[Mike]

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1147135/
Milt Bowling, who forwarded on the below article, pointed out in his
comments that accompanied his message that the reduction in native
bird populations coincides time wise with the increase in wireless
technology. There certainly is a wealth of information to support a
connection but the researchers in the following article seem totally
oblivious to the possibility that the decline may be at least partly
due to the increase in environmental microwave levels. Why such a
research blind spot when it comes to telecommunications? AND who
would dare fund an investigation?

Don Maisch

Canadian Media Guild NEWS : HEALTH+SCI-TEC

Where have all the sparrows gone?
By Mary Wiens,
CBCUnlocked Updated: Sep 27, 2005, 16:32

As the old hymn has it, God has his eye on every little sparrow.
However, even He may be having a hard time finding the once
ubiquitous little birds because the North American population is
declining. The Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) shows that the number of
house sparrows, once the most abundant bird species on the
continent, has fallen by 62 per cent since 1966. In Canada, where
the data is collected somewhat differently, the BBS estimate of
their decline is even more dramatic — a drop of 75 per cent since
1966. No one really knows why there are fewer house sparrows, in
part because they’re a low priority for most researchers. Becky
Whitham is a project manager with Project Feeder Watch, part of Bird
Studies Canada, a non-profit conservation group.

“The question of whether to care is an interesting one,” says
Whitham. She sums up the attitude of many researchers towards house
sparrows: “The most interesting thing is that they’re an introduced
species. They’re declining. So what?”

Birds were once annoyingly abundant

Ever since house sparrows were brought from Europe to New York City
in 1860, they’ve been met with a combination of hostility and
exasperation. Sparrows quickly drove out native species such as
swallows, wrens and bluebirds from their nesting holes. Legend has
it that in the late 1800s, house sparrows were so abundant that
committee meetings in New York could no longer be conducted with
open windows because the jabber of sparrows drowned out the voices
inside.

Tony Erskine, research scientist emeritus with the Canadian Wildlife
Service, a branch of Environment Canada, says house sparrows
are “untidy, noisy and quarrel a lot – rather like people.”

Speaking from his office in Sackville, N.B., Erskine says, local
residents often go a month without seeing a house sparrow. “That was
unthinkable 50 years ago.”

Erskine uses data from the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Counts to
monitor the decline in house sparrow numbers in the Maritimes. The
longest-running bird count in the world, the Christmas Bird Counts
started in 1900 and are done all over North America, including 500
in Canada. Each count covers a diameter of 24 kilometres.

Erskine says the sparrow count for Sackville peaked at 1,000 in
1979. He first detected their decline in the 1980s. By 2001, the
Christmas Bird Counts found only nine house sparrows in Sackville.

Host of factors blamed for decline

Why? Erskine says the only thing he can be sure of is that it’s due
to a host of factors. Global warming, fewer nesting places, changes
in snow cover, industrial farming practices – all may be
contributing. This isn’t the first time house sparrow populations
have collapsed. Erskine says the 1920s saw another dramatic
decrease, when horses were replaced by cars in cities across North
America. Horse droppings carried a lot of undigested grain, a major
source of food for house sparrows.

Erskine speculates that with farms being run more like factories,
the big farms have so much manure they’re attracting larger species
such as crows and gulls, which in turn drive away the tiny house
sparrows. Like many other researchers, Erskine isn’t particularly
concerned about the decline of the house sparrow. “They’re too
common and too vulgar,” says Erskine. For his part, he’s more
concerned about the decline of many native species such as whip-poor-
wills, chimney swifts, swallows and night hawks, particularly over
the past 15 years.

Something’s wrong out there.

But Jon McCracken, a project manager with Bird Studies Canada based
in Port Rowan on Lake Erie, says the declining house sparrow
populations can’t be treated as a separate phenomenon. "If it were
happening to people, we’d be pressing the panic button. But house
sparrows are so abundant, we still see them."

McCracken says the decline in house sparrow populations is happening
all over the world, including Europe, where the sound of house
sparrows around eaves and rooftops has been familiar for millennia.
In North America, says McCracken, their decline receives no
attention because house sparrows are an introduced species. "It’s
unfortunate," says McCracken. "These are significant declines. It
points to the fact that something’s wrong out there."

"The question," says McCracken, "is why." A question for which at
this point, scientists have no conclusive answers.

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=286
http://www.cbcunlocked.com/artman/publish/printer_482.shtml

Suspected EMR effects on birdlife

From Betty Venables:

Hi Don,

Further to your list message of last Sunday

Where have all the
sparrows gone?’ There are reports from our website of observations
of suspected rfr effects on birdlife.

Betty Venables – EMR safety Network Int’l

EMR AFFECTS ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL

With regard to electrical sensitivity, it appears that as well as
many highly sensitive humans, domestic pets, other animals and birds
sharing our EMR polluted environment have a story to tell. The
report of Professor Dr. P. Semm and R Beason, avian brain
study. `Response of neurons to amplitude modulated microwave
RF. `contains interesting comments ” Although individual neurons in
the zebra finch brain responded to the pulsed RF stimulus, we do not
know whether these responses by the nervous system are manifested in
the bird’s behavior or its health. ”

Omega see under:
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/responses_of_neurons_to_amplitude_modu
lated_microwave_rf.htm

And “Whether similar neuronal responses occur in mammals, including
humans, requires further investigation. Borbély and coworkers [3]
reported that exposure to a RF signal similar to the one we used
influenced sleep and sleep electroencephalogram in humans. Their
results and the responses we recorded clearly indicate the potential
for effects on the human nervous system.” > [3] Borbély, A. A.,
Huber, R., Graf, T., Fuchs, B., Gallmann, E., and Achermann, P.,
Pulsed high-frequency electromagnetic field affects human sleep and
sleep electroencephalogram, Neurosci. Lett., 275 (1999) 207-210.

