 500+/- years now.
         | Moreso in the past than we used to. Presumably the consequences
         | have already shown themselves.
        
           | em-bee wrote:
           | there are more than 300000 ships traveling today:
           | https://www.marinetraffic.com/
           | 
           | i don't think we ever had that many before than a few decades
        
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       (page generated 2023-03-17 23:01 UTC)