How Google saved my life

White Storks used to be a common sight in the little village in Germany where I grew up. Their return to their old nests each year heralded the true onset of spring - and a new beginning since for us kids any sighting meant a new life was about to be born somewhere in the neighborhood. Gradually over the years sightings of storks became less and less common as the moors and wetlands were being drained to make room for agriculture.

There's only one pair now, and to be sure they stayed, the villager erected a stable platform for their nest.

On a trip to Spain though I discovered where our storks had stopped and stayed on their return from their wintering grounds in North Africa. Almost every high building or church spire in the city of  Caceres on the river Tajo had one or more of their massive nests and in the surroundings were plenty of ponds and wetlands to supply their favorite prey, frogs.

Storks near Caceres, Spain

A new beginning was what I was looking for too. I am apologizing that for the past several months I have neglected visiting and leaving comments on my favorite birding blogs. I have been dealing with a critical health issue, and so, in this post, I am not going to write about birds, but about how a Google search saved my life.

I had become aware of some problems with my memory, such as blocking on names and words, and had started feeling insecure on walks. I was falling frequently without clear cause, falling on trails, on side walks, into a pond, and in an airport.There was no rhyme or reason to these falls, no stumbling or tripping that I was aware of, and fortunately no serious injuries other than bruises. My walking had turned into a choppy gait when tired and hurrying. My husband remarked on it and demonstrated to me what looked like a Parkinsonian gait.  But I knew it wasn't Parkinson's, since there was no rigidity or joint stiffness. It was also puzzling that these problems appeared only intermittently, days or weeks at a time.

The pattern didn't fit any of the common neurological diseases. My memory problems made me worry, of course, about Alzheimer's disease (AD). My dad had died of it, and I was afraid I was heading in the same direction. As a physician I had taken care of plenty of patients with advanced AD and was horrified of facing that same future, an existence devoid of any joy: the patients never smiled, laughed or showed any pleasure, only occasionally displayed anxiety or anger. It was as if a cataract was blocking their mental access to the world and finally obscured it totally, like this:

I saw a neurologist who however couldn't find anything abnormal and referred me for baseline neuropsychological testing. But it turned out to be more than a baseline. The tests looked like child's play with colorful disks, pictures, cards, photos...but the report, after several hours of testing, and the test results being abstracted into numbers and the scores compared to standard data, showed I was no longer as smart as I once was. The neuropsychologist reassured me however that the test results did not point to AD.

I had done extensive reading on neurological diseases such as Parkinson's, AD and multiple sclerosis and had found none that matched what I was experiencing. So I finally entered my symptoms into Google search and I think putting "frequent falls" first was the tip-off in that a new disease popped up: Adult Onset Hydrocephalus and specifically Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH).  Everything fit: my many falls, my instability when traversing rough terrain, my memory problems and lastly, which I actually hadn't considered a problem yet, urinary urgency (or the sprint to the BR when observing my dogs relieving themselves before bed time).

The tragedy is that the disease, although rare, is treatable but most of the time is not diagnosed. Many patients, bed-ridden or wheelchair-bound in nursing homes because of inability to walk, dementia and bladder incontinence, may actually be suffering from NPH. Dr. Harold O Conn, a former Yale hepatologist (liver specialist), eloquently recounts his own many-years-long journey as a misdiagnosed Parkinson's patient until a new neurologist came up with the correct diagnosis. He was cured with the placement of a shunt to drain off excess fluid from his brain, and since then has been devoting his remaining years to NPH research.

The CBS program 60 Minutes devoted a segment to this disease which then served as a wake-up call to many patients, their families and to physicians.

Along with the triad of symptoms - problems with gait, memory, and bladder control - diagnosis depends on showing enlarged fluid-filled lateral ventricles on CT scan or MRI. An MRI of my brain was initially read as normal. However I also happened to have had an MRI in 2003 for an unrelated problem, and a comparison between the two showed that in the current one the ventricles were significantly larger. I was so lucky to have come up with a diagnosis so early in the course of this  disease, which so infrequent, is often missed.

