[TowerTalk] BBC report on bird kills at towers

[Jim Lux]

googling for "bird strike communications tower" turns up many useful hits 
and a website:
http://www.towerkill.com/

They give some statistics...  several 1000 foot class towers show tens of 
thousands of birds killed over a 30-40 year period (i.e. a thousand a year 
kind of rates)
They also do cite some record one-night kills.. 5K-10K birds killed in 
Kansas on a 420 ft tower in one night, however, there's also a question 
whether there was some weird anomaly in this.. It's not like it happens 
every night.  Maybe it's like whale beachings or red tides.

There was a paper by Banks in 1979 that extrapolated from 3 studies that 
estimated 2500 kills/yr/tower, that when multiplied by the 1010 towers the 
FCC had in their database at the time resulted in a widely publicized 
number of 1.2 million kills/yr.  However, the statistical validity of the 
1.2 million number is probably a bit sketchy.

There's also a fair amount of literature trying to find out why the birds 
die in the first place... Is it because they get confused by the lights, 
circle around, and run into each other or the tower? (This wouldn't be an 
issue for most ham towers, since they are unlighted)

Take a look at some of the summaries:
http://www.towerkill.com/issues/litt.html

Looks like lighting is the big factor here...



At 06:09 PM 8/22/2003 +0000, David Robbins K1TTT wrote:
>I find more birds dead under my big windows than I find around the base
>of any of the 6 towers here.
>
>
>David Robbins K1TTT
>e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
>web: http://www.k1ttt.net
>AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:towertalk-
> > bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Red
> > Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 17:44
> > To: eric at k3na.org; Towertalk
> > Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] BBC report on bird kills at towers
> >
> > 10,000 at one site in a single night?  That number discredits the
> > report, in my opinion.  Think of the pile of that many dead birds.
> >
> > Ever find a victim under your tower?
> >
> > I've heard similar reports about wind generators.
> >
> > 73 de WOØW
> >
> > Eric Scace K3NA wrote:
> >
> > >BBC World Service did an interview with a woman from US Fish and
>Wildlife
> > Service about bird kills at communication towers.  It was
> > >short, a few minutes, about 25 minutes after the start of the
>"Outlook"
> > program at 1700z.  One might find it on their website
> > >www.bbc.co.uk.
> > >
> > >The woman mentioned a single night in western Kansas during which
>10,000
> > songbirds were killed at a tower site.  The interviewer
> > >extrapolated to "millions of birds killed each year in North
>America".
> > >
> > >I don't have facts.  If there are facts which can put the matter in a
> > better perspective, it might be worthwhile to comment back to
> > >BBC.  An archived story from a reputable news source can take on a
>life
> > of its own...
> > >
> > >-- Eric K3NA
> > >
> > >
> > >_______________________________________________
> > >
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> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> > See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers",
>"Wireless
> > Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041
>with
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> >
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>_______________________________________________
>
>See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless 
>Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with 
>any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
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