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."
I hope the Powers That Be develop procedures that protect birds in migration from the ill-effects of these towers. Surely something can be done that is of minimal cost but also environmentally friendly.
Paging KFC, paging KFC,please pick up the white courtesy phone.
Of course I do. I enjoy sarcasm and easy jokes... I come with a personality. I should hope nobody mistakes my joking for serious policy preference - as you can see I am fully prepared to answer serious concerns, such as yours, with an appropriate level of seriousness.
SO many birds died because the bird population is growing so fast.
Good environmental news or bad environmental news?
At least it wasn't the bird flu passed from humans to birds.
I posted it. Lighten up!
This can't be right....according to Wildlife officials in Florida and Wisconsin----only feral cats kill birds.
What kills most birds is chemicals and urban sprawl....not a cat.
That doesn't take into account that they probably left triple that number on the side of the road to rot.
Well, the propaganda on either side doesn't seem to be working to anyone's benefit. Wisconsin still won't let me shoot the feral cats that kill my chickens for fun (they don't eat them, just kill them) and rape (if they're cooperative) or kill (if they put up a fight) my spayed (at my expense) female barn cats employed as professional mouse exterminators. Or is that wrong, too? Should I just let nature be and let her overrun my farm with mice and rats?
Can you give me some data links proving that chemicals and urban sprawl kill more birds than do cats? Got any data on how many feral cats kill domestic or farm cats if they're off the hook for killing songbirds?
Thanks in advance. :)
I think this hints to the real issue here. I live in Wisconsin and about 10 years ago I lived in Madison. In the early 90's The University Of Wisconsin Board Of Regents built a big tower at the west edge of town. The idea was that all the other towers in the city would come down and everyone would migrate to the new, taller one. Well, WMTV (NBC Channel 15) declined to join the others and kept thier older, shorter tower, which is right next to thier studios on Forward Dr.
My suspicion is that someone wants this land and is using this as an opportunity to force WMTV to migrate to the other tower. The fact that the new tower is owned by the University Of Wisconsin is probably no coincidence...
Oooo! Good Freepin' there, Blue! :)
When I get some time, I will look up the articles that show how chemical spraying in ponds, air and landscapers are killing the birds off.....not to mention urban sprawl. In the meantime let me tell you that I too feed feral cats. I also feed birds. Since I 'feed' the cats....they don't wan too or even try to 'kill' the birds. Perhaps if you left some food....they would cherish any amount you provide...then they won't have to go after your chickens. I find it hard to believe a cat can kill a chicken....but if hungry enough maybe they can. I hope you get your barn cats fixed? That will also help with your feral cat problem.
"Perhaps if you left some food....they would cherish any amount you provide...then they won't have to go after your chickens. I find it hard to believe a cat can kill a chicken....but if hungry enough maybe they can. I hope you get your barn cats fixed? That will also help with your feral cat problem."
You obviously don't know a thing about making a living on a farm. A hawk, a rat, a feral cat, an owl, wild mink...many things kill chickens. Even I kill chickens when it's suppertime, LOL!
But I'm NOT going to feed feral cats! You're feeding wild/feral cats? You're part of the problem then, not part of the solution. I doubt we'll find any middle ground on this one. Trust me, feeding feral cats does not stop them from killing small livestock and songbirds. Killing is what they do. Food, sex, killing things. That pretty much sums up a feral cat's day.
And yes, as I posted above, my dogs and cats, inside and out, are all fixed. :)
Feeding feral cats (while getting them fixed) has been a hobby of mine for 20 years now.....look up TNR. It's proven to be true. I don't believe in letting a cat that was left behind from a careless person starve to death for no reason. And like I pointed out...I feed the ferals around my house and they have yet to kill any cardinal, bluejay, pidgeon or any other bird that come to my feeders. It's because they are not hungry. Killing is not what cats do....it's what anything would do when hungry.
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