The next steps went pretty fast. I was referred to neurosurgery, had some more testing, and a couple of weeks later was admitted for placement of a shunt which drains the excess fluid from my brain through a thin tube under my skin to my abdominal cavity where it is being reabsorbed into the blood stream.  The symptoms related to my walking resolved within a couple of days; my memory may take a little longer. I am sure of one thing though: a Google search averted a catastrophe and gave me my normal life back!

I am looking forward to go birding again this spring, venture off trail without fear of falling. At 6 AM a couple of mornings ago I heard a Woodcock's twittering wing beats overhead and another one peenting from the wetland across the road. Shortly after, as the sky lightened, a Robin started singing. All day a Tufted Titmouse has been calling loudly advertising his availability as a mate. Last night we heard the first spring peepers in the swamp next to our house. The snow has melted and spring is here!

Cheers and happy birding!

The three deadliest threats to our native birds

An icy wind is whipping the tall pines behind our house. Thick snow shrouds everything living. And yet for birds the greatest threats to survival are not the arctic temperatures or lack of food, but man-made barriers.

Wind farms have been touted as one of the most important sources of green energy that may help save our planet from climate change, but are they also giant "bird blenders"?

Modern turbine towers can reach a height of 270 feet with rotors as wide as a football field.

Klondike wind farm in Oregon

Wind energy suffers from one great disadvantage: the best sites are far from the dense population centers of the Northeast and mid Atlantic states where it's needed most.

Setting up wind farms on the continental shelf along the North Atlantic coast would be one solution.  (See below Cape Wind)

When starting my Google search on wind farms the first study I ran across was about an off-shore wind farm in the Baltic sea published in Biology Letters in 2005. Danish researchers did a radar study, covering the first year of operation, of migrating geese and Eiders negotiating their way through the forest of wind turbines.

Black lines indicate migrating waterbird flocks, red dots the wind turbines

They found that the birds kept a safe distance from the turbines and were flying almost exclusively down the center of the corridors, giving the turbines wider berth at night than during the day.  At first I felt reassured but that didn't last very long.

Next I looked at a study of the notorious wind farm on the Altamont Pass in California, one of the largest  in the US. It was built before anyone studied its effects on air-borne wildlife such as birds and bats.

Because of its mountain-top location  it was having a devastating effect on raptor populations, esp. Bald Eagles, Red-tailed Hawks and Burrowing Owls, by generating a warm updraft that would sweep the birds right into the path of the turbine blades, slicing them in half or decapitating them.

Altamont Pass --- Aerial photo: Ian Kluft

This wind farm supplies enough electricity to power a city the size of San Francisco

According to one study as many at 1300 raptors die each year in collision with Altamont's 5400 turbines. Worse yet, it's built next to the world's densest nesting area for Golden Eagles.  This and much more is contained in this fascinating 12 min video by KQED Quest.

Since then much work has been done to mitigate the impact. In particularly one turbine, that stood on a hill by itself and was responsible for much of the slaughter, was dismantled. Turbine design has been altered so that the birds now tend to fly above the height of the turbines, though some experts say more studies are needed.

A British study of onshore wind farms found that most birds are not harmed during the operation of the turbines. There was a significant decline of bird population however during the construction phase, probably due to interference with nesting. Most migrating birds fly at an altitude of 150 to 600 meters, that is, above the height of the average modern wind turbine (about 100 meters).

Design of wind turbines has had a greater impact though on bat mortality. A study found that whereas the diameter of the turbine rotors did not affect migrating birds or bats, tower height though had a significant impact on bat mortality: the greater the height the greater the bat mortality, suggesting that migrating bats fly at lower altitudes than nocturnally migrating birds and that the newer larger turbines are reaching into that air space.

