Hugo Phillipps wrote:
>
> Hi, all -
> The following RFI was sent to us from the BBC in the UK. Does anybody have
> any comments?
>
> >I was wondering if you have any information on animals being aware of an
> impending disaster eg the Sydney fires, before the event happened and
> certainly before humans had cause for concern. I have a friend here who
> knows someone in NSW who says there was no Dawn Chorus the day before the
> fires started. I wondered if you know of :-
> >
> >a) Naturalists working the field who noticed this?
> >b) Scientists studying this behaviour?
> >
> >I would be graeteful if you could contact me Best wishes
> >
> >Sandra Sykes
> >The BBC Natural History Unit
> >e-mail
> >Tel : 00 44 974 6678
> >Fax: 00 44 923 8174
>
> Cheers, Hugo.
>
> Hugo Phillipps,
> Birds Australia Conservation & Liaison,
> Australian Bird Research Centre,
> 415 Riversdale Road,
> Hawthorn East, VIC 3123, Australia.
> Tel: (03) 9882 2622. Fax: (03) 9882 2677.
> O/s: +61 3 9882 2622. Fax: +61 3 9882 2677.
> Email: <>
> Web Homepage: http://www.vicnet.net.au/~birdsaus
>Hugo Phillips enquired on behalf of a friend whether there is no dawn chorus
>on the days that major bushfires start.
Firstly generally there is little dawn chorus on very hot summer days
when the wind blows from the west or north-west here on the NSW Central
Coast, where statistics show that there are more bushfires in the NSW
NPWS Central Coast District than any other NPWS District in NSW. So it
is quite conceivable that on days of extreme fire danger ie temps above
40 C, strong north-west or westly winds and humity below 20%, few birds
will be calling. On such days, dry thunderstorms and human troublemakers
who delibertely light fires, cause major bushfires. I don't think the
birds know about such fires in advance, but the fire weather conditions
may cause them to remain silent.
Alan Morris
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