h a l f b a k e r ySuperficial Intelligence
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Birds are capable of orienting themselves by the stars if their compass fails them. I'll find a link. |
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I think you're up against several factors here. |
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(a) Magnetism generally drops off with distance as
something like distance^4 or maybe distance^3. |
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(b) If a plane is travelling at 250mph (at takeoff, where
most birds suffer plane-strikes), and the bird is heading
towards it at 20mph, and the bird takes 2.4 seconds (for
instance) to react, then the field has to be significant at a
distance of 317 yards (or, if the bird is French, 289.7
metres). |
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(c) If you plan to deter south-migrating birds, you'll wind
up with an aircraft covered in north-migrating birds, and
vice versa the other way. |
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I was thinking that a near spherical pulse from the nose of the plane wouldn't disrupt on-board electronics and that overloading the birds senses may cause them to scatter or vear away from the irritant much the same way that whales can't stand Sonar and will beach themselves to get away from the sound. The direction of migration shouldn't matter as long as the birds want to get away, but proximity could certainly be a problem. |
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Good link [Spacecoyote]. But ya gotta feel sorry for the one that has to carry the sextant. : ) |
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Another difficulty is that the single biggest problem bird, at
least in the US, doesn't migrate in the normal fashion.
Canada Geese don't fly north and south for temperature
reasons, they fly because their food source vanishes.
Unfortunately this means that significant flocks become non-
migratory in conditions where non-seasonal food sources are
readily available, such as large cities. I'm not sure, therefore
that the have the magnetic migratory faculties that are
present in some others. |
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I wonder how they manage to find their way around the big magnetic hole in the South Atlantic... |
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