Despite a recent name change to Rock pigeon, ordinary city pigeons are not a species that attracts the attention or admiration of birders. But in many different arenas – scientific, sports and military– pigeons have proved their mettle and demonstrated amazing abilities.
As bird watchers, we think about many aspects of the lives birds lead, such as their habitat preferences, migration patterns and breeding behaviors. But one topic most birders’ rarely ponder is birds at sleep. Considering that many birds spend about 50% of their lives asleep, it means we are in the dark regarding one of their most common activities.
Sixty to 100 miles offshore from the Delmarva Peninsula, two great oceanic “rivers,†the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current, meet and create ideal feeding grounds for some 30 species of truly pelagic birds–albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, storm-petrels, phalaropes, skuas, jaegers, gulls, terns and alcids. These birds migrate through the offshore waters, totally sustaining themselves at sea, and come to land only to nest in the Arctic or South Atlantic regions.