[wisb] Re: -- Speculation on Southwestern U.S. species birds in WI and nearby states
- From: Alan Stankevitz <alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: John Idzikowski <idzikoj@xxxxxxx>, wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:51:26 -0600
In response to John's comments, yes...solar flares do effect the
magnetic lines all the way down to ground level. There is a device
called a magnetometer which measures magnetic field strength and they
do record geomagnetic storms at ground level.
I agree that winds do play a role in bird migration and large storms
can sometimes effect the movement of birds. Not to be nit-picky but the
jet stream chart you link to is typically at 25,000 ft. or higher. Most
neotropical birds migrate at altitudes of 500-6,000 ft. It would be best
to follow the 850 MB chart for bird migration. (850 MB chart is ~5,000 ft.)
I'm certainly not stating that all or any vagrants occur from
geomagnetic storms, but I believe it is certainly possible. If anything,
the next time there's large number of rare birds showing up during a
migration it would be interesting to check out what the sun was doing at
the time of the outbreak. We certainly have a few more years of
potential solar flares coming up. It will be interesting to see if there
is any further correlation...or not.
Interestingly, you brought up the fall of 2000. That was exactly 11
years ago. The sun cycles through an 11-year sunspot cycle and it was
very active in 2000 and there was a geomagnetic storm from Oct 3 -7, 2000.
Thanks for the response,
Alan
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