Omega see under:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?
cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10580711&dopt=Citation

This immediately calls to mind a case here in Sydney, NSW,
Australia, where a large number of caged exotic birds developed
uncharacteristic destructive behaviour, which veterinary science
could not explain. Most birds refused to breed, the few that did
ejected the young from the nest, prematurely. Of two that survived
only one was relatively normal, the other had no feathers. Some
breeds became aggressive, attacking mates. Canaries were disinclined
to sing and their song was limited in range. Most birds molted
excessively – recognized as a sure sign of stress.

Our attention was drawn to this case due to the particular location,
a suburban residence, 200 metres distance from a large 50Hertz
electricity substation, where an analogue mobile phone transmitting
antenna had operated from the same site for some time. The birds had
obviously tolerated this EMR environment with impunity until about
three months after the upgrading of the mobile phone transmitter
from analogue to the digital signal, when a dramatic change occurred
in their health and behaviour . At the same address two pet dogs
refused to sleep in their usual location, and a neighbour’s homing
pigeon flock became too disoriented to perform normally.

In another Sydney suburb, soon after a digital mobile phone base
station (MBS) was installed on a high rise apartment building where
a flock of black crows normally roosted, local residents noticed
that the birds became unusually restless and noisy, suddenly
vacating the area. Health abnormalities aalso were increasingly
noted among local residents who were concerned that the MBS
emissions were implicated.

These are not the only cases where uncharacteristic bird behaviour
has been reasonably linked with RFR. Two reports of canary and
budgerigar breeders linking foot deformaties and `curly’ feathers
occurring, only after the installation of digital mobile base
station antenna nearby, should be noted.

The birds, by their bizarre behaviour appear to have communicated
eloquently that a recent environmental change posed a major health
hazard to their kind.

In our view Professor Semm’s avian brain study is indeed pertinent
to the first case related here.

A study of birds, set up to emulate the real life environment of the
caged birds we encountered, might well give meaningful results as to
the behaviour and health outcome of birds and other living
organisms, including humans, in our environment.

Such research on functioning biological systems other than human
should be followed by health studies of the human populations at
risk, in the same RFR zones, adding to the valuable studies of Dr
Bruce Hocking (Australia) and Professor Santini (France), two such
studies that should be used to influence authorities to establish
further serious investigation of the health status of people in
these high risk environments.

Wild birds can choose their habitat, avoiding risk to their
survival, caged birds cannot, nor can the unborn and the very young
human child. It is our responsibility to provide a safe environment
for those dependant on our care.

BIRDS IN NEW ZEALAND DAMAGED

At a bird sanctuary approximately 40 kilometres from Christchurch
birds were found to be dying in certain areas of the property Penny
Hargreaves (Ouruhia, NZ ) visited the property and was surprised to
find strong radiofrequency radiation (RFR) near a wire fence where
the birds were found dead and a hedge was dying. Though the property
is quite extensive it was only three places the birds were dying.
The location was a small lake area surrounded by trees with wire
netting on the planks surrounding the water. Dieback was evident on
the tops of many of the trees n a clump near the lake/pond.

Penny’s experiences show that where there is metal i.e., tin sheds,
fences etc. there are more problems with animals illnesses and
deaths and also with human health.

Please see the website:
http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/ouruhia/

THE VALLEY OF OURUHIA NEW ZEALAND.

I, and others have been exposed to emissions from a radio tower
which had permission to transmit low levels of AM and in 1990
without permission illegally began transmitting FM. Many people and
animals in the area became ill, some died. My family, staff, and
animals have all suffered dreadful health problems. I am a public
horse trainer and the effects on my horses was catastrophic. Penny
Hargreaves For the full story please see the website:

http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/ouruhia/

Source: http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=312

Regarding the story: Where Have All the Sparrows Gone?

The biophysical effect of microwave radiation on sparrows and other
birds is actually quite straightforward: when they they fly through
the intense pancake-shaped wavefront emanating horizontally from a
cellphone tower, they will be permanently sterilized. They are not
killed outright; there are no telltale dead birds to count. They
simply will not be able to reproduce for the rest of their
lifetimes. This used to happen to servicemen assigned to U.S. radar
installations before the problem was understood and restrictions
were placed on access to the radar dishes.

Birds just do not know the rules. (Perhaps we can teach them?
Perhaps with strobe lights to chase them away?) The probability that
a bird will fly into or through this wavefront is quite random, with
the chances increased dramatically where there is a concentration of
towers. There has been a dramatic decline of all bird populations,
with no adequate explanation provided previously, and it mirrors the
increase in cellphone towers, .

I had the personal experience of watching a bird build a nest (in
the carport of my suburban home) but had no offspring. I obviously
cannot know whether this particular bird was sterile, but it is the
first time that I have ever seen a nesting failure. I believe this
is probably becoming a more common sight.

Jonathan Campbell
Health Consultant
http://www.cqs.com

Pulsed microwave radiation and wildlife – Are Cell Phones Wiping Out
Sparrows?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/926007/
Starmail – am Samstag, 12. November 2005, 23:15 – Rubrik: Mobilfunk
Archiv (Englisch)’