Alexander Lees and James Gilroy have done a first rate job in tackling an issue near and dear to the hearts of birders and scientists alike. It is a phenomenon poorly understood by many, especially by the rabid twitchers who will forsake family, call in sick, spend a small fortune and suffer extreme discomfort to tick a rarity that has been "blown off course", when in fact the bird was probably not "on course" in the first place!
In his highly entertaining book Birders - Tales of a Tribe Mark Cocker explains that the sighting of a first-ever vagrant in the UK has the potential to confer fame and prestige on the fortunate observer, but should anyone ever forge or falsify a record, eternal shame and ostracism will surely follow.
Such is the nature of vagrancy for some!
Frequently, however, vagrancy in birds is not an entirely random event, and there are valid reason why certain locations are regular vagrant traps. Book a vacation to the Scilly Isles at peak fall migration, i.e. after the breeding season, and you stand a good chance of encountering a rarity. Birds use multiple compasses to orientate correctly, and juvenile birds lacking experience, especially those born late in the season, may fail to accurately correlate all the information they need, and experience mirror-image misorientation and will set off on a course diametrically opposite the trajectory they should be taking. Predictably this error will cause them to end up stopping at vagrancy hot spots when their hard-wired knowledge indicates they have travelled far enough. Even then other factors may cause them to overshoot.
All birds are not equal, just as all humans are not equal, and some individuals may simply have navigational failings.
The fate of many birds that stray from their normal migratory pathways is, sadly, a premature end to life. Often they are incapable of reorientating to their normal migration route, and faced with hostile conditions, lack of food, unsuitable habitat and inclement weather, they perish. Even those that survive are generally solitary members of their kind and, unable to find a mate, wander randomly until they succumb.
One aspect of vagrancy often overlooked is the ability of errant birds to facilitate the spread of other organisms. Seeds may pass through the birds digestive system, or be carried on their legs or plumage, and invasive plants may get a head-start in this manner. Fish or amphibian eggs may cling to mud on the feet of waterfowl and populate lakes and streams with alien species. Even before jet travel by humans intercontinental dispersal occurred!
There are many factors that contribute to vagrancy in addition to cognitive errors - wind drift, jet streams, human-driven vagrancy, extreme weather - and others.
Vagrancy may not always be what it seems, however. When is the first sighting of an unfamiliar bird the vanguard of range expansion? It is not so many years ago that the sighting of a Little Egret, or more recently a Great Egret, in the UK was a cause for twitchers to grab camera, scope and binoculars, and travel! The sight of either species is now commonplace and merits barely a second glance. Closer to home, here in southern Ontario, Carolina Wren has gone from a seldom-observed species meriting great excitement, to a commonly observed breeding resident.
The authors go through every family of birds taxonomically with a review of the patterns of vagrancy in each one. It is nothing short of a fabulous summary.
A thirty-nine page list of references is impressive, and gives the reader every opportunity for further research.
In this brief review I have barely scratched the surface of the detail in the book. Vagrancy in birds is a fascinating topic, likely to become the focus of ever greater attention in the immediate future, as climate change forces birds into new areas, or even to new elevations.
I recommend this work to anyone with even a passing interest in migration and the reasons why it sometimes goes awry. It is a highly readable and important contribution to the literature on this topic.
Vagrancy in Birds - Princeton University Press
Authors: Alexander Lees and James Gilroy
Hardcover - US$35.00 - ISBN 9780691224886
400 pages - 360 colour photographs - 7 x 10inches (17.5 x 25 cm)
Publication date: 15 February 2022
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteAnd yet another added to my wishlist! I am glad you mentioned climate changes near the end there, for I have pondered that one very much as I note a few odditites hereabouts... Those comparatively rare Goldfinch sightings have taken a big surge this 'winter' (which has yet to properly be one). YAM xx
...I have never thought of birds as being vagrants!
ReplyDeleteThank you for highlighting a book I suspect I would find fascinating. And yes, sadly I think that migrant paths are going to HAVE to change for far too many.
ReplyDeleteI look at the album / book cover and I am already delighted. I suppose the pictures of the birds will be very beautiful and professionally done.
ReplyDeleteHugs and greetings.
A presentation in a comparatively beautiful tone.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic book review! And this sounds like a really interesting read, David.
ReplyDeleteLa couverture est vraiment très belle!
ReplyDeleteBonne soirée
Se ve estupendo. Esperemos que el cambio climático no haga desaparecer a más especies.
ReplyDeleteGracias por tus recomendaciones
Buen fin de semana David.
Un abrazo.
You have whetted my appetite, David, and I think that I might need to get this book. It sounds fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised you didn't make mention of what I consider to be another significant danger to vagrant birds, particularly those that have had a stressful and exhausting journey, and that is disturbance by twitchers. A rare bird can attract hundreds of persons to travel hundreds of miles and, hiving done so, many will stop at nothing that gets in the way of them finding their quarry.
I think that this book was actually published in Britain before it will be published here.
DeleteThe cover looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteIt really does.
DeleteVagrancy in birds? It has the feeling of doom, clear that the populations are suffering. Thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteThe plight of birds worldwide is becoming the collective canary in the coal mine.
DeleteThat's a great photo...the cover of the book...love it! Take good care. :)
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a good read.
ReplyDeleteThe cover photo is spectacular. Nice review, David.
ReplyDeleteSpectacular is the word, Bill.
DeleteI may have mentioned how a Stellar's sea eagle was seen on the coast of Maine for several weeks in January. Now I know the term for what you would call their visit. You did a great job of explaining what the book is about, and all the reasons why vagrancy can happen. Happy rest of your weekend David. Hugs-Erika
ReplyDeleteThanks, Erika. That's exactly the reaction you hope for when you review a book of this nature.
DeleteMany thanks for your review.
ReplyDeleteThe cover photograph is stunning.
All the best Jan
Think how many changes we have seen in a life time.
ReplyDeleteI can't count that high, Joanne.
DeleteFascinating subject, David. Although faulty navigation may be disastrous for individual birds it may perhaps be the salvation for some species if they find areas which are now, through global warming, viable as a habitat. Those Egrets that came to the UK were not the first to arrive here, they were merely the first to survive. At the moment we have Cattle Egrets and Glossy Ibis which have survived winter here and may well be the vanguard "new" species to these islands. The changes which have made the UK viable for them seem to be both accidental (global warming) and deliberate (many more wetlands created by the RSPB and others).
ReplyDeleteI've always been baffled by the attitudes of twitchers to birds which turn up "in the wrong place". A bird which arrives because of a fault in its navigation, and will probably die within days of its arrival, is highly valued. One which has the gumption to escape from being held captive by humans, on the other hand, and then survive in an alien environment is seen as a bird of little importance.
I am baffled by twitchers, period!
DeleteIt looks like a beautiful book. The cover is great.
ReplyDeleteHugs and kisses, Marit
The eagle (from Russia?) that was followed for weeks in the New England area of USA comes to mind...interesting book review!!
ReplyDeleteWe birders enjoy your post. Thanks for taking time from your day to link in with us at I'd Rather be Birdin'. And happy day ahead!
Quite an interesting topic.
ReplyDeleteI have always been amused by these bird hunters - we have them here too, naturally.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI have been thrilled to see vagrant birds in my area or during travels. Great review and book.
Thanks for sharing. Take care, enjoy your day and the new week ahead.
This book sounds very interesting. Some of the vagrants here have explosively grown in numbers in the past years, and we have no bugs here which ae threatening the field crops, perhaps also brought in by birds. Have a great day, take care, Hugs! Valerie
ReplyDeleteWhile not precisely a vagrant in the sense you're highlighting here, your post did remind me of a certain 'escapee' that came to Texas: a Flamingo that gave up life in a Kansas zoo for life on our southeast Texas coast. I have a friend who saw it with a group of Whooping Cranes at the Aransas Wildlife Refuge; I suspect I'll have to content myself with true vagrants!
ReplyDeleteIt has good taste to take up with Whooping Cranes but there is great sadness that it will never again encounter another of its own kind.
Deletebuen trabajo, para todos aquellos que amamo la Naturaleza. Nada más que ver la portada, entrabn ganas de leeerlo.
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that it is a fascinating subject and that is why this book is of great help to learn more about the world of migratory birds.
ReplyDeleteMany kisses.
We definitely have a lot of birds migrate through FL every year. We saw hundreds of Sandhill Cranes fly over yesterday....HIGH in the sky! This sounds like an interesting book. Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteVagrant birds! I never thought of them as such but now I can see them as truly vagrants.
ReplyDeleteInteresting book, I have never thought before about the problems related to the migrations of the birds.
ReplyDeleteAs every year I cannot wait for the arrival of the swallows, it's a pleasure to see them flying over our heads, their nests under the roofs and listening their screams.
Wow, sounds like a great book. Hardcover and lots of photos!
ReplyDeleteIt really is quite fabulous, Carol.
DeleteFascinating review. You really give a good sense of the book and make me want to get it. Vagrancy is an interesting phenomenon and I would like to learn more about it.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dorothy.
DeleteThis does sound fascinating. I have to say, when I first heard the title, the visual that came to mind was a group of birds guzzing gin in some parking lot (or maybe the seagulls at the grocery store parking lot -- I never quite got that; no one is pitching food AT the grocery story -- they just bought it!). Or, a gang of birds breaking into parked cars wearing little ski masks. (I have had someone -- probably a mouse or chipmunk break into the trunk of my car and eat the birdseed.) THOSE are vagrants! These fellows sound much more civilized! They do have their issues, it seems, and perhaps the damage with things like the invasive species. But like humans, it is often the conditions they are in that leads to the vagrancy. Fascinating.
ReplyDeleteTodos estos libros me encantan. Yo tengo más de plantas e insectos, de pájaros menos. Besos.
ReplyDeleteMy book wish list grows ever longer!
ReplyDeleteMake sure you circulate it to friends and family, Pam, and drop shameless hints!
DeleteEstimado y querido amigo David, una gran reseña la mostrada hoy y que al parecer desvela ciertas posibles dudas.
ReplyDeleteUn gran abrazo amigo y compadre por tu gran hacer.
Migration of birds has always been a mystery to me. When I look at the shoals of geese and other birds, then I think how do they know where to fly? An interesting book, David.
ReplyDeleteNew resident or occasional species of birds in our area (southeast Michigan) have been common in recent years, and the local birders get all excited, and then they get testy when my husband asks them if they don't think the changing climate is responsible. That sounds like a great book.
ReplyDeletebest... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
PS -- the Princeton University website lists the $35.00 price, but amazon is charging $58.82, and AbeBooks offers $26 plus a small shipping fee. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteHi David - the authors make absolute sense don't they ... the book was published here at the beginning of December 2021 - I'd love to have a look at it. People are incorrigible ... stay safe - it still looks very cold ... cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing if a bird veers off course due to it's own navigational failings; far sadder are those who will end up in new places where they can't survive due to climate change. That's on us, and shameful.
ReplyDeleteI think sometime in the past year, a Pink Flamingo was spotted here in Connecticut (CT) US. Not their native habitat by a long shot! They're normally always in warmer states like Florida. (The same one or another one was also seen in New York, near the western border with CT.)
ReplyDeleteThis is a stellar book review. Have a great day.
ReplyDelete