The Endeavour left Cadiz last night on a heading of 255 bound for Madeira. We had left from a famous seaport following in the wakes of many who had gone before. Our odyssey to Brazil had just begun. By morning we were west of Tangier, the wind had come up and our ship was responding gently to the swell that came from the northwest. It was good to be at sea.We watched from the bridge wings for sea life searching out shearwaters and storm-petrels, the smallest of the truly oceanic birds. We kept a sharp eye out for dolphins and whales as well. These were the animals we expected to see as we worked our way to the west and farther and farther from the coast of Morocco.

We were surprised when a large bird landed under the tarp on the pool deck. A collared dove had found our ship, presumably thought it an island, and landed. When it was disturbed it flew out over the water and landed on an undisturbed part of its newly found island. Was this land bird on its own journey to Madeira? Did it know where it was going? Was it lost? Where would it get off?

If you were to choose a land bird to encounter far at sea what would you choose? Would it be a dove? What about a rail? As we thought about that question, we recalled that on almost every oceanic island there is or was an endemic dove or an endemic rail. It might not be so strange then for a dove to be our first land bird arrival.

Collared doves have become notorious for their rapid expansion across Europe in this century. Generally found in the Balkans until 1912, they reached Hungary by 1928, Germany by 1950 and England and Scotland by 1960. Small colonies are now scattered about the United States. Will these colonies spread explosively as the ones in Europe have done?

But what about our hitchhiker? Will he or she stay aboard until Madeira? Or will it fly the nearly 400 miles east to Morocco and be a pioneer there instead? All of the pioneers have not been humans; some are birds.