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 ...
Five birds out of a few million in the region flying to Mexico means the birds can predict a tornado a day opinion advance?
Seems more like a random event to me.
Yes, I was talking to my Blue Jays just the other day and they told me the same thing- they can hear tornados at least 1500 miles away.
Unfortunately, I can sense storm fronts as they approach. Very violent systems, especially those that have the capability to form tornadoes really stand out. The weather shifts kick off migraines.
When I was younger, I could feel them, and they mainly just made me nervous, as I got older, the migraines started. On really bad ones, 350+ miles is about when I start feeling them. At half that distance, I just about lose vision in one eye. Hurricanes are the worst, followed by tightly wrapped low pressure systems with a long, powerful trailing cold front.
Yes, I firmly believe some animals are very sensitive to weather, and natural selection has enhanced their abilities to use it to their advantage.
I think you're right. I've often witnessed a high level of bird activity in my backyard on the day before a heavy storm. Perhaps birds can sense the pressure drop and they lay in extra supplies beforehand. Smart little creatures considering they only have "bird brains"!
Maybe their spidey sense was tingling?
Surely the Creation of my G*D is AWESOME!
Yeah.
BBC seems to be stretching to make a story out of something. After all, the scientist(s) studied 5 birds that left their nests.
“Surely the Creation of my G*D is AWESOME!”
AMEN!
Who can argue with that?
“Who can argue with that?”,
Evolutionists
Agnostics
Atheists
Liberals
and OTHER assorted LOSERS!
who is paying for this nonsense...???
“Dr Henry Streby, from the University of California, Berkeley,”
“Working with colleagues from the Universities of Tennessee and Minnesota”
Starlings are not native?
No idea, all I know is I had to pull a good dozen dead starlings out of the chainlink afterwards in addition to cutting up that big oak that barely missed the house. It was sort of pitiful, a little spooky really.
I don't question that animal behavior can be predictive of weather, even though this one sounds far-fetched. My grandparents farmed and I was taught from childhood to watch animal behavior for signs of weather to come, particularly snow which happens with enough regularity here to be a concern, but is not a frequent occurrence. Birds go to ground, get very active to the point of seeming nervous, and stuff themselves, eat eat eat. Odd groups of birds you don't usually see together, all over the place. Squirrels too. It's a pretty distinct thing once you're aware of it, no mistaking a big snow coming from watching them.
The scientists would love to hear from you. I’ll keep my eye out. I know the Marines watch the birds when they’re at war.
Just common knowledge among people who farm whose families have been here going back to a time when there were no meteorologists.
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