HOW LIGHTHOUSES ATTRACT BIRDS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 282, 25 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOW LIGHTHOUSES ATTRACT BIRDS

TERRIBLE SLAUGHTER. Everybody knows what a powerful attraction lighthouses have for birds, and ' how the one in Heligoland especially is' the centre in migration times in spring and autumn of vast swarms, of birds, many of whom, :half-blinded by the light, dash themselves against the glass or"the masonry and perish. The extent of this slaughter is for the first time emphasised and insisted upon by a correspondent of the Liberte, who has taken great pains to get at the truth, deriving his facts from numerous eye-witnesses. The -'engines of destruction" are the lighthouses provided with electric light. The first offender is the lighthouse on , the Pointe de I'enmarch, in Brittany, | which has a revolving light of 30 million candle-power. Visiting this on November 10 last year, and again on the 12th, < the observer saw tens of thousands of birds whirling round, and it seemed to him that the light shot out a. perfect hail : of electric sparks amongst the migrants. However that may be, next morning >he was present while' the dead bodies were being collected. They are despatched every day by train to Paris, and the "catch," he was told, often comprised from 2000 to 4000 victims; one morning alone there had been more than 500 woodcock in the "bag." As for what he himself saw on the two mornings he was present at the collection of the victims, there Were only a score of woodcock the first morning, but on the second the ground was littered with from 000 to 1000 victims, chielly blackbirds, ducks, : woodcock, thrushes'and golden plovers. Western Brittany used to be a favorite haunt for woodcock, but every year now the number grows smaller, thanks to the slaughter of the lighthouse. The second offender is the lighthouse , on Belle Isle, off the south coast of Brittana'. On two dark nights at the end of last November, with an east wind blowing, this light caused the death of :1200 birds, including curlews, thrushes, snipe, starlings, over 100 woodcock, and some sparrow- ami quails. Thirdly, the l>ilier Lighthouse kills every season Mime 700 woodcock. An old spoilsman of Normandy declares thai round the lighthouse of Barfleur last November there were picked up in the course nf four nights 10,000 birds of all sorts, including 1800 woodcock. Be it remarked that these figures only refer to four of flic many lighthouse's around the French coast. ' It is impossible, of course, to interfere with these strong lights and the protection they give to shipping, but could not a means be found of preventing their blinding effects on birds? The St. Humbert Club is already moving in the matter, and has offered a handsome prize to the inventor who shall devise a plan for protecting birds against the fax-ination that takes holt! of them when I hey find themselves in the beams of the electric light. Two projects out of manv submitted seem to give the required solution. The first is based on a bird's wellknown dislike for any unfamiliar noise. So the Chinese protect their tame pigeons from birds of prey by hanging round their necks little wooden things that whistle when the pigeon lakes to flight. If the lighthouses were provided with a siren that sounded continuously on dark nights the birds would avoid them. The second idea is to light the walls with acetylene lamps, to prevent the birds dashing against them.