美国国家公共电台 NPR How To Make Broadcast Towers More Bird-Friendly: Turn Off Some Lights

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: 

There are more than 100,000 broadcast and cell towers across this country. You use them every time you make a cellphone call or turn on the radio in your car. They're a problem, though, for migrating birds. Every year, millions of birds slam into those towers at night. Ben Thorp of our member station WCMU reports on a simple way to prevent that.

BEN THORP, BYLINE¹: Likely the only time you really notice one of your neighborhood towers is at night when they're lit up with conspicuous² bright red lights. Those lights help airplane pilots see the huge metal structures that can reach a thousand feet into the air, but can spell disaster for birds.

CALEB PUTNAM: For example, in 1976 in Gun Lake, Mich., one tower in one night killed over 2,300 birds.

THORP: That's Caleb Putnam. He works for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, and says for reasons scientists still can't quite figure out, birds kept flying headlong into towers.

PUTNAM: If that many are dying at one night at one tower, and yet there are thousands of towers across the country and as you go across the world, the numbers are staggering.

THORP: Putnam says in North America alone, it's estimated that 7 million birds smash into towers every year, but until recently scientists didn't know why it was happening. Figuring that out became biologist Joelle Gehring’s mission. She helped conduct a study in 2003 to find out what could be done.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUDDY FOOTSTEPS)

JOELLE GEHRING: I can't not look at the ground when I'm underneath³ these towers (laughter).

THORP: It's an unusually warm January morning, and the farm fields surrounding this tower are oozing⁴ mud. Gehring is standing⁵ at a broadcast tower in rural northeast Michigan that belongs to the local radio station. Gehring says every morning in the spring or fall, the peak migration⁶ season, she and others had the unpleasant job of counting dead birds at the base of these towers. What she discovered was surprising.

GEHRING: So we were able to reduce the numbers of bird fatalities⁷ on communications towers by simply extinguishing those non-flashing lights, and those fatalities were reduced by as much as 70 percent.

THORP: You heard that right - simply turning off the steady beam lights on towers reduce bird fatalities by 70 percent. Exactly why isn't yet clear, but she has a theory.

GEHRING: Some research has documented that when birds are exposed to long wavelengths⁸ of light such as red or white, that it actually interferes⁹ with their ability to use magnetic fields for navigation.

THORP: Joelle Gehring says that's especially true on cloudy nights when birds can't navigate¹⁰ by the stars. The tower's steady red lights seem to confuse them, flashing red lights don't. In 2015, the Federal Aviation Administration changed regulations on new towers, requiring they all be built with only flashing lights. Gehring, who now works for the Federal Communications Commission, spends much of her time contacting people who run towers built before 2015, encouraging them to switch to blinking lights.

GEHRING: And when we drive back and forth¹¹ around those beautiful Great Lakes at night, we see more and more communications towers that are lit with only flashing lights at night. And my son always points out - another bird-friendly tower, mom (laughter).

THORP: There are still tens of thousands of towers, though, that aren't bird-friendly, as birds are drawn¹² to the solid red lights. Gehring and others will continue to try to save those birds by doing one simple thing - changing those tower lights. For NPR News, I'm Ben Thorp.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 conspicuous   

adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的

参考例句：

• It is conspicuous that smoking is harmful to health.很明显，抽烟对健康有害。
• Its colouring makes it highly conspicuous.它的色彩使它非常惹人注目。

3 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

4 oozing   

v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的现在分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出

参考例句：

• Blood was oozing out of the wound on his leg. 血正从他腿上的伤口渗出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wound had not healed properly and was oozing pus. 伤口未真正痊瘉，还在流脓。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

6 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

7 fatalities   

n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 )；死亡；致命性；命运

参考例句：

• Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities. 有几个人受伤，但没有人死亡。
• The accident resulted in fatalities. 那宗意外道致多人死亡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 wavelengths   

n.波长( wavelength的名词复数 )；具有相同的/不同的思路；合拍；不合拍

参考例句：

• I find him difficult to talk to—we're on completely different wavelengths. 我没法和他谈话，因为我们俩完全不对路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Sunlight consists of different wavelengths of radiation. 阳光由几种不同波长的射线组成。 来自辞典例句

9 interferes   

vi. 妨碍，冲突，干涉

参考例句：

• The noise interferes with my work. 这噪音妨碍我的工作。
• That interferes with my plan. 那干扰了我的计划。

10 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

11 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

12 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。