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Do you know that one of many largest migration occasions in the US occurs over our heads whereas we sleep at night time? Hundreds of thousands of birds journey by way of Ohio in the course of the spring and fall as they journey between breeding and overwintering grounds. But they face a rising risk that’s having more and more adverse impacts on individuals and wildlife alike: gentle air pollution.
Synthetic gentle interferes with birds’ capacity to navigate night time skies, which relies on the positioning of the moon and stars. Shiny lights pull birds off their migratory course, disorienting them and even inflicting them to collide with buildings. Gentle air pollution has additionally been proven to have main impacts on human well being, vitality utilization, and crime. Limiting the quantity of sunshine we use at night time just isn’t solely good for our eyes, our wallets, and our capacity to stargaze—it additionally helps our feathered buddies have a safer cross-continental journey!
Probably the most impactful actions you possibly can take is lowering gentle between midnight and daybreak throughout peak migration intervals.
Within the Ohio River Valley, this sometimes means from August 15 to October 31 for fall migration and from March 15 to June 1 for spring migration. You should utilize BirdCast for extra particular migration “forecasts” to search out out when birds are more than likely going to be touring over your space!
Should you don’t need to go fully darkish, there are nonetheless easy steps you possibly can take to make your constructing or residence extra bird-friendly:
- Use computerized dimmers, movement sensors, or timers in order that lights are solely on when wanted
- Swap out brilliant white and blue LED lightbulbs with hotter colours like amber, orange, or purple, that are much less engaging to birds and different wildlife
- Use shielded lights or goal gentle beams in the direction of the bottom
- Draw curtains and shut blinds at night time to stop gentle from spilling out of buildings
- Take away or flip off ornamental exterior lighting
For extra methods to assist songbirds and get entangled, try Lights Out Cincinnati and Ohio Hen Conservation Initiative!
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