October
3, 2018, 5:58 am
A new
scientific paper has explained why bright lights in a group of Highland
villages are luring hundreds of a threatened bird species potentially to their
deaths – and a lot is due to the moon, or lack of it.
It also
says the research could lead to council street lights being dimmed at key
migration times – especially on moonless nights.
More than
four times as many Manx shearwaters were rescued in and around Mallaig in
September than in the whole of the last migration season.
Around
400 this year have clattered into homes in the Mallaig, Arisaig and Morar area.
The
bright light danger faced by Manx shearwaters comes at the very start of their
incredible 6,000-mile journey.
The
chicks fledge from the mountains of the Isle of Rum before flying to their
wintering grounds in South America.
However
each year some of the young birds can become disorientated by outside lights
left on in Kinloch on Rum and surrounding villages, but particularly Mallaig on
the mainland.
They
often crash land close to the light source and many are then killed by gulls,
crows, cats or dogs.
Now a
paper published in the Ibis International Journal of Avian Science has revealed
that the moon and wind play a huge part in the birds’ demise.
“A model
was developed that used meteorological variables and moon cycle to predict the
daily quantity of birds that were recovered on the ground. The model,
explaining 46.32% of the variance of the data, revealed how new moon and strong
onshore winds influence grounding,” says the report.
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