New thesis: flight of swifts

On Friday 29th January 2010, Per Henningsson is defending his thesis on "fluid dynamics, flight performance and flight behavior of common swifts". The defense takes place in the Blue lecture hall at 10:00, with Prof. Bret Tobalske as faculty opponent. On the day before, you can enjoy an extra CAnMove mini-sympoium on the animal flight, starting at 14:00 in the seminar room "Tanken", in which Bret Tobalske will talk on his fascinating research on hummingbird flight. That the swift is a remarkable bird is perhaps not new to most of us, and Per is now getting some well deserved media attention for his spectacular PhD thesis. See e.g.http://www.gp.se/nyheter/sverige/1.296297-flygexpertens-hemlighet-avslojad

Charles Anderson gives lecture about long-distance migration in dragonflies

For those of you who have not already seen this interesting video, take a look! It describes a new long-distance migratory system involving insects - dragonflies! The migration takes place annually, between the two monsoons, from India to Africa and is much more impressive in terms of distance than the more wellknown Monarch butterfly migration in North America. This shows that there is still many new basic things and surprises to discover in nature.

Winter flight of Nyctalus noctula

Today (15 January) three bats have left their hibernation site and are found flying around at midday foraging along the north side of the Ecology Building (Stor fladdermus Nyctalus noctula). One of the bats was chased by a magpie (Pica pica), but escaped capture. You may still see them.

Susanne