Von: Don Maisch [mailto:yahoo@emfacts.com]
Gesendet: Samstag, 24. Januar 2004 22:16
An: emfacts@yahoogroups.com.au
Betreff: [emfacts] (Message#678) Phone masts 'confusing' pigeons, etc .
(From m.co-di.eic.ictnet.es and James Beal )
Thursday, January 22, 2004 5:33 PM
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3423691.stm>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
uk/3423691.stm
BBC NEWS
Last Updated: Friday, 23 January, 2004, 14:51 GMT
Phone masts 'confusing' pigeons
A growing number of homing pigeons are getting lost due to
interference from the new "unseen enemy" of mobile phone masts,
racing experts claim.
The birds' natural instincts are being confused by radiation signals
from an increasing number of transmitters, the Royal Pigeon Racing
Association said.
Racers say anecdotal evidence shows poor returns over the last two years.
Pigeons are thought to find their way home using landmarks and the
earth's magnetic field.
Peter Bryant, of the RPRA, said its Stray Birds Committee had
proposed attaching a GPS tracking device to pigeons to investigate
the problem.
But currently the device - which would have to be strapped on like a
rucksack - is too heavy for a pigeon to carry.
"It's fine with eagles and albatross, but for the poor little pigeons
it would hamper their return," said Mr Bryant.
'Stressed'
He said it was impossible to estimate how many pigeons were vanishing
because of the transmitters.
"During the World War II, thousands of aircraft carried two pigeons
in case they the plane was downed so they could send messages," he
said.
"The birds were also parachuted to the Resistance. Now they're facing
this unseen enemy in the form of mobile phone masts."
Pigeon fancier Anne Pitkeathly, 50, from the Isle of Wight, said she
was losing more and more birds.
"When I started I was told I would lose baby birds but never the big ones.
"A lot of people think it's mobile phone masts."
She claimed one of her pigeons had recently reacted badly after being
near a mast, saying it was "stressed" and "trying to be sick".
Previous research by German scientists in 1999 suggested that short
wave radiation had an "undefined negative" impact on homing pigeons.
It was found that exposed birds took longer to get home, flew at
lower levels and were reluctant to go near transmitters.
Between 50,000 to 60,000 pigeons are estimated to have gone missing
last year due to problems such as bird of prey attacks and poor
weather, the RPRA said.
****************************************************************************
***
To all Bird-Watchers, Hunters and Concerned Public:
Here's more information to back up the confusion of pigeons. From
all the evidence about the effects on birds, you would expect that
both hunters and bird watchers/lovers would be protesting towers and
cellphones more vigorously!!
James B. Beal
EMF Interface Consulting
EMFEFFECTS@aol.com
<www.emfinterface.com>w>w.emfinterface.com
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In the Austin American Statesman, Austin TX paper of October 8, 1998,
appeared the following article:
2,000 HOMING PIGEONS LOSE THEIR BEARINGS, DISAPPEAR
Post)
(The Washington
Homing pigeons, as the name suggests, are supposed to find their way
home. But more than 2,000 of the creatures have disappeared this
week and no one can explain it.
The birds lost their way during two separate homing pigeon races held
Monday. Out of 1,800 birds competing in a 200-mile race from New
Market, VA to Allentown, PA, about 1,500 have vanished. And in a
159-mile race from western Pennsylvania to suburban Philadelphia, 700
out of 900 pigeons are missing.
Most of the pigeons would have been back in their lofts within a few
hours. Although it's not unusual to lose a few birds during a race
-- a hungry hawk, for example, might snag a few racers -- this week's
loss is extraordinary, organizers of the two events say.
"There is something in the air," said Gary Moore, who was the
"liberator" for the 150-mile race. , deciding when and where the
birds were released. "To lose this many is just unbelievable."
Was it sun spots? A UFO? The currents of El Nino?
It's hard to come up with an answer pigeon enthusiasts say, because
no one knows how homing pigeons do what they do.
>>Disagree here, because lots of research on pigeon homing
>>capabilities has been done. It has been determined that pigeons
>>use about 3 methods 1) visual cues during the day 2)
>>geoelectromagnetic hints, & 3). star patterns at night. Blinded
>>pigeons -- or pigeons in a fog -- still get home and "windmill"
>>slowly in to a landing. Blinded pigeons with tiny permanent
>>magnets attached to their heads produced totally confused
>>birds!......jb<<
Moore's theory is that the disappearance may have something to do
with CELLULAR PHONE ACTIVITY (my emphasis...jb). It's widely
accepted that the pigeons use electromagnetic fields to help the
navigate and cellular phone calls might interfere with that process,
he speculated.
