Birds v. Radar

Bird lovers are notorious worriers; they worry, among other things, about hunters, egg collectors and cats. Now they have a new worry: radar. In Germany last week, they were blaming radar for leading wild birds and homing pigeons astray. During a recent race of 8,000 British pigeons, nearly all of the contestants disappeared on a 210-mile course between Wales and Northern Ireland. Such "catastrophe flights" are normally blamed on bad weather, but the German ornithologists say that they are commoner now than they used to be. A pigeon race near Karlsruhe lost 3,500 out of 6,000 entries. Of 2,500 Bavarian pigeons, only six crossed the finish line.

Many ornithologists and pigeon breeders believe that radars, which are increasing in Europe both in numbers and power, interfere in some unknown way with the mysterious directional sense that guides birds. Some of them report seeing migrating wild ducks enter the field of a powerful radar, wheel in confusion and fly south instead of north.

One of the supporters of this theory is Professor Rudolf Drost of the Helgoland Ornithological Institute. During the war he saw flocks of birds fly "turbulently" when hit by radar beams. Crows disconcerted in this way took several minutes to regain flyability.

Germany's alarmed pigeon fanciers have now engaged Professor Abraham Esau, radar specialist in Aachen's Technical School, to look into the situation. Dr. Esau is sure that birds are guided by some type of electromagnetic waves. If scientists can find out what waves confuse a bird's "instruments," they may learn how the mysterious sense works.

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