The “left-handed pets” thread reminded me of this.
I took ornithology in high school, and I remember something about a species of birds which are supposed to migrate from Alaska to the Southeastern United States. These critters navigate by flying a few degrees to the left of due South, i.e. South by Southeast.
So some folks were on a boat in the middle of the Pacific (yes, my memory is foggy on this point). They see a bunch of little sparrowy kinda things land on their vessel, which is a surprise if you are only used to seeing seagulls. They approached the birds, and they just sat their, rather than flying away.
So they captured some, and asked an ornithologist about it, and the theory was, the birds didn’t fly away because they were too exhausted! They had been flying a few degrees to the right of due South, and ended up nowhere near their intended winter homes in California. The theory was that there was some kind of “magnetic dyslexia” which was confusing a small portion of the birds, causing them to end up drowning in the Pacific. Or entertaining some sailors.
Can anyone confirm or deny this? Was my ornithology teacher joshing me? Does anyone know the name of the species? Did they ever figure out what really was causing the birds’ confusion? Should I ask Cecil?