Most long-distance races are held on weekends when cellular phone
activity is lower. But the two races in question were postponed from
Sunday to Monday because of rain.
Sun spots also can send the pigeons off course, but the sun activity
that day was low, organizers say.
Jim Effting, who lost 34 of the 37 birds he entered in the race to
Allentown, also thinks that something very peculiar must have messed
up the birds' innate tracking systems. He says the birds took a
wrong turn and could be in North Carolina by now. The three racers
of his that finally made it home arrived Tuesday afternoon. They
were exhausted, and it was obvious they had been flying lost for
hours, said Effting, who lives in Emmaus, PA.
What's certain is that with each passing day, the chances that the
birds will survive are decreasing. Unlike their wild pigeon
brethren, these speed machines don't know how to feed themselves in
the wild and are easy prey.
Editorial Note: An interesting supporting article appeared in the
proceedings of a symposium and workshop held in Snowmass-at-Aspen CO,
in 1973 [1] and sponsored by the National Science Foundation in
concert with the Neuroelectric Society, the International Institute
for Medical and Biological Engineering, Marquette University and The
Medical College of Wisconsin :
There is an important chapter in the Proceedings about the action of
large flocks of blackbirds and starlings, where hundreds of birds all
turn, in milliseconds, and NONE OF THEM COLLIDE [1]. The video shown
at the conference illustrated the rapid twisting and turning as the
flock few in close formation. VERY impressive...as though all were
of one mind! There was no twisting or wave motion indicative of
visual or auditory cues! It was theorized that the birds used some
sort of proximity detection sensory system based on microwave
phenomena, since the structure of bird feathers was somehow related
to microwave antennae! (also see [2])
ABSTRACT: [1]
The apparently synchronous turning and wheeling of flocks of several
bird species,
particularly starlings (Sternus vulgaris), has long been a phenomena
of curiosity
and interest.
The recent series of reports suggesting that birds may be able to
detect the earth's
magnetic field makes the hypothesis that turning movements in bird
flocks may be
coordinated by electromagnetic means more attractive. Such a signal would
be
instantaneous, could reach all birds in the flock regardless of their
position relative
to the signal source, and could carry sufficient information for
turning movements.
. Analysis of films of turning flocks of birds and experimental
studies of startle reaction
times in birds in our laboratories have suggested that the
electromagnetic radiation
model could provide a parsimonious explanation for the observed
behavior of the birds.
There are several other presentations in the above book, relative to
microwave sensitivity of living systems to extremely low intensity
fields, and I remember one chapter in particular in this area by Dr.
C. Romero-Sierra and J. Bigu del Blanco, Dept of Anatomy, of Queen's
College in Kingston, Ontario [3].
The above book, while expensive is worth having as an excellent early
reference to bioeffects of electric field gradients, magnetic fields,
microwave, and air ion effects.
References:
1. Llaurado, J. & Sances, A., et al., "Biologic & Clinical Effects
of Low-Frequency Magnetic & Electric Fields" Springfield, IL, Chas.
C. Thomas Pub. Co.,1974, Chapter XI, Heppner, F.H., & Haffner, J.D.,
"Communication in Bird Flocks: An Electromagnetic Model", pgs.
147-162.
2. Tanner, J.A., Romero-Sierra, C. and Davie, S.J.: "Non-Thermal
Effects of Microwave Radiation On Birds." Nature, 216:1139, 1967.
3. Llaurado, J. & Sances, A., et al., "Biologic & Clinical Effects
of Low-Frequency Magnetic & Electric Fields" Springfield, IL, Chas.
C. Thomas Pub. Co.,1974. Chapter IX, Bigu del Blanco, J. &
Romero-Sierra, C., "Microwave Radiometric Techniques: A Means to
Explore the Possibility of Communication in Biological Systems", pgs.
123-136.
4. Keeton, British Birds, 72, 451-70]
5. Bastian, J., "Electrosensory Organisms."
30-37, Feb 1994.
Physics Today, pgs
INTERESTING TO NOTE (and ponder): SOME OF THE BEST RESEARCH ON EMF
EFFECTS ON LIVING SYSTEMS (BY NON-VESTED INTERESTS) WAS PUBLISHED IN
THE 1970'S BY THE NEUROELECTRIC SOCIETY, THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF
SCIENCES, ROBERT BECKER, MICHAEL PERSINGER, ROMERO-SIERRA, KHOLODOV,
PILLA, SULMAN, AND MANY OTHERS IN EUROPE!!
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