Migration Mystery

Bell12 Earl Plato’

Passage of Migrants is an hour long VCR tape on bird migrations.
It’s good. The intro to it reads as follows. “Shadows passing across the moon, a soft beating of unseen wings in the dark - ,,,a distant cries blown back by the wind... a line of geese flying high… these are some of the familiar fragments are part of the mystery of migration.” Cynthia of our Nature Club is working as a nurse in Arkansas. She sends nature clippings to me. This one caught my eye. It is entitled, Scientists closing in on migratory birds’ sense of direction. It was taken from the Chicago Tribune. I quote, “Twice each year migratory birds of the world make a journey that until recently, seemed like a miracle. Now evidence is trickling in to support an explanation no less miraculous . Birds may literally be able to see magnetic fields. In 1998 scientists discovered a protein called crypto chrome in the eyes of many animals. This protein reacts to light in a way that depends on the orientation of the surrounding magnetic field. One showed that robins exposed to yellow light only disoriented them and prevented them from getting a directional using the magnetic field.” Makes sense, eh?
Birds are very good at picking up little differences in shades of light that move through their field of vision. Scientist Sculten said. “The magnetic field may act like a filter modifying what they see, like a cloud floating in the image.” Wait! Many researchers reject the light-based theory of magnetic perception! Staring in the late 1990’s researchers found concentrations of an iron mineral called magnetite in the snouts of rainbow trout and the beaks of homing pigeons. The magnetite aligns itself in magnetic fields and nerves link the magnetite-containing cells to the brain. Again - makes sense. The miracle of migration is being solved.