Construction of the first off-shore wind farm, Cape Wind, is scheduled to start this year in Nantucket Sound between Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and island of Nantucket. See white cross on map below.There was much controversy  about the economical benefits vs the detrimental impact on scenic beauty for property owners along the shore and yachtsmen on the sound. Little is known about  Cape Wind's effect on sea duck activity, especially on the most numerous species Long-tailed Ducks.

Window strikes are a different matter. Toronto is a deadly city for migrating birds. It's the first tall glass barrier birds face when coming south from the northern wilderness. FLAP - Fatal Light Awareness Program - a volunteer organization in Toronto - has been working diligently toward making windows safe for birds.

The owner of the most lethal building, Cadillac Fairview,(see above), was sued under the Environmental Protection Act.  Its mirror-like windows were responsible for the collision death or injury of more than 800 birds between March and Dec 2010. The owner was acquitted but only after covering the windows with a special anti-reflective film.

This puts Toronto building owners on notice that they may be held liable for killing birds. Because of the different political climate in the US this avenue would probably not be successful here, but not all is lost. There is one organisation that promotes innovative and  interesting building designs, the American Bird Conservancy. See image gallery.

Screen over windows

The Lights Out campaign by the Chicago Audubon Society means lights out in the upper stories of tall buildings during migration: 

"Tall buildings can save birds by extinguishing decorative lighting on the upper stories after 11 P.M. each evening and leaving lights off until daylight from August 20 to October 25. Birds migrate throughout these months. Tenants on the upper floors are encouraged to turn out lights or draw blinds after 11 P.M. These recommendations apply to all buildings of 40 or more stories, and to buildings of 20 or more stories that are isolated from other buildings."

Thirty American cities have joined FLAPS drive of turning lights off in tall buildings. Building owners in Manhattan started doing so in 2010 prompted by New York City Audubon.

Volunteer checking for dead birds in the morning. Ángel Franco/The New York Times

And for the home owner Bird Conservancy came up with translucent bird tape on windows that is easy to apply and doesn't appear to be too expensive.

Video about applying Bird Tape

Predatory Cats: I love cats, love their sleek gliding movements, admire their coiled spring-loaded body when ready to jump....... I used to own a rescue cat. He was in a crate at my vet's with printed sign "Last Day". I thought about it all day and waited to call until after closing. They answered their phone anyway, and so he ended up in my home. 

 I wanted to keep him indoors but it was next to impossible during the summer when I spent much of my life out on the deck. The cat would yowl behind the window in utter misery. The exhortation to keep cats indoors is easy to follow in city buildings without outside fire escapes, but almost impossible in the suburbs or country unless you confine yourself to four walls. So I let him out. When winter came I discovered that he was a real virtuoso in hunting and killing birds.  I stopped feeding them and did so for the next 14 years. But when he died I vowed to never adopt a cat again. 

Mortality by wind turbines or windows pales against mortality inflicted by cats.

Chart: Which kills more birds, cats or turbines? (Mother Jones)

In an article in the New York Times one scientist compared  house cats to gypsy moths and kudzu - they all cause major ecological disruption.

 Estimates of annual cat predation on US birds and mammals

It is estimated that cats kill between 1.4 and 3.7 billion (median 2.4 billion) birds a year with 69% of this mortality caused by un-owned cats. Un-owned cats kill about about 3 times the number of birds as owned cats.

Un-owned cats are those that have been abandoned by their owners, have escaped,  or are born as strays. The estimate of these cats range up to 70 million. A female cat produces about 2 litters a year with 4 to 6 kittens per litter. With these large numbers programs such as trap, neuter and release (video)  are ineffective. Many cats that are captured and brought to a shelter are in fact euthanized. 

Cats are an invasive species without natural predators. Where introduced they have wrought havoc on natural wildlife. They are easy to keep and easy to lose, since there are no leash laws, no license requirements, and no taxes on cat owners. Unlike dogs they can forage in the wild and sustain themselves on small mammals and birds. There is no opprobrium on owners who let their cats run wild,. and when they have kittens: who doesn't agree that kittens are cute!  Appealing to our emotions may be one of this species' evolutionary survival strategies. 

To save birds and other wildlife do we have to be ruthless in eliminating stray cats? This blogger is making a passionate argument for just trap and kill rather than trap, neuter and release, but that would be a losing battle, as a huge cat lovers grass-roots lobby would spring up instantly.

Do cats deserve greater protection than our native birds?

Protecting birds against their cats is left up to the cat owners. Here is what an individual can do to check their cat's predatory behavior: 

Put a neoprene Cat Bib (see video on website) on your cat, whenever the cat is outside.  It may look ridiculous, but please don't laugh! In a study it stopped cats 81% of the time from catching birds.

Or have your cat wear a colorful collar which makes the cat much more visible to birds though somewhat less effective than the bib. Here's a YouTube video.

Thus the three deadliest threats are wind farms, windows and wild cats, but cats are by many magnitudes the deadliest.  We as individuals can't do much about the first two, but must do something about the last, because there is no authority that will jump in and bear that responsibility for us.

Three authors: Birds up close and personal, and Magpie passes mirror test

For crows living in flocks fosters complex behaviors

Just when I was learning to read I found a book in our attic which promised to teach me the language of birds. It was torn in half though, and the half with the answers was missing. So to my great disappointment the language of birds remained a mystery.

That same desire underlies much of today's research about birds. Will we ever know how birds are seeing their world? how they interpret what goes on around them? or what they are thinking? Are they even conscious?

The sixteenth century French philosopher Descartes claimed that animals are automatons, that is, pure machines without consciousness. Many researchers still adhere to the view that animals are biological entities subject to inborn unalterable instincts, but as animal owners and caretakers have known all along this is not true for their pets, not true for farm animals, nor is it true for laboratory animals. On closer acquaintance we know that within the limits of their abilities they are all individuals, have different personalities, are bold, shy, curious, anxious, happy, moody, playful, sociable, gregarious or withdrawn... just like human beings.

The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds by Julie Zickefoose

If looking at the cover painting of Julie Zickefoose's The Bluebird Effect you think it's a picture book, you are mistaken. Yes, the author is an accomplished artist; she illustrates her book with exquisite  paintings and drawings, but her look at birds goes much deeper. In her work and writing she combines a human's lively empathy and warmth, a scientist's cool eye and a child's curiosity and wonder. She takes on the arduous work of a bird rehabilitator in rearing abandoned nestlings or injured birds. She takes on the impossible task, for example, of raising the chicks of  chimney swifts, blind and naked, only a few days old, dislodged perhaps by a chimney sweep. She gives them a home in a rattan basket where they can cling to the wall, the closest approximation to the inside of a chimney, keeping the area well heated to 8o degrees, blows on them to imitate the wing beat of the arriving parent,  nudging them to gape to be fed every 20 min, and keeping them hydrated with an electrolyte solution by eye dropper.

 She gives them names but they are not pets; she releases them back into the wild as soon as they indicate they are ready. The greatest reward for her is when one of her former charges recognizes her and, peeling away from its wild companions, lands on her shoulder.

Northern Cardinal fledgling

She is a terrific writer. This book would enchant and entertain any bird lover. It would be a great gift for budding birdwatchers and perhaps foster in them a passion for birding.

Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans by John Marzluff and Tony Angell

Corvids, of which crows are a member, are exceptionally smart. According to the author they have much in common with us: language, delinquency, insight, frolic, passion encompassing wrath and grief, risk-taking and awareness. He devotes a chapter to illustrate each property with fascinating observations and stories. For example when caching food, crows are very aware of which particular bird is watching them. They may only pretend to cache and, when no one is looking, move  the cache to another place, but they only do so if they themselves have been thieves. Another example: observing a small flock of geese being tossed pieces of bread, crows quickly covered up each piece with a maple leaf, making it invisible to the geese, and saving it for themselves. This particular ability to know