When I was a kid, my mother would load up the car with my sisters and me to head off for Cape May, New Jersey, for a well-deserved vacation.

Our destination was one full of warm breezes and a bed-and-breakfast.Every morning Mrs. Lovely offered us all sorts of yummy treats before we began our day.I was thinking how our trip to Cape May in the early fall was very similar to the migration of thousands of birds.We prepared for weeks.We planned out what we would do about food. We had a place to rest. We mapped out our route to Cape May.My mom would fill the tank using the "good gas." The higher octane was purchased just for these excursions to fuel our trip.Birds prepare for weeks, have a plan for food and rest (Cape May is the last rest stop for many species before some serious migrating occurs), follow specific routes and fuel their trips.No matter how my mom planned there was no comparison to the migrating birds' "mileage."Some can range from 15 to 600 miles in one day during migration.Migrating birds navigate using landmarks; mountain ridges, rivers and valleys as well as wind patterns and even the pull of the earth to reach their destination and return in the spring. Most songbirds migrate at night using the moon and stars for navigation.By doing this, they avoid the watchful eyes of those migrating hawks during the day.The open valleys and meadows are warmed under the rays of the sun, and as we know, warm air rises.The air actually rises in columns and dissipates, creating "cushions" of warm air that allow birds to gain altitude.As the birds are lifted with the warm air, they can hitch a ride on these thermals until they reach the strong wind currents.The winds that are deflected off mountain ridges (updrafts) "push" the birds along, sometimes with birds cruising at 60 mph or more! The analogy I like to use is it's like driving along in town until you can hit the turnpike.Before each migration, a bird will enter a state known as hyperphagia, and for birds preparing to migrate, this means survival. Hyperphagia is the urge is to eat more in preparation for the long migration.This causes birds to increase their body weight and store fat as energy for long flights. The stores of fat the birds "pack on" are distributed throughout the body; the furculum (wishbone), the wing-pits, abdomen and in pockets along the legs where they meet the body. This stored fat is used as energy while traveling. Some bird species may as much as double their body weight in the weeks leading up to migration.This migration thing sounds like a huge amount of work. Why bother? Imagine being invited to a party at my house and when you arrive there is nothing to eat or drink. My dazzling personality is probably not enough to persuade you to stay for very long.You want to be where the food is; so do the birds. In the fall, plants stop producing food. No berry, nut or flower production means no food. Many animals that do not hibernate or migrate go through long periods of rest, making it hard for the predators to find food. This is the reason for migration. It is not temperature that is the driving force; it is the urge to move to a place where the food is more readily available.How do the birds know it is "time" to migrate? There are a few things that signal it is time to "go." Length of day, changes in temperature, changes in food supplies and some scientists attribute it to relying on instinct to drive the birds to do what they have been doing for millions of years.I have noticed the birds of prey at the center go through a period of restlessness each spring and fall, moving from perch to perch, spreading their wings and glancing up at the skies overhead.Sometimes the red tail, "Lazarus," will call to other red tails as they soar overhead. Scientists have labeled this behavior as zugunruhe, meaning migratory restlessness. It is heartbreaking to know the residents at CCEEC cannot take flight.As one person put it at a program once, "Their navigational skills are amazing, wonderful and beyond our ability to explain."I don't have to understand how it all works so well to simply be in awe.Jeannie Carl is on staff at the Carbon County Environmental Center.