High Over the Borders

With many Canadians overseas fighting in WWII, this feature formed part of the “Canada Carries On” series, and depicts the migration patterns of birds in and around their country and across the Americas in general. The photography captures really quite well the geese and many other species that travel hundreds if not thousands of miles in remarkably short times - 1400 miles in 48 hours - and as the clue is in the title, the rest of this film illustrates that these elegant when airborne creatures care not about mankind’s borders on the ground. Along their journeys they are frequently shot at, or more benignly tagged by scientists who attempt to track their migration patterns and using some rudimentary on-screen maps we see just how different routes are used by different birds as they move from the cold to the warm in the autumn and then return north as spring and the breeding season beckons. The narration isn’t the liveliest, but it is still informative enough as some fine camerawork does the heavy lifting.