Do birds get lost?
Sure.
What causes it?
Well it turns out some just have a poor sense of direction. Really.
Sometimes it’s inexperience. Take this young bird.
Very unusual. Hatched in Arizona he should have migrated to the tropics with the other locals. But maybe he didn’t know the way back to paradise yet and got on the wrong bus.
Weather?
A storm could have pushed him off course. Happens all the time. He probabably got so tired fighting it he had to find a place for the night. Likely the first one he saw. When he woke up he found himself in a strange place.
California :)
Then there’s one extra thing Arizona birds have to deal with.
Haboobs.
Giant dust clouds.
If he got caught up in one of those he was swirled around in all directions. Meanwhile the whole thing was moving like The Blob across the desert--dust so thick he couldn’t see out.
So think about it. He was turned around in circles, essentially blindfolded and dropped off somewhere pointing away from the piñata. He could be forgiven for flying off in the wrong direction.
So he followed the food (read agriculture) to the Imperial Valley then over the mountains to San Diego. It was time to migrate. He knew he was supposed to be going somewhere. But when he saw the ocean he thought to himself, “waaait a minute. This doesn’t look right.”
So he stopped. And having no idea where he was he stayed.
And that my friends is how such an unusual bird came to spend the winter in San Diego.
Hey!
It could happen.
Don't believe in Haboobs? check out the YouTube vid below.
