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Birds 'heard tornadoes coming' and fled one day ahead
BBC ^ | 19 December 2014 | Jonathan Webb

Posted on 12/19/2014 2:32:01 AM PST by moose07

US scientists say tracking data shows that five golden-winged warblers "evacuated" their nesting site one day before the April 2014 tornado outbreak.

Geolocators showed the birds left the Appalachians and flew 700km (400 miles) south to the Gulf of Mexico.

The next day, devastating storms swept across the south and central US.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, ecologists suggest these birds - and others - may sense such extreme events with their keen low-frequency hearing.

Remarkably, the warblers had completed their seasonal migration just days earlier, settling down to nest after a 5,000km (3,100 mile) journey from Colombia.

Dr Henry Streby, from the University of California, Berkeley, said he initially set out to see if tracking the warblers was even possible.

"This was just a pilot season for a larger study that we're about to start," Dr Streby told the BBC.

"These are very tiny songbirds - they weigh about nine grams.

"The fact that they came back with the geolocators was supposed to be the great success of this season. Then this happened!"

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Science; Weather; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: birds
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Somebody mentioned the lack of birds the other day....
1 posted on 12/19/2014 2:32:01 AM PST by moose07
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To: moose07

How can they hear a tornado that doesn’t exist?


2 posted on 12/19/2014 2:45:51 AM PST by raybbr (Obamacare needs a death panel.)
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To: raybbr

There are probably atmospheric patterns that indicate the type of storm fronts that produce tornadoes that birds can sense.


3 posted on 12/19/2014 2:49:57 AM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)
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To: raybbr; moose07

Could be just sensing and avoiding air pressure changes that come with big storms.


4 posted on 12/19/2014 2:50:53 AM PST by PieterCasparzen (We have to fix things ourselves)
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To: moose07

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Maybe the birds left for some other reason and just got lucky.


5 posted on 12/19/2014 2:55:15 AM PST by HerrBlucher (Praise to the Lord the Almighty the King of Creation)
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To: raybbr

Beats Me!


6 posted on 12/19/2014 2:58:44 AM PST by moose07 ( Santa's a Scotsman! Too many Pies ,not enough exercise ,of course he's one of us!)
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To: Jonty30

re are probably atmospheric patterns that indicate the type of storm fronts that produce tornadoes that birds can sense.
My explanation too although specious.?
We often unconsciously grant a benefit of the doubt go along get along pass to what sounds good. More so the more liberal.
Case in point ...A ‘new’ study ‘shows’, people in a 55 degree avg temp region make 5 bucks an hour more than those in al goes hated 77 degree areas. They throw this at the wall without any worry of push back gaining any traction. It’s food for the stupid mind less.


7 posted on 12/19/2014 3:06:30 AM PST by Recompennation
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To: raybbr

Right. More like they’re able to detect atmospheric pressure changes


8 posted on 12/19/2014 3:15:21 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Jonty30
There are probably atmospheric patterns that indicate the type of storm fronts that produce tornadoes that birds can sense.

Yes, I would agree. But the article claims they can hear them a day before they occur. It's stupid.

9 posted on 12/19/2014 3:17:55 AM PST by raybbr (Obamacare needs a death panel.)
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To: Recompennation

These are the same so called scientists who put out the anthropomorphic global warming nonsense as science, while in reality it’s just Marxist dogma.


10 posted on 12/19/2014 3:18:56 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Jonty30

http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/animals-predict-weather2.htm

What happens to animals before storms roll in or at the onset of winter? Infrasonic sounds could still be the culprit because hurricanes and thunder produce sound waves at those frequencies. But there’s also the matter of changes in barometric (air) and hydrostatic (water) pressure.

Normally, these pressures fluctuate slightly. Animals are highly tuned in to any changes beyond those natural fluctuations, which can signal big changes in the weather. These variations can trigger an animal’s survival mechanism. The animals’ instinctive reaction is to seek shelter in the face of potentially violent weather.


11 posted on 12/19/2014 3:20:17 AM PST by sodpoodle (Life is prickly - carry tweezers.)
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To: moose07

My only very close call had dead starlings stuck in a chain link fence where they were apparently blown when the large oak in which they were nesting was wrenched out of the ground and felled by a descending funnel that touched down about a hundred yards away. If there is such a sense in birds, starlings don’t possess it.


12 posted on 12/19/2014 3:21:00 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: raybbr

***Yes, I would agree. But the article claims they can hear them a day before they occur. It’s stupid.***

see post #10.


13 posted on 12/19/2014 3:22:55 AM PST by sodpoodle (Life is prickly - carry tweezers.)
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To: HerrBlucher

“Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Maybe the birds left for some other reason and just got lucky.”
******************************************************************************************************
Yep. Or maybe the birds didn’t actually leave but the “measurements” were faulty indicators. Extracted from the article:

“...He also cautioned, however, that because the birds’ locations were calculated from light readings rather than using satellite tracking, they should be interpreted with caution.

Changes in the weather or other factors shading the geolocators can interfere with those calculations....”


14 posted on 12/19/2014 3:29:44 AM PST by House Atreides
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To: moose07

Maybe they just really, really like to fly


15 posted on 12/19/2014 3:31:57 AM PST by Rome2000 (SMASH THE CPUSA)
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To: HerrBlucher

Spring Break?


16 posted on 12/19/2014 3:31:58 AM PST by csmusaret (Will remove Obama-Biden bumperstickers for $10)
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To: Rome2000
After all, a change of location is a good as a rest.
Birds just haven’t read the guide books.
17 posted on 12/19/2014 3:40:23 AM PST by moose07 ( Santa's a Scotsman! Too many Pies ,not enough exercise ,of course he's one of us!)
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To: moose07

This theory is based on the movement of five birds...?

Really small baseline for throwing out theories...

But hey, if it gets them grant money...


18 posted on 12/19/2014 3:41:03 AM PST by Popman
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To: moose07

My bones can tell a rainstorm coming 3 days before. yupyupyup


19 posted on 12/19/2014 3:41:49 AM PST by bunkerhill7 (`("The Second Amendment has no limits on firepower"-NY State Senator Kathleen A. Marchione."))
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To: raybbr

I remember those tornadoes, the day before they popped up, my cat coughed up a hairball which she never, ever does. Now I’m not saying it was a premonition of the those storms but........


20 posted on 12/19/2014 3:42:20 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (“We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within.”)
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