Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 12:57:25 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bill Ellis Subject: FW: Towers MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit We do need to act. Bill Ellis Eldersburg Carroll County -----Original Message----- From: The Birds of Arkansas Discussion List [mailto:ARBIRD-L@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU]On Behalf Of Herschel Raney Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 8:48 AM To: ARBIRD-L@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Towers The Tower Kills report has been bothering me since I read it last week. (If you missed it, it is here http://www.abcbirds.org/policy/towerkillweb.PDF ). The numbers were of course the purpose of the report and also, unfortunately, the only useful information in the summary. The paper is mostly a tool at this point for shocking someone into thinking about this issue. And this is an honorable thing. It also becomes immediately clear that this is an issue that the National Audubon Society and every other bird oriented society or group with any power or purse should take up, beginning right now, if they have not already done so. 22,000 Ovenbirds. That number alone is remarkable. 18,000 Tennessee Warblers at 32 towers. And that is just 32 towers out of the new number in the eastern migratory corridor which must be close to 20 or 30 thousand towers. That, when you do the rough math, is ? to 1 million Tennessee Warblers alone. Dead during migratory periods because they could not make it past our cellular and radio towers on the way north and south. Good Lord. It states at the end of the article that in 1999 groups were meeting to discuss changes or possible studies to be performed to obtain more information. I have no idea what the progress has been since 1999. But the study itself was apparently a summary mish-mash which missed several chances to begin asking deeper questions. It did not document even the altitude and height of the towers for comparisons. It did not make an effort to compare lit and unlit towers. It did not contain specifics on nightly visibility variations and kill numbers. It appears to poorly document even the baseline average kills for any particular tower. Perhaps there are more details unwritten somewhere. But some questions immediately arise: Which towers had consistently lower numbers? And what are the specific characteristics of these towers? (Let chance dictate first directions in design changes.) Did lighting worsen or moderate kills? It appears the study cannot even answer this first basic question. If lighting worsened kill effects was it true of sustained light more than intermittent or flashing lights? Were colored lights used on any towers? And does color moderate or worsen the effect? Which colors are best? Do any the towers have lights facing multiple directions? Did guide wires increase overall deaths? Are guide wires also kept below a specific altitude in construction of the towers? Since 1999 have some studies started using noise emission devices? Does noise emission have any reduction benefits? Which noises should be tested first? Hawk screech? Car horn? Which frequencies of sound are most effective?? Should the noise only be on during certain weather conditions? Should noise be combined with light? Is there a simple wrap around material that could be placed on at least the highest portions of the towers that would mitigate impact lethality? Some sort of point and deflection modification? Is access to the towers unfettered or does legislation need to be passed to require tower owners to allow access to research groups? Also it is always seems it is manpower that costs the government the most cash when studies are ongoing. Manpower should not be an issue here. Though it is a somewhat more morbid duty, this should be something that all Christmas count and Breeding Bird survey people and just educated birders in general should be willing to assist with. 1) Give me a tower. 2) Make it easy for named birders to access the tower bases on given migration days and after. It should be a name tag and a smile. (May also require legislation.) 3) Create a report form with all the above information ready for assessment and online submission. Standardize mortality counting methods. 4) Begin applying the varied lights and sound devices. No waiting period necessary. Amass numbers at unmodified and modified towers simultaneously in various regions. Note differences in the current variety of towers. 5) Require the cellular and radio and TV industry to contribute to the ongoing device creation. And to the studies. Make the initial test devices malleable (for color and sound and height). If necessary the Tower numbers and images of the tower victims can be used for immediate pressure on refractory tower companies and owners. Ugly but necessary. (Cingular is killing our birds. Alltel is knocking down your Tennessee Warblers. Make them help.) Such information given to the general public could stir things up. And if the argument is that it has not stirred up anything so far then I say it is not well known. There are too many interested people out there for the birding world not to contribute to the rapid resolution of some of these questions. I fear for the speed and coordination of entirely government funded operations (God bless the government employees and their limitations). Even a ten percent or twenty percent reduction in kill volume amounts to a large number of surviving migrant Ovenbirds, flycatchers and warblers. There is no way to ban or remove all the towers. They are a fact of progress and the communications future. Satellites don?t kill birds but cellular is the current rage. (Publicize which companies have the highest tower numbers.) Certainly some sensitive migration areas could be made off limits. But we have to have information to even define a ?sensitive area.? And it does not sound like information is being obtained fast enough or being well coordinated (maybe I?m wrong). But I am sure there are large numbers of people willing to help. People who are not aware. And no one so far has asked. Herschel Raney Conway ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================