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."
Better that birds hit the guy wires instead of airplanes.
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/warstories/640.htm
That has happened to me four times in the past 10 years in Central Texas.
Was it the proverbial Whitetail? Or was it some sort of southern deer that flies with Santa?
Kidding aside, you are lucky you did not die, thousands of others aren't so lucky.
Look the towers are clearly marked on the maps and have red lights on them. If the birds can't take the time to learn about proper airspace navigation there's simply nothing we can do about it.
DUmb whitetails. Two hit the right side of two different vehicles, one decided he could make it in front of the right tire, and one that was stupid enough to run into my pickup sitting in my friend's driveway.
Listen to your smarmy response and all the others that follow it, as far down as I have read, I've not seen one post that says this is even a sad thing.
Hundreds of birds dying on one tower any given night.... Are you not even remotely ~curious~ about how to avoid needlessly killing birds with these towers? You don't even imagine someone tired of tripping over the piles of dead birds? It is this kind of cavalier attitude that makes the envirowacko necessary.
Responsible stewardship of the planet folks... that's what we need. Let's strive to do better, indeed, whoever posted that.
I think you have it the other way around... it's the enviromentalcase hysteria which makes folks who would normally care about these things treat it like a joke.
On extreme perpetuates the other, I don't give a damn which came first, but I imagine it was the dumping of the waste into the stream that caused the guy to protest it, not the other way around.
Being equal and opposite wrong isn't the answer.
There's gotta be someone with some ideas about how to warn birds off these towers, and some responsibility for the harm they cause. Is trying not even worth anyone's time?
Sounds like Starlings. They should shovel them up, so the next batch coming through don't get spooked.
I'd be willing to hear any ideas you have with a fair and open mind. I'm afraid I haven't the faintest idea how to stop this from happening, short of taking down the tower - and given a boolean choice between human industry and a flock of birds, human industry takes precedence.
Or...folks could hang liberals all over the tower and from the wires to cushion the blow.
And your point is?? Migration makes them blind and stupid.
Of course with robins it's a differant matter. Yankees eat robins. Every year thousands of robins come through here going north. I have never seen any heading south, so Yankees must eat them.
I can't believe a swalliow would hit the guy wires accidentally either. Ever try to hit one with a shotgun. Practically impossible, seem to have radar like bats.
Ever watch a large flock of blackbirds or starlings around an electrical line? Thousands of birds wheeling around in a flock. Some sit on it, some under it, none hit it.
I still think these reports of massive bird kills are so much hogwash
Maybe.... After a effort to see if the effect can be lessoned, do we make that final choice, but not before bothering to even ~wonder~.
I dunno... they kept seabirds off my mom's condo roof with wires than made a humming sound in the wind. Maybe lights, maybe other tower designs are less of a problem. What bothers me is the complete lack of give-a-damn on this thread about whether it's even a bother. And you wonder why the far left reacts as if they can't trust people with the environment?
Again, the cause-effect is the other way around. After having been pelted with unfounded environmental hysteria for decades - something that shows no sign of abatement today - non-whackos have barriers erected to repel such nonsense.
I don't think you'll find a single person here who wouldn't agree to reasonable steps to prevent animals from getting killed. There's the key: reasonable. You would find no lack of support here, including from me, for any reasonable measure to prevent future occurrences of this phenomenon.
All that's left is to find some reasonable ideas that could solve the problem. Which is hard to do, since the people who tend to be most interested in this kind of stuff are anything but reasonable. But as I said, I'm open to suggestions... and I would guess so are most if not all other FReepers.
My point is I think the article is bravo siera.
172 + X = 400?
Look at it this way: the bird population is now that much smarter.
But for the record, you do see a difference between that response there and "That's 200 stones' worth, even in ideal conditions."
In that case, we are very much in agreement!! Keep up the good thinking.
LOL!!!
Guy wires - with balls - ROFLMAO!
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