[TowerTalk] BBC report on bird kills at towers

[Michael Keane, K1MK]

At 02:09 PM 8/22/03, 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.

Not a surprising observation since according to Manville (2001) 
<http://migratorybirds.fws.gov/issues/towers/abcs.html>:

100-1000 million birds killed per killed year from collisions with windows
<http://www.birdscreen.com/Klem_AFO_Collisions1990.pdf>

100's of million birds killed per year due to feral & domestic cats

  65 million birds killed per killed year due to pesticides per year

   4-5 million birds killed per year from collisions with communication towers

If it's not going to make any difference to the annual kill, why bother 
with towers?

One federal agency that is subject to the National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA) licenses and regulates the users of all communication towers

Windows and cats are regulated by a myriad of state, county and 
municipal  governmental authorities, none of which is subject to NEPA 
although they may be subject to state and local environmental laws. Every 
citizen has a window and half have cats ;-)

If you're the Fish and Wildlife Service with limited resources, what's the 
easier target to go after to make it look like you're doing something?

73,
Mike K1MK

Michael Keane K1MK
k1mk at alum.mit.edu