Dog-legs
Dog-leg migration patterns are characterized by a prominent bend or twist in the route. Studies have shown some of these illogical, out-of-the-way means for connecting wintering and breeding areas have no biological function, but instead, are the result of tradition much like the lineage of crooked streets in Boston can be traced back to old cowpaths (Welty 1962). Many species have extended their range in recent years, but the pioneers continue to retrace the old route from the point of origin even if the new areas are not on the same axis as the earlier route. The old pathways have apparently become implanted as part of the migratory instinct in all members of particular populations even after extending their ranges considerable distances from the original.
Good examples of this crooked traditional path can be seen in the routes taken by Old World species extending their ranges into the New World from Europe and Asia. The European wheatear has extended its range into Greenland and Labrador where the local breeding population has become a separate race. When the Labrador individuals depart from their breeding grounds, they proceed north to Greenland, their ancestral home, then west to Europe and south to Africa, the traditional wintering area for all wheatears. Alaskan breeding wheatears migrate to Africa in the opposite direction via Asia where the Alaskan population presumably originated. Alaskan breeding Arctic and willow warblers and bluethroats also migrate westward into Siberia and then southward on the Asiatic side. Some investigators believe the Arctic tern colonized the New World from Europe because when this bird departs for the south it first crosses the Atlantic to Europe, then moves down the eastern Atlantic coast to Africa and either back across the Atlantic to South America or continues south down past South Africa ([Fig. 11.]). To get to South America from the eastern Arctic, it would be shorter to follow the golden plover's flight path straight down the Atlantic or along the east coast of the United States but the fact that no Arctic terns have been observed in the Caribbean indicates that they do no follow that route.
In western United States, California gulls nest in various colonies around Great Salt Lake and Yellowstone Park. Banding records indicate these populations winter along the California coast ([Fig. 27.]). Instead of traveling southwest by the shortest distance to the wintering grounds, they proceed longitudinally down the Snake and Columbia Rivers and reach the coast around Vancouver ( Woodbury et al. 1946). Thence they proceed south along the coast to Oregon and California. In the spring the adults return over the same course rather than taking the shorter flight northeast in April across the deserts and mountains; this route would be largely made over a cold and inhospitable country (Oldaker 1961).
Figure 27. Migration route and wintering grounds of California gulls banded in northwestern Wyoming. During fall migration, the birds proceed west from the breeding grounds to the Pacific Ocean before turning south to wintering areas in California. A more direct route across Nevada would entail a trip through relatively barren country (After Diem and Condon 1967).
Sladen (1973) has mapped the migration routes of whistling swans, and several dog-leg patterns are apparent in the eastern and western populations ([Fig. 28.]). In the eastern population, a sharp change in direction occurs at their major feeding and resting areas in North Dakota. After the birds arrive from the Arctic breeding grounds, they proceed east-southeast to their wintering grounds on Chesapeake Bay. In the western population, thousands of birds migrate from the Alaskan breeding grounds to the large marshes along Great Salt Lake. Then after a major stopover, this population heads west over the mountains to California.
Figure 28. Distribution and migration routes of whistling swans in North America. Birds from the central arctic head south to North Dakota before proceeding east to Chesapeake Bay, while many Alaskan breeders migrate to Great Salt Lake before turning west to winter in California (After Sladen, 1973).