What do the birds know that we don't?

I thought it was a bit disturbing when the 27,000 pelicans abandoned their nesting grounds a couple weeks ago, but now this has happened, making the flight of the pelicans all the more ominous:

Heron colony vanishes into thin air
www.king5.com...

POINT ROBERTS, Wash. � Biologists checking in on one of the region's largest heron colonies discovered it was gone.

KING 5 captured video and showed it to Ann Eissinger, the foremost expert on the Point Roberts heron colony.
"The last time I went into the colony, it was quiet. Just the feeling I had was there was something seriously wrong here," she said.

To add to the mystery, Eissinger said just a few weeks earlier, the colony was its loud, active self.

"There were at least a hundred active pairs with young. We don't know what happened to them. The birds just disappeared," she said.

Animals are the best early warning indicators we have against Mother Nature. Frogs are our first indicator that something is altering an ecosystem, horses go crazy before an earthquake, cats and dogs freak out before a lighting/thunderstorm, etc. So what is causing this sudden shift in the nesting routines of these birds? Is it just a coincidence, or should we be paying more attention to what this new behavior is indicating?

Maybe smuggling, or people killing them off. There maybe predators nearby, or the environment wasn't to their suiting. Birds migrate to different places which could also have happened.

No environmental cotastrophe about to happen. Environmental hazards take time. To put things into perspective "Day After Tommorow" could take several hundred years... and the buildup would be slow, not sudden...

Two modes of thought and you'll forgive me for not expanding too much, but maybe someone else will.

1. Birds have a magnetic "compass". Could something be altering that either naturally? (ie. impending pole shift)

"Migratory birds have long been known to possess a magnetic compass that helps them find the correct direction during their migratory flights," said lead author of the study Thorsten Ritz, a physicist at the University of California, Irvine, in a press release.
Link: dsc.discovery.com...

2. If it is unnaturally being affected, could it have something to do with the new radar being setup in Texas? (Saw it on Dateline News, but can't find anything on the web. They said if a baseball player could hit a ball to outer space...it would detect it. It part of Star Wars defense I believe.)

Edit2 found this link: www.washtimes.com...

Edit: Added link for the reference.

[edit on 15-7-2004 by ZeddicusZulZorander]

[edit on 15-7-2004 by ZeddicusZulZorander]

i think it is weird no matter what...

Before we run round in circles yelling that the sky is falling, we need to answer one basic quesiton.

Is there any relationship between all these bird posts? Or is it just a coincidence or sudden focus on a topic that the media is suddenly interested in.

I am unsure if there is ANY relationship between them all outside of media interest and attention being moved onto the topic.

I think it is interesting that SDI radars could be generating large amounts of energy into the atmosphere. Combine that with a newer finding (on the link I posted above about birds) that birds possibly "see" the Earth's magnetic lines as colors, etc...

It could make for some interesting effects (eg. birds flying into concrete as happened in Arizona).

Now I'm certainly NOT saying the sky is falling or there is impending doom. Just wondering if there is a slim possibility of the two being related.

Originally posted by websurfer
Maybe smuggling, or people killing them off. There maybe predators nearby, or the environment wasn't to their suiting. Birds migrate to different places which could also have happened.

No environmental cotastrophe about to happen. Environmental hazards take time. To put things into perspective "Day After Tommorow" could take several hundred years... and the buildup would be slow, not sudden...

You could be right, on the other hand the current shifting of the magnetic poles, I think, could be largely to blame.

The collapse of the Earth's magnetic field, which both guards the planet and guides many of its creatures, appears to have started in earnest about 150 years ago. The field's strength has waned 10 to 15 percent, and the deterioration has accelerated of late, increasing debate over whether it portends a reversal of the lines of magnetic force that normally envelop the Earth.

A reversal could knock out power grids, hurt astronauts and satellites, widen atmospheric ozone holes, send polar auroras flashing to the equator and confuse birds, fish and migratory animals that rely on the steadiness of the magnetic field as a navigation aid.

Although a total flip may be hundreds or thousands of years away, the rapid decline in magnetic strength is already damaging satellites.

The actual reversal of the poles may take a long time but that doesn't mean we won't experience any disturbances until it happens. The shift will gradually progress and so will the severity of the disruptions. I just think the birds are feeling the first effects of this reversal. I also wonder if the flooding and freak storms in the south-east are related to this same thing.

possibly the food ran out there where the birds were. if it was the magnetic feild disrupting things you would think an outcry from pilots and sailors would be heard. if the magnetic field was changing, then courses wouldn't be the same, and that could cause a problem (even if the magnetic field shifted by a quarter of a degree).

But why would they just suddenly leave their young and eggs??? I don't understand that one at all.

that may not be true kid.
people use technology to navigate their travels, not instinct.

I think your pelicans are splattered across asphalt roads in the Arizona desert there is another thread on here about that cuz they had mistaken the roads for lakes

Originally posted by dr goodrich
that may not be true kid.
people use technology to navigate their travels, not instinct.

i always thought it was assumed that birds and other migratory animals have an internal "compass," and that's what i'm basing my assumption off of. planes and boats do use compasses, and if the magnetic field was off enough to upset some birds, then it would be off enough to upset the other craft. and even if a pilot or captain used a GPS or other means for primary navigation there is always a compass, which is checked before each trip (or should be). if it were noticed to be significantly off, then it would be reported and repaired. since this would no doubt happen to all the aircraft or boats out there around the same time, i would think that hundreds of thousands of compasses being off would get reported.

Originally posted by WestPoint23
I think your pelicans are splattered across asphalt roads in the Arizona desert there is another thread on here about that cuz they had mistaken the roads for lakes

A) they were hurons; 2) can you give us a link?

Originally posted by websurfer
Maybe smuggling, or people killing them off. There maybe predators nearby, or the environment wasn't to their suiting. Birds migrate to different places which could also have happened.

No environmental cotastrophe about to happen. Environmental hazards take time. To put things into perspective "Day After Tommorow" could take several hundred years... and the buildup would be slow, not sudden...

Actually that is not neccessarily true, there have been Mammoths found frozen to death that still had undigested food in their systems. Other animals killed during climate changes died still standing on their feet.
There is a theory going around that once the Earth reaches a certain point, the change will be very rapid and sudden.
In the twinkling of an eye...LOL

www.esd.ornl.gov...
portland.indymedia.org...

I heard about this story and here is another did you hear about the birds crashing into the ground in Airzona?

I think there was a thread here somewhere about the Arizona pelicans diving into shimmering cement that they mistook for water. I'm pretty sure Drudge had a story on it last week.

There was another disturbing story recently, about tens of thousands of pelicans abandondoning their eggs and youg chicks, and just disappearing. I think that was in Salt Lake City, if my memory serves me. That is the disturbing part, to me....abandoning their nests. Food shortage? Well maybe, but birds have been known to travel long distances to feed their broods. Parasites? Maybe. Atmospheric disturbances? Possibly - radar or some frequency that they are susceptible to that irritates them.

While it is true that it is "thought" that birds find their way during migration through some sort of "magnetic compass" it is not common believe that "magnetism" affects their migratory patterns (as in timing) - only their ability to find their way. In fact, it is common belief that daylight and weather are the primariy migratory motivators. See USGS Website.

So while it is fun to speculate that this may be an indication of a pole shift - it doesn't seem that this would trigger migration - only throw them off course once they start migrating.

So what can cause birds to "dissapear"?

Well, poacher could be the answer but it seems unlikely. Is there a great balckmarket for Herons or Pelicans? I don't know for sure but I doubt it.

As for the magnetic thing - well I live on a lake and we have a small heron family that nests here every summer - and they are hear as we speak. Nothing abnormal. However, this may be a "regional" thing.

So, if it is regional and not global let's see....the Pelicans dissapeared from North Dakota (is that right?) and the Herons dissapeared from Washington. Maybe there is something going on in the Northwestern US.

Hey - where is Yellowstone? Oh, the Northwetern US. It seems common believe that animals are more sensative to earth changes and pending natural disasters - could it be that something is "abrewin" under Yellowstone and the birds have picked up on it? Maybe, though we would expect in this case to see other animals - especially those in Yellowstone to flee.

I propose that we look closer at other animal behavior in and around the Northwestern US and see what we find (if anything). As our lovely moderator pointed out - this could happen all the time for all we know, and maybe the media is just running out of things to say. Or maybe there is something going on - if so, we should be able to find other evidence.

Shall we seek it?

OK - if you guys are with me on this investigation, I've started and I found something interesting right off the bat. This is a quote from a "bird hunter" from Wisconsin:

"Lots and lots of birds out there, but the toughest hunting I've ever had in 1st season.


We had same problem pudl, We killed our birds and they were some big SOBs but I saw some of the other birds we called act like it was the 6 or 7th season. One big boy actually ran the other way at the first set of yelps and others would gobble at everything for 15 minutes and come halfway in and then dissapear for no reason. Very weird first season. I like to try to learn every time out but these birds had me scratchin my head wondering what the hell they were doing. Ive never seen birds so damn twitchy and paranoid this early."

While hunters might not be our first thought for info - when you think about it, who's watching birds closer than them? Not even the wildlife folks who are supposed to be the expert monitors look at them as much (per the original articles on the Heron's and the Pelicans no one had check them for a couple of weeks).

The birds seem to be affected globally:

news.bbc.co.uk...

Perhaps this is the *"canary in the cage warning" to us all *(miners use
to take canaries in cages, deep into caves with them during mining.
The birds would die if levels of carbon monoxide gas were rising).
Something is definitely going on!

yes, a lot of birds has been reported dying here in norway, but that is thought to be because of the quality of the water. (sorry, only norwegian links for it)

More on the Pelicans.....

www.usatoday.com...


Other disturbing, but anecdotal links�.

animals.about.com...
fellowshipofchristianhunters.org...
www.louisianasportsman.com...
discussions.roanoke.com...
www.goosehuntingchat.com...
cincinnatibirds.com...
capemaytimes.com...
www.birdforum.net...