Posted on 10/05/2005 2:26:36 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
With the fall bird migration at its height, one of many dangers faced by nighttime migrants was harshly illustrated recently when as many as 400 disoriented songbirds were killed as they crashed into the guy wires holding up a Madison television tower.
The incident, on the night of Sept. 13-14, may lead to the creation of a group to study the dangers posed to migrating flocks by communication towers, said bird specialists with the Department of Natural Resources.
"It's an issue that has been with us for decades," said Sumner Matteson, an avian ecologist with the DNR. "But we really haven't done anything about it."
DNR bird experts and many amateur birders have been talking about the kill last month at the WMTV (Ch. 15) tower adjacent to the West Madison Little League fields just off Schroeder Road. A similar kill happened on the night of Sept. 7-8, said Steven Ugoretz, an environmental specialist with the DNR who works on tower-related issues.
Ugoretz was alerted to the Sept 13-14 kill early in the morning and arrived at the site by about 7 a.m.
Records kept by searchers who collected dead and dying birds showed that 172 birds representing 23 species were found around the base of the tower. Ugoretz said scavengers, including crows and cats, had already taken another 200 or more. That's why he estimated the number of birds killed at around 400. Searchers didn't search the heavily timbered area north of the tower.
"There were birds all over the place," Ugoretz said.
Ugoretz and Matteson said such kills are not unusual during spring and fall migrations and are an increasing concern because of multiple threats to the world's songbirds - from feral cat predation to destruction of their overwintering rainforest habitats. Most of the birds killed by communication towers are neotropical migrants, birds that winter in the tropics and migrate at night.
Most of the dead birds collected Sept. 14 were warblers, including five golden-winged warblers, which are on a special watch list kept by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because their numbers are declining. Other birds included red- eyed vireos, American redstarts, ovenbirds, common yellowthroats and a rose-breasted grosbeak.
Officials with WMTV were not available Tuesday for comment. Ugoretz said the WMTV tower is of special concern because of its 1,100-foot height. Nighttime neotropical migrants usually fly at altitudes of 1,000 to 2,000 feet. Other towers in the Madison area, he added, don't seem to cause as many kills, although collection of such data is spotty when it exists.
Matteson and Ugoretz said they hope to convene a task force, made up of bird experts and representatives from the communications industry, to study the issue and find ways to modify the towers so that birds avoid them. Possible solutions, Matteson said, include using phosphorescent lights to illuminate guy wires and changing the blinking frequency of red warning lights, which are required by the Federal Aviation Administration on towers taller than 200 feet.
The problem is difficult to address both because of the lack of record-keeping on such kills and because the migration of birds - what triggers it and how the birds find their way - remains shrouded in mystery. There are nights in the spring and the fall when the skies are filled with tens of thousands of migrating birds, but there is much scientists don't know about their behavior.
John Idzikowski, a Milwaukee ornithologist who uses radar to study bird migrations, has radar images that capture immense clouds of birds migrating at night. "It looks like a storm on the radar," he said.
Though there is considerable uncertainty about exactly what happens, scientists believe migrating birds lose sight of navigational stars in the glare of cities and zero in on the bright lights on some tall towers. Often tower kills happen on nights when bad weather forces migrating flocks closer to the ground. Circling the lights on the towers in large flocks, the birds are felled by the guy wires, invisible to them in the dark.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that as many as 5 million birds are killed in the country each year in such collisions.
"People say that 'Well, it's just a hundred birds or so,' " Idzikowski said. "But the problem is that it's a hundred birds here and a hundred birds there. And already there are so many factors working against these birds."
Yep. Time to tear down the TV tower to save the little birdies. (Sarcasm)
Dang! I've been wasting time and shells shooting them with guns all these years.
That's 200 stones' worth, even in ideal conditions.
Do the deer in your state run into cars like they do here in MI?
Good like trying to ban vehicles...
Does not compute.
Records kept by searchers who collected dead and dying birds showed that 172 birds representing 23 species were found around the base of the tower. Ugoretz said scavengers, including crows and cats, had already taken another 200 or more. That's why he estimated the number of birds killed at around 400. Searchers didn't search the heavily timbered area north of the tower.
With this kind of math it could have been 5000! /s
"Do the deer in your state run into cars like they do here in MI?"
Yep. So far, I've been able to dodge them; DH has not been so lucky. :(
In the future, we should a migratory evacuation plan, using all available buses. It is inexcusable that FEMA lets these birds fend for themselves.
How do you ask a bird to be the last bird to die for Gilligan's Island reruns?
Tweetie birds die by the MILLIONS all the time, everywhere...
The most recent figures are from the Mammal Society, which estimates that the UKs cats catch up to 275 million prey items a year, of which 55 million are birds. This is the number of prey items that were known to have been caught we dont know how many more the cats caught, but didnt bring home, or how many escaped but subsequently died.
The most frequently caught birds, according to the Mammal Society, are probably (in order) house sparrows, blue tits, blackbirds and starlings.
Despite the large numbers of birds killed, there is no scientific evidence that predation by cats in gardens is having any impact on bird populations UK wide.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/gardens/advice/cats/Copy_of_index.asp
Maybe he counted 200 hungry cats and crows milling about!!!! LOL Have to agree. I wonder where these folks come up with such estimates.
A quick Google says WI DOT removed over 48,000 deer carcasses last year. MI DOT reported 65,000 car-deer collisions.
Probably similar in other states.
I imagine it is a good thing deer can't fly into towers else they'd really be in trouble.
Let's strive to do better.
"How do you ask a bird to be the last bird to die for Gilligan's Island reruns?"
ROFLMAO! :)
Mmmm! Venison roast in the crockpot simmering with beer and onions. *Slurp*
There was a huge buck down the road from us...a casualty of bow hunting, not a car. Poor thing; took it a few days to die, then chose to die at the side of the road.
Still hoping to take out a motorist or two right up to the very end. I think they swear an oath or something. ;)
Well, I think that there's a simple solution...
The problem seems to be that the birds can't see the guy-wires while flying at night, and they hit the wires, injuring and killing themselves.
The environmentalists need to buy some luminesent paint, and then hire trained workers who can paint the guy-wires with the paint.
Finally, the environmentalists need to buy some "black lights" to shine on the guy-wires, illuminating them at night, so the migrating birds will be able to see them. And then they need to pay for the increased electrical costs for the stations.
Since this is only needed during migration seasons, it won't be all that expensive for the environmentalists to pay for the electricity.
Note, the key item is that it is up the the environmentalists to pay for this. Unfortunately, most environmentalists are leftists, which means they believe that they get to make the "decrees" while others make the payments.
Mark
I thought songbirds roosted at night. Owel and geese fly at night but songbirds, I don't think so.
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