Ride the Wind: Airborne Journeys of Animals and Plants

Ride the Wind: Airborne Journeys of Animals and Plants — page 3
The seasonal journeys of large groups of animals are called migrations migrations Animals migrate when the weather becomes too cold or too hot or when food is unavailable Among migrating birds the Arctic tern is the long distance champion champion of air travelers Each year adult terns fly from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again The round-trip journey of about twenty-five thousand miles takes eight months of almost nonstop flying flying On its trip the tern passes from a northern summer to a southern southern summer When a tern arrives at its Arctic breeding grounds in spring it returns to the same area it left the previous autumn In the autumn terns from Greenland and Canada ride on westerly winds across the stormy Atlantic Ocean to Europe and then head south along the coast of West Africa While traveling terns plunge into the cold waters along their path to capture fish About February adult terns begin their journey back to the Arctic Most of the young birds remain in the south during their first year By the third spring they fly back to the Arctic to find a mate and breed As adults they will spend the rest of their lives twenty to thirty years following an endless summer around the world