Fw: [TowerTalk] Birds

[Paul Finch]

Another view,

 My 500 foot tower has three white strobes, one at the top and two at 250
feet during the day and goes to a red strobe mode at night with two levels
of red obstruction lights at 125 and 350 feet.  I have only found one dead
bird close to the tower, actually about 150 feet due East from the base of
the tower.  We do have a lot of birds in the area, from Ducks to Sparrows
and Humming birds, even Great Gray Heron and I have only seen one bird, a
Dove dead on the ground.  I mow and am in the area a lot, I live 300 feet
from the base of the tower.  I wonder if the pulsed red mode strobes at
night don't attract them as much as incandescent lamps do since there is a
distinct flicker.  This may not be valid because the OB lights are still 110
watt incandescent clear bulbs in red globes and they do not flash.

Question, aren't most animals and birds color blind?

Paul
WB5IDM

 ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jim Idelson <k1ir@designet.com>
> To: TowerTalk Post <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2000 7:07 AM
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Birds
>
>
> >
> > The Boston Globe had front page story on the bird/tower study. The
article
> made
> > it clear that the problem is associated only with LIGHTED towers.
> Apparently,
> > these bird disasters occur at night, only near lighted towers. The
article
> goes
> > on to explain that the birds' navigation systems attract them to lights
> when
> > flying at night. The study seems to indicate that towers lighted with
> > continuously glowing red lights are particularly attractive to the
birds.
> The
> > Globe suggested that a solution might be to use more white strobe lights
> > instead of the red incandescent lights, since it appears that the
strobes
> are
> > less attractive to the birds. I would suggest that the empirical
evidence
> in
> > amateur radio tower situations [no bird deaths] argues strongly in favor
> of the
> > idea that lighted towers are the problem - and that amateur radio towers
> are,
> > in fact, 'bird friendly.'
> >
> > Please be careful in your responses to these kinds of studies. We need
to
> > listen carefully to research that is well-designed - even if it works
> against
> > our objectives in some ways. If we can contribute to a better
environment
> by
> > helping to solve this problem [and others], we will again prove our
value
> as an
> > important and relevant national resource.
> >
> > Jim K1IR
> >
> > --
> > FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/towertalk
> > Submissions:              towertalk@contesting.com
> > Administrative requests:  towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
> > Problems:                 owner-towertalk@contesting.com
> >
>
>




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