You certainly deserve a pass on that... Obviously you've created a great
hunting perch for red-tails!
But... Unless you get there first thing in the morning, the assorted mice,
shrews, skunks, raccoons, weasels, grackles, crows and other scavengers tend
to clean 'em up pretty quickly. Plus it can be a little tough to find birds
that are often 3-5 inches long laying dead in the grass. And again, there
are NEVER "piles of little birds" anywhere, and they're not always directly
under the tower. If they whack into it at 600 feet or so, they're likely to
drift down wind as they fall... Again, the things only weigh a few ounces.
Any remember that the guy wires take a number of them too, and they fall
away from the tower too. And, I think we can agree that except for the
biggest contest stations, most ham towers are generally WAY below migration
altitude!
Shacks are never in the way of the birds, sometimes depending on lighting
the windows look like openings when it's dark inside, so they try to fly
through (I know, bad move on their part....).
Preventing windows strikes isn't hard -- there are some nifty stickers
shaped and sized like maple leaves available now that look like frosted
glass to us, but appear blue in daylight to birds (and bugs). We've had 18
months of no window strikes here using them, and they're attractive to boot.
Cheers....Bob
Bob Hinkle, KK8ZZ
Solon, Ohio 44139
Grid: EN91gj
-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Cam and Juli Hedrick
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 9:55 PM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Birds and Towers
Hmmm, the Red Shouldered Hawks nesting pair on my property love my towers.
They sit way up there on a monobander and hunt. I don't have many mouse or
other rodent problems here because of them. They are on the protected list
and we love watching them teaching the new ones to fly and hunt each year.
Also the screech owls hunt from them towers at night. The bats love to paly
games fly around the towers chasing bugs and they're protected as well.
No dead birds near my towers in 33 years of radio as a hobby or
profession...Air Force Combat Communications.
I guess I'm going to have to demolish my shack though...the sliding glass
door, windows, and storm door have taken a toll on the small birds...one
bird has committed suicide at each over a period of 7 years. A shack with
no windows makes for isolation and I love to watch it snow and keep an eye
out on the horses while I operate or work on project. One thing I really
like is that I can assemble antennas in the shack and test everything before
sending it up the tower. That's nice in the winter as that's when I do most
of my design work and machining for new antennas to go up in the spring.
I guess I'll have to do that outside since the shack is in the way of the
birds. One thing though...I might be able to get a waiver since a number of
birds built nests under the eves and the timber frame foundation. What do
you guys think?
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