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Paper short abstract:

Through a series of preliminary case studies, this paper explores bird migration as a way of thinking through the limits of life in the environmental crisis. Migration is a practical response to changing circumstances and its study elicits an exploration of ongoing life and its limits.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores bird migration as a way of thinking through the limits of life in the environmental crisis. Many birds are migratory. These migratory habits are normally understood as a response to the variable seasonalities of the world, or sometimes to extreme conditions. As such, migration as a practical response by birds to the changeable circumstances of the world enables an exploration of ongoing life and its limits. New developments in monitoring and tracking birds have enabled researchers to learn more about their migrations, particularly changing strategies and routes in the face of environmental change. Migration also gathers together different places that birds use on their journeying, with changes in one place, such as shifting seasonalities and food availability, having knock-on effects in others, such as where the birds breed. Migration also provides a way to think about the challenges of a bird’s life and the limits of its existence. Migrating birds often find themselves off-course or ‘out-of-place’, but these novel situations offer potential for new understandings of life, both for birds and humans. These movements also transgress national boundaries and promote a need for ‘shared responsibility’ in conservation.This paper explores these themes through a series of preliminary case studies: Barnacle and Brent Geese in Europe and Japan; endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers migrating between Siberia and southeast Asia; and Siberian warblers shifting their migration routes from Asia to Europe via fleeting stopovers on exposed Scottish headlands.