The Mind-blowing Miracle Of Migration

Jim considers the journeys of the Arctic tern and whooper swan, made all the more amazing by scientific advancements

MIGRATION blows my mind. Whether whale or wildebeest or wheatear, the concept and the efficiency of its execution astounds me. Whether whimbrel or whooper swan, butterfly or wafting tern, sand martin or sandpiper, the procession of spring and autumn departures and arrivals, the crossing of continents, oceans, hemispheres, or even just a few counties from heartland to coast – then back again – is a miracle of routine, or just a pure miracle.

If you have ever wondered just how miraculous, consider the case of one particular Arctic tern, all threeand-a-half ounces of it, all 13 inches of it from stem to stern. Its meandering migration from the Farne Islands in Northumbria to Antarctica and back was a journey of 59,650 miles, between the summer of 2015 and the early spring of 2016, the longest single migratory journey ever recorded. A tiny tracking device fitted on the Farnes revealed that it left its native island in July, flew down the west coast of Africa, turned left at the Cape of Good Hope and out into the Indian Ocean, and reached Antarctica in November.

How’s your mental arithmetic? Arctic terns normally live for between 15 and 30 years. If that bird’s particular migration continues to follow the same pattern for say, an