Virginia is on the Atlantic flyway – an aerial highway used by millions of birds heading south for the winter, and experts track their migration using weather data.
“They’ve been monitoring bird migration for the last 23 years," says Christine Hirsh-Putnam with the non-profit Dark Skies Piedmont. "They use weather radar, and they’re able to track the number of birds that are in the sky at any one point. About 1,200,000 birds flew over Albemarle County last night.”
Her colleague Emily Lien says the lights we use at night confuse the birds.
“It can start to mask the stars that they use to navigate. It can draw birds off course. That can increase the risk of fatalities from strikes against building or just exhaustion as they circle, unable to navigate out.”
So their group and others are asking people to take the Lights Out Pledge.
“The Lights Out Pledge is asking people, from 11 pm to 6 am to turn off their exterior lights that they are not using. dropping your blinds if you have them or your curtains if you have lights on,” Hirsch-Putnam explains.
That should help not only birds but moths, fireflies and other nocturnal creatures, and Lien says it could help to ensure a reliable food supply for migrating birds who now find light pollution can throw natural schedules off.
“It impacts insect populations. It impacts plant flowering. A bird may arrive at their habitat after migration, only to find that the food has come and gone.”
Advocates also hope more communities will pass and enforce ordinances requiring newly installed lights to face down.
