Andrew
>Bill Evans site is well worth visiting but note its about communications
>towers which can be 200 metres or more high. They pose a very different
>threat to birds than do wind generators.
>
>It seems they may be a very significant threat to birds in the USA but
>what about Australia?
>
>Does anyone know of bird kills by communications towers in Australia?
Yes, from what I read the major threat is by communications towers (mobile
phone and microwave radio towers, television and radio masts) and
predominantly to migrating species that fly by night, in instances where the
towers lie within the normal migratory fly-path. As far as I can see, the
main areas of study have been for these towers, and wind generators are only
just starting to be considered.
One report says that the longest study yet conducted was by physician
Charles Kemper over a 38-year period, beginning in 1957. In that period he
collected 121,560 birds representing 123 species. On one night in 1963, he
collected and speciated over 12,000 birds, the largest single-night kill yet
documented, not accounting for the almost certain scavenging by wild and
domestic predators such as crows, owls, foxes, dogs, cats, and others then
present.
One other thing worth bearing in mind is that however many birds are killed
by towers, that is still an infinitesimally small percentage of those killed
by feral cats.
Regards
Ralph Reid
Sydney
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
