Early the next morning the volunteers visit their pre-assigned tower and spend 10 minutes or more looking for dead birds. Previous studies show that most bird mortality at towers in upstate New York occurs during the months of September and October on evenings with northerly winds that also have foggy or low cloud conditions. Though weather conditions were generally not conducive for towerkills in fall 1998, the hotline was activated for searches on two mornings. Volunteers with New York State and Federal salvage permits will collect and ship any large kills to the DEC lab in Albany, NY for ongoing studies of pesticides in bird tissues. Specimens will also be salvaged for the vertebrate collections at Cornell University and the Buffalo Museum of Science.
Coordination is planned with rehabbers in New York State to care for injured birds.
Letters were sent to over 150 tower owners in upstate New York asking their cooperation with the 1999 survey. In addition to the companies participating in 1998, the following agreed to participate in the 1999 survey. The survey hotline will be activated only if specific cloudy weather conditions occur in the census period from early September through the first week of November. Volunteers will be assigned a tower with grounds suitable for finding bird carcasses when permission has been received from the owner.