Aurora affecting the birds????

Clare Corbally

hey I was up at 2 in the morning this morning and it was still really bright out! I thought that this was maybe due to the Aurora. And then I could hear the birds singing - at 2 in the morning! i know the birds can apparently 'see' Earths magnetic field and i was wondering does anybody know if the birds early rising is anything to do with the Aurora / Solar Flare????

It was a very strange atmosphere!

Thanks all!

jimbis

Noticed alot of birds out singing at around 2.30am myself actually.
It was very bright but id put that down to the moon!

Riamfada

Thats been happening for a while now. Every night at around 2am

Aiel

Ive been noticing that too on certain nights recently.

Cú Giobach

Loads of animals are active during a full moon, also lots of animals are more active now after the winter. Though not officially spring, most animals don't really take much notice of our calenders.

Rubecula

I too suspect the bright moon for this, but the Op posed a question to think on.

Does an Aurora affect wildlife?

I have no idea at all. I see a University Doctorate on this for someone.:pac:

Popoutman

I am not an animal behavioural scientist, these are just my informed guesses..

If wildlife depends on magnetic field orientation for anything, the differences and fluctuations of the earth's magnetic field are not that great in absolute terms during an auroral display. Compasses stil lpoint north, and don't wave about that much. This would suggest that animals would ignore the slight variances in direction and strength as the variances are that slight.

The lights themselves - are no brighter than moonlight, and would probably appear the same to an animal as a moonlit half cloudy sky.

One possibility that would cause disturbance would be the possible phenomenon of auroral sounds, where the radio waves couple with items in the environment to give hissing or whooshing noises. These noices may wake or otherwise trigger alarm responses in some animals.

I'm not aware of animals that are sensitive to radio waves in any significant manner.

Other than these I can't think of any mechanisms where animals may be affected by aurorae.

Astro1996

The birds are singing at night because of all the wasted light pollution, they think its still daylight

40 year old sodium non cut off street lights every 10ft in every housing estate, robbers wonder if they are getting abducted by aliens because 500 billion watt security lights that blind you in 0.5 of a second stay on all night if an atom passes in front of the sensor or if you make the slightest movement, nevermind shops, offices and buildings everywhere lit up like christmas trees from dusk to dawn... the list is endless

everything gets effect by it all.. astronomy and stargazing, wasted construction and energy costs, glare while driving, the effects on animals and peoples sleep etc etc etc

but just like everything else in this country and "modern" society, nobody cares, nobody gives a rats behind.

The night is meant to be dark BLACK, not a bright ORANGE glow