avian pilotage

According to Reuters today, British scientists tracking homing pigeons with
GPS transmitters discovered that the pigeons don't return home by celestial
navigation. Instead, they follow roads. Closely. Prof. Tim Guilford: "It
is striking to see the pigeons fly straight down the A34 Oxford bypass, and
then sharply curve off at the traffic lights before curving off again at the
roundabout."

"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
news:7fAUb.184353$sv6.949999@attbi_s52...
According to Reuters today, British scientists tracking homing pigeons
with
GPS transmitters discovered that the pigeons don't return home by
celestial
navigation. Instead, they follow roads. Closely. Prof. Tim Guilford:
"It
is striking to see the pigeons fly straight down the A34 Oxford bypass,
and
then sharply curve off at the traffic lights before curving off again at
the
roundabout."


Do they follow the same route that took them away from home?
--
Jim in NC


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Morgans wrote:

"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
news:7fAUb.184353$sv6.949999@attbi_s52...

According to Reuters today, British scientists tracking homing pigeons

with

GPS transmitters discovered that the pigeons don't return home by

celestial

navigation. Instead, they follow roads. Closely. Prof. Tim Guilford:

"It

is striking to see the pigeons fly straight down the A34 Oxford bypass,

and

then sharply curve off at the traffic lights before curving off again at

the

roundabout."



Do they follow the same route that took them away from home?

The article I saw,
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...853987030.html indicated
that they only use the IFR (I Follow Roads) method on routes that they flew
multiple times, but that "pigeons use their own navigational system when
doing long-distance trips or when a bird does a journey for the first time."

"Peter" wrote in message
news:1%AUb.188465$nt4.791175@attbi_s51...
The article I saw,
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...853987030.html indicated
that they only use the IFR (I Follow Roads) method on routes that they
flew
multiple times, but that "pigeons use their own navigational system when
doing long-distance trips or when a bird does a journey for the first
time."

Cool. The version I'd read was truncated and omitted that detail.

Gary Drescher wrote:

According to Reuters today, British scientists tracking homing pigeons with
GPS transmitters discovered that the pigeons don't return home by celestial
navigation. Instead, they follow roads. Closely.

Interesting. Pigeons were used during the two World Wars to send messages from the
continent to England. What method did they use to cross the channel?

George Patterson
Love, n.: A form of temporary insanity afflicting the young. It is curable
either by marriage or by removal of the afflicted from the circumstances
under which he incurred the condition. It is sometimes fatal, but more
often to the physician than to the patient.

Morgans wrote:

Do they follow the same route that took them away from home?

Not likely. During WWII, the French underground and British spies used pigeons for
messages. The birds were flown in in Lysander "moonplanes".

George Patterson
Love, n.: A form of temporary insanity afflicting the young. It is curable
either by marriage or by removal of the afflicted from the circumstances
under which he incurred the condition. It is sometimes fatal, but more
often to the physician than to the patient.

In a previous article, said:
Morgans wrote:
Do they follow the same route that took them away from home?

Not likely. During WWII, the French underground and British spies used
pigeons for messages. The birds were flown in in Lysander "moonplanes".

And you could just see them all hanging around resistance air fields
hoping to hitch a ride back.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Software planning seems to be based on denying plausibility.
-- Graham Reed

In article , G.R. Patterson III wrote:
Interesting. Pigeons were used during the two World Wars to send
messages from the
continent to England. What method did they use to cross the channel?

Pigeons probably have a mix of navigational techniques, just like we do
when flying. When over land, I'll follow and use ground features, but
when crossing the Irish Sea, I'll use dead reckoning or GPS. Pigeons
probably do the same (except for the GPS bit, and I'm not sure what
they'd use for the compass :-))

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

"Gary Drescher" wrote:
pigeons ... follow roads.

That doesn't mean they're using pilotage. The pigeons are carried along
the roads in cars to the release points. How would they recognize a
route from the air they had traveled (and probably not seen) only on the
ground?

Birds are capable of magnetic navigation.
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF3/345.html
Most likely the pigeons are able to sense and store the route they
travel to the release point, and then retrace it home.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
(remove pants to reply by email)

Dan Luke wrote:

"Gary Drescher" wrote:

pigeons ... follow roads.


That doesn't mean they're using pilotage. The pigeons are carried along
the roads in cars to the release points. How would they recognize a
route from the air they had traveled (and probably not seen) only on the
ground?

Birds are capable of magnetic navigation.
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF3/345.html
Most likely the pigeons are able to sense and store the route they
travel to the release point, and then retrace it home.

But it was reported that the 'follow roads' navigation was *not* used on
the first flight home. It was only used when the birds flew the same
course repeatedly allowing them to learn the pattern of roads.