Migrants employ mixed strategies to route across the Great Lakes basin

Abstract

Millions of migrants encounter the Great Lakes during spring and autumn migratory movements. How migrants behave when encountering these lakes is relatively unknown at the local and basin scales. Using seven years of radar data from 33 sites along the Great Lakes coastline, we investigated three hypotheses on migrant behavior during crepuscular and nocturnal movements. First, we hypothesized migrants’ direction is driven by local geography and its relation to the destination of migration. Second, we hypothesized migrants would move toward shore at dawn. Finally, we hypothesized that the Great Lakes would have different directional movements at lakes on the outside of the basin versus the interior. We found partial support for our first hypothesis, as well as evidence of decision making when migrants first encounter the Great Lakes. We found partial support for our second hypothesis. We found that migrants moved toward land at elevated levels at dawn compared to night during fall migration, but no effect was found during spring. We found support for our final hypothesis during spring migration, but not during fall. This pattern may be because of a combination of geographical, biological, and data bias, and will require additional work to disentangle. Taken together, we found that migrants perceive and react to the Great Lakes, and attempt to decrease risk, perceived or real, as they make their way to their migratory destination. Better understanding of directional movement has conservation implications, including mitigating anthropogenic obstacle collision risk and prioritizing stopover habitat restoration.