Subject:  Cell phone towers killing 4M-5M birds annually (Reuss)..
Date:     Mon, 29 Nov 1999 182928 -0600 (CST)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" 
To:       emfguru 
--------------------------------------------------


.......Courtesy of EMF-L......

Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
roy@emfguru.com

.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 18:12:19 +0100
From: Christoph Reuss 
To: rbeavers@llion.org
Cc: Idgfilms@Earthlink.Net
Subject: Cell phone towers killing 4M-5M birds annually

[Animal protection should be campaigning against cell masts too...]


Technology killing songbirds

November 28, 1999

BY CARLOS SADOVI SUBURBAN REPORTER
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/birds2.html
The flutelike whistle of the wood thrush, the banjolike melody of the
bobolink and the cheerful singing of many other migratory songbirds are
being snuffed out by the electronic chirp of technology.

Millions of the migratory birds, which yearly travel through Chicago from as
far north as Canada to as far south as Peru, are being killed off by rapidly
rising cellular telephone towers and new digital television antennas
blocking their paths, wildlife experts say.

High-definition television towers can climb to heights of 1,000 feet and are
the latest threat to songbirds, which typically fly at 5,000 feet but
descend to much lower levels during overcast evenings, said Albert Manville,
a wildlife biologist with the office of migratory bird management for the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

``We're looking at an impact of between 4 [million] to 5 million birds
killed each year just from the cellular telephone towers; we know that
towers are going up at an unprecedented rate,'' Manville said. ``HDTV towers
are a train wreck we want to avoid. ... The concern is it's yet another
impact [on birds].''

Manville and other experts are so worried about the newly installed digital
television or HDTV towers that they led a symposium recently at New York's
Cornell University to draw attention to the issue.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, 48,642 cellular
telephone towers at least 200 feet in height were in operation last year.
Digital towers recently went up as television stations prepared for the
advent of HDTV broadcasts.

The antennas went up this month, at the end of the birds' second migration.

The birds typically migrate twice a year, traveling north during the spring
months from March to early June and south for the winter months from August
to December, said David Willard, collection manager in the bird division of
the Field Museum.

The birds use stars as navigational tools, but during overcast evenings they
fly under the cloud cover. They are then drawn toward lights on towers and
buildings, Willard said.

Several hundred different species of songbirds fly through Chicago. While
many of those birds, including warblers, sparrows and orioles, are abundant,
others such as the bobolink are so scarce that they're at risk of being
placed on the nation's endangered species list.

The Kirtland's warbler, which calls the grasslands of Michigan home, is so
scarce that only about 2,000 pairs remain alive, Willard said.

Along their routes, birds typically encounter hazards such as large picture
windows, high-rise buildings and towers with guy wires that help secure the
antennas.

``Because of the other kinds of hazards for birds, people are wondering how
the [new towers] could not cause similar kinds of problems; those kinds of
structures have already been shown to be hazardous to birds,'' Willard said.

Along with the towers, experts also are pointing to the proposed ``stick
building'' in the Loop as another problem for the birds. The building is to
be the world's tallest skyscraper.

Tiny bird carcasses line drawers in the Field Museum as examples of those
that have struck buildings and other hazards in the area.

For reasons scientists haven't been able to explain fully, the birds are
drawn to red lights and radio signals, which might disrupt the birds'
navigation systems. The lights can be found at the top of the towers and
many buildings. The birds routinely circle around the lights to regain their
orientation but then hit guy wires holding up the structures, said Vernon
Kleen, an avian ecologist for the Department of Natural Resources.

``There are some [wires] that have killed as many as 1,000 birds a night,
maybe more,'' Kleen said.

Songbirds, which tend to be smaller than other varieties of birds, fly at
night, while most other birds fly during daylight. The birds choose night to
avoid larger predators and also use stars and ground lights as navigation
tools, Kleen said.

``Smaller birds fly at night to hide under the cover of darkness,'' he said.





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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com