By Ellen G. Lahr

Along certain skyways, air traffic control is directed by changing seasons, ancient instinct, biology and ecological connections among the flyers. Each fall and spring, some 500 bird species make the annual round-trip flight along the Atlantic Flyway, touching at layovers along coastal and inland waterways, wetlands, bogs, and even urban refuges. They stop to feed, rest, mate, brood and to teach their young the finer points of flight — and then they are off again.

Ducks and geese, songbirds and hundreds of other winged creatures follow the seasons along the Atlantic route, one of four unique flyways in the U.S. Their flights commingle with other mammals and fish who are also on the move, or perhaps staying in place.

The science of migration captivated Tomas Koeck when h

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