Migration from various perspectives: watching, listening and simply being amazed

After many exciting talks and ample discussions on migration over the last couple of days, Friday it was time for some outdoor activities. For a course on the Ecology of Migration taking place during peak autumn migration, a visit to Falsterbo Bird Observatory is a must. Falsterbo is situated on the southwestern tip of Sweden, where migrants concentrate in large numbers during autumn migration. On Friday we eyewitnessed large flocks of Chaffinches, Siskins and Linnets leaving Sweden via Falsterbo on their migratory journey. We also saw numerous migrating raptors, mainly Sparrowhawks, Bussards and some Red Kites, and Karen Persson and Nils Kjellén told us about the ringing scheme and ongoing research carried out at the bird observatory

The afternoon lecture about migration and dispersal of small aquatic organism was given by Karin Rengefors, and the day ended with a poster-session, introducing research carried out in the department of Ecology.

Saturday was filled with a themed lecture block on Orientation and Navigation. Thomas Alerstam set the scene by introducing different compass mechanisms used by animals to orient, and set the pioneer discoveries in this field into today's perspective. Susanne Åkesson provided insight into different navigation principles with a focus on sea turtle and insect navigation, and Tim Guildford took us on a "Nils Holgersson" trip (on a slightly different species, though) and demonstrated pigeon navigation literally from the bird's eye view – amazing what current technology and clever experimental design allows us to investigate! Rachel Muheim told us how animals from diverse groups use information from the Earth's magnetic field for a variety of different behaviours, and summarised the state-of-the-art of ongoing research trying to understand how animals are able perceive the Earth's magnetic field in the first place. In the final session Marie Dacke explained how small creatures such as spiders and insects with brains weighing less than a milligram navigate effectively, and how the South African dung beetle manages to use an optical polarisation compass at night time.