Burning birds

[bluey1905]

FredClogs said:

And by comparison birds and other wildlife are thriving around Chernobyl, because of the lack of humans... Yeah, go newcular...

Unfortunately they all have two heads

[otolith]

bluey1905 said:

Unfortunately they all have two heads

All the better to peck out your brains with.

[King Herald]

ATG said:

More to the point, who cares? Does it matter if a few birds go up in smoke? Don't think there's much evidence that birds get shredded by wind farms, but even if there was, do we really care?

Nobody seems to care that thousands of pheasants are bred every year simply to give 'sportsmen' something to shoot from the sky. Why would anybody care about a few dozen errant pigeons that get zapped?

[hairykrishna]

TLandCruiser said:

Yes because it leads to consequences which can have a bad effect to the ecosystem, going by the figure thats quoted in the article means that 262,800 birds are roughly killed a year, those birds are not eating the insects in the area which then overwhelm and kill local crops for instance. If you also follow that attitude we may as well dump all our rubbish in the sea because after all, its just some fish that die.

The number in the article is rather a lot lower than that;

article said:

Estimates per year now range from a low of about a thousand by BrightSource to 28,000 by an expert for the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group.

I suspect the 'one every two minutes' they mention is not constant. I know fk all about desert bird populations so I have no handle on whether frying a few thousand birds a year is a problem or not.

[S10GTA]

1. Other Birds
2. Cats
3. Whales
4. Cars
5. Sharks
6. Seals
7. Shot guns
8. Solar death ray's
9. Baking Soda and water within close proximity
10.Gin and bread
11.Jet engines
12.Runaway lawnmowers
13. Bird Flu

[longblackcoat]

hairykrishna said:

I have no handle on whether frying a few thousand birds a year is a problem or not.

Doesn't seem to be a problem for KFC.

[98elise]

Windows kill far more birds than windmills or solar collectors.

Every part of our existance has an impact on wildlife.

[SpudLink]

kingofdbrits said:

Grumfutock said:

1. Other Birds
2. Cats
3. Whales
4. Cars
5. Sharks
6. Seals
7. Shot guns
8. Solar death ray's
9. Baking Soda and water within close proximity
10.Gin and bread
11.Jet engines

12. My car. Got a pidgeon this morning, feathers everywhere. recon that death ray would be much 'cleaner'.

13. The visor of my mate's crash helmet when on his motorbike. Splattered sparrow. (And he didn't fall off.)

[madbadger]

1. Other Birds
2. Cats
3. Whales
4. Cars
5. Sharks
6. Seals
7. Shot guns
8. Solar death ray's
9. Baking Soda and water within close proximity
10.Gin and bread
11.Jet engines
12.Runaway lawnmowers
13. Bird Flu
14. Keith Harris

[SpudLink]

Didn't I read that early radar installations were surprised to find cooked birds near the transmitters, which lead to the invention of microwave ovens?

Perhaps they could harness the Bond villain solar powered death ray for better BBQs.

[mybrainhurts]

98elise said:

Windows kill far more birds than windmills or solar collectors.

How did you reach that conclusion?

[FredClogs]

mybrainhurts said:

98elise said:

Windows kill far more birds than windmills or solar collectors.

How did you reach that conclusion?

They get frustrated with the constant updates.

[BrassMan]

Grumfutock said:

Oh for he love of god. Pass the tree, I need to hug something.

Got wood?

[Ian Geary]

1. Other Birds
2. Cats
3. Whales
4. Cars
5. Sharks
6. Seals
7. Shot guns
8. Solar death ray's
9. Baking Soda and water within close proximity
10.Gin and bread
11.Jet engines
12.Runaway lawnmowers
13. Bird Flu
14. Keith Harris
15. Bird eating spiders

[Jam Spavlin]

1. Other Birds
2. Cats
3. Whales
4. Cars
5. Sharks
6. Seals
7. Shot guns
8. Solar death ray's
9. Baking Soda and water within close proximity
10.Gin and bread
11.Jet engines
12.Runaway lawnmowers
13. Bird Flu
14. Keith Harris
15. Bird eating spiders
16. KFC

[TLandCruiser]

1. Other Birds
2. Cats
3. Whales
4. Cars
5. Sharks
6. Seals
7. Shot guns
8. Solar death ray's
9. Baking Soda and water within close proximity
10.Gin and bread
11.Jet engines
12.Runaway lawnmowers
13. Bird Flu
14. Keith Harris
15. Bird eating spiders
16. KFC
17. Hit by flying cans of Red Bull

[mybrainhurts]

FredClogs said:

mybrainhurts said:

98elise said:

Windows kill far more birds than windmills or solar collectors.

How did you reach that conclusion?

They get frustrated with the constant updates.

[paranoid airbag]

1. Other Birds
2. Cats
3. Whales
4. Cars
5. Sharks
6. Seals
7. Shot guns
8. Solar death ray's
9. Baking Soda and water within close proximity
10.Gin and bread
11.Jet engines
12.Runaway lawnmowers
13. Bird Flu
14. Keith Harris
15. Bird eating spiders
16. KFC
17. Hit by flying cans of Red Bull
18. Bicycles
19. Fossil Fuel

Sources (for 19): "Contextualizing avian mortality: A preliminary appraisal of bird and bat fatalities from wind, fossil-fuel, and nuclear electricity", Sovacool, energy policy vol. 37 2009, and "The avian and wildlife costs of fossil fuels and nuclear power", sovacool, Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences vol. 9 2012 (apologies, I'll sort out proper links when I can be arsed). Some vaguely relevant information here.

18 is from personal experience.

[FredClogs]

1. Other Birds
2. Cats
3. Whales
4. Cars
5. Sharks
6. Seals
7. Shot guns
8. Solar death ray's
9. Baking Soda and water within close proximity
10.Gin and bread
11.Jet engines
12.Runaway lawnmowers
13. Bird Flu
14. Keith Harris
15. Bird eating spiders
16. KFC
17. Hit by flying cans of Red Bull
18. Bicycles
19. Fossil Fuel
20. Cypriots (they love a bit of pickled sparrow)

[speedchick]

The vultures (I think they are crows, but are something big, scary and black) that hang about the car park at work seem to be rather partial to KFC, chicken leftover, fries and beans seems to be the favourite, they don't both with the corn! (no, I don't work for KFC, we share a carpark with them).