Birds Aren't Real
I forget when I first heard or read about the idea that Birds Aren't Real. I know I was aware of it sometime last year (2021), but it could have been 2020 or even earlier. According to the supposed conspiracy theory, some US government agency such as the CIA or NSA killed all the birds and replaced them with drones to spy on Americans. Some versions of the theory claim this happened in the 1960's; however, I did R&D on advanced microelectronics in the 1970's and '80's and know that the control electronics weren't advanced enough and small enough to fit into a bird-sized package until after 2000. Furthermore, solid state cameras weren't that small and cheap until they started appearing in smart phones around 2010 or so. Motors and batteries weren't small and light enough and long-lasting to be worthwhile until just a few years ago. But now such a package could fit into a bird-size drone.
The problem is that I stopped seeing birds in Houston a few months ago, and funny conspiracy theories aside, something strange and possibly sinister was going on. No birds. Pesticides could be killing the birds' insect prey, or in higher concentrations, it could be killing the birds themselves. Several decades ago, the pesticide DDT really was killing certain kinds of birds until the poison was banned and gradually leached out of the environment. Herbicides designed to kill weeds that compete with food or fiber crops kill a lot more species than intended and are in fact decimating bee colonies and threatening the pollination of many crops. Air, water, and soil pollution does kill birds. So does automobiles, aircraft, tall buildings, domestic cats, and overhunting. There is reason to believe that the proliferation of cell phone towers emits RF radiation that interferes with some birds and possibly bee internal navigation systems. And the total effect of all that on our wildlife is not fully understood, but we do know that humankind has degraded our natural environment far more than our conservation efforts have helped.
I still don't know why I had not seen ANY birds from late fall, all winter, and the first part of spring this year. No robins in late winter to announce the coming spring. Then a few weeks ago, I heard some crows cawing outside my grocery store. Soon I saw some INVASIVE pigeons bumming around as obnoxious and stupid as ever. Last week I saw a dead blue jay in the courtyard. No doubt the local squirrels are happy about that. I think I heard a mockingbird recently but haven't seen any.
Birds Aren't Real
I forget when I first heard or read about the idea that Birds Aren't Real. I know I was aware of it sometime last year (2021), but it could have been 2020 or even earlier. According to the supposed conspiracy theory, some US government agency such as the CIA or NSA killed all the birds and replaced them with drones to spy on Americans. Some versions of the theory claim this happened in the 1960's; however, I did R&D on advanced microelectronics in the 1970's and '80's and know that the control electronics weren't advanced enough and small enough to fit into a bird-sized package until after 2000. Furthermore, solid state cameras weren't that small and cheap until they started appearing in smart phones around 2010 or so. Motors and batteries weren't small and light enough and long-lasting to be worthwhile until just a few years ago. But now such a package could fit into a bird-size drone.
The problem is that I stopped seeing birds in Houston a few months ago, and funny conspiracy theories aside, something strange and possibly sinister was going on. No birds. Pesticides could be killing the birds' insect prey, or in higher concentrations, it could be killing the birds themselves. Several decades ago, the pesticide DDT really was killing certain kinds of birds until the poison was banned and gradually leached out of the environment. Herbicides designed to kill weeds that compete with food or fiber crops kill a lot more species than intended and are in fact decimating bee colonies and threatening the pollination of many crops. Air, water, and soil pollution does kill birds. So does automobiles, aircraft, tall buildings, domestic cats, and overhunting. There is reason to believe that the proliferation of cell phone towers emits RF radiation that interferes with some birds and possibly bee internal navigation systems. And the total effect of all that on our wildlife is not fully understood, but we do know that humankind has degraded our natural environment far more than our conservation efforts have helped.
I still don't know why I had not seen ANY birds from late fall, all winter, and the first part of spring this year. No robins in late winter to announce the coming spring. Then a few weeks ago, I heard some crows cawing outside my grocery store. Soon I saw some INVASIVE pigeons bumming around as obnoxious and stupid as ever. Last week I saw a dead blue jay in the courtyard. No doubt the local squirrels are happy about that. I think I heard a mockingbird recently but haven't seen any.