TV Tower Wires Kill 400 Birds in One Night

Wisconsin State Journal ^ | October 5, 2005 | Ron Seely

[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."

[rattrap]

LMAO good one.

[Atlas Sneezed]

LOL!

[BenLurkin]

Those aren't guy wires.

[ngc6656]

I thought songbirds roosted at night. Owel and geese fly at night but songbirds, I don't think so.

Migratory songbirds roost at night during the spring and summer months while nesting. During migration they do indeed fly at night. Over the last 40 years I've seen many pass through the field of a telescope, silhouetted against the Moon, as I observed the Moon. You can also sometimes hear the birds issuing plaintive calls at night as they fly over, if you live in a quiet location -- in fact I heard some this morning around 6 a.m. as I made a casual survey of the sky.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"Over the last 40 years I've seen many pass through the field of a telescope, silhouetted against the Moon, as I observed the Moon."

One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen were a flock of snow geese flying over my house at night. Absolutely silent, in a perfect "V" and I would've missed them had I not been out Moon gazing myself. :)

[dighton]

“The study group admitted puzzlement over hundreds of dead clams.”

[ngc6656]

One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen were a flock of snow geese flying over my house at night. Absolutely silent, in a perfect "V" and I would've missed them had I not been out Moon gazing myself. :)

Bless you, you have a good head on your shoulders, knew what you saw and didn't run off screaming "UFO, UFO..."

[UB355]

THis one in Milwaukee WI is one of the tallest self supporting in the US

http://www.towerpainter.com/WITI1.htm

[pillbox_girl]

"Guy Wires?"

Guys are the cables connecting a pole or tower to either the ground or some other firm attachment point. They keep the tower upright in extreme weather. I don't know if this picture will display or not, but here's a image of a tower with down guys to the ground.

The red balls on the power lines in the picture you have are called "marker balls". They aren't so much for birds as they are there to show low flying private airplanes where the wires are.

Birds just fly around the balls, and often still hit the wires. In fact, the number of bird killed by flying into power lines in North America each year is truly staggering. The few killed by towers or by windmills just doesn't even compare.

[Dick Vomer]

Oh.... the humanity....uh..er.. I guess birds aren't human..

Oh the birdanity..!!!!!

[Keith in Iowa]

The Enviros should be thankful they get to witness natural selection...the survival of the fittest...after all, it's the dumb ones dying...

[Willie Green]

". . . my true love gave to me:
400 disoriented songbirds . . ."
--Guy Weyers

A-well-a everybody's heard about the bird
Bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a don't you know about the bird?
Well, everybody's talking about the bird!
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird...

Surfin' bird
Bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb... [retching noises]... aaah!

Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow

Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Oom-oom-oom-oom-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-oom-oom-oom
Oom-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-a-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, ooma-mow-mow
Papa-oom-oom-oom-oom-ooma-mow-mow
Oom-oom-oom-oom-ooma-mow-mow
Ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, ooma-mow-mow
Well don't you know about the bird?
Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word!
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird's the word

"Surfin' Bird" -- The Trashmen

[MediaMole]

If a scare crows work, why not scare Liberals?

Put a massive, lighted, George W. Bush on top of the tower.

[BraveMan]

[quantim]

...a casualty of bow hunting, not a car. Poor thing;

The only thing worse than a liberal is a bad shot.

They kill more than the intended target.

On hindsight, I guess it's the same

[TheForceOfOne]

"The little birdie is riding majestically toward us like some great feather, riding as though it was mighty good...mighty proud of the place it's playing in the world's aviation. The little birdie is no doubt bustling with activity fresh from the nest of its mother as we can see; little chirping he is shouting to the other little birdies, the people on the street lining the windows of their office buildings looking up at the little birdie passing by, there is a field ahead of him, everyone is getting their glimpse of the little birdie. He seems to be tiring a little bit on his brand new wings of freedom.

"There are scores of people in the street below stopping on their busy day to look up at the little birdie and no doubt they too are moved by the site of this wonderful bird It's practically standing still now as it hovers above looking for a place to land. It sees a ledge on the edge of a TV tower as it now desperately wants to land. It's starting to rain again; the rain had slacked up a little bit. The little bird seems to be able to withstand the rain, just holding it, just enough to keep it from falling--"

"It burst into flames! Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Get this, Charlie! Get this, Charlie! It's fire and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It's burning, bursting into flames and is falling on the TV tower mast, and all the folks agree that this is terrible. This is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world! Oh, it's crashing...oh, four or five hundred feet into the sky, and it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. There's smoke, and there's flames, now, and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to, the to the ground, its flaming body is hung up on a nail...Oh, the humanity, and all the people are screaming around here!"

"I told you...I can't even talk to people...around there. It's -- I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest, it's just laying there, a mass of smoking flesh and feathers, and everybody can hardly breathe and talk...I, I'm sorry. Honest, I can hardly breathe. I'm going to step inside where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. I -- Listen folks, I'm going to have to stop for a minute, because I've lost my voice...This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed....."

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

guy wires

I think I get it :-)

[GladesGuru]

If a scare crows work, why not scare Liberals?

Put a massive, lighted, George W. Bush on top of the tower.


Won't work - birds have no property to condemn via eminent domain.

[pillbox_girl]

That looks like it might be some sort of adjustable attachment for the end of a guy cable. A simple turnbuckles would be better, though.

Is it something to scare birds away from thin wires? I'm assuming the balls light up or flash.

[P-Marlowe]

Yep. Time to tear down the TV tower to save the little birdies. (Sarcasm)

Is there a KFC at the bottom of that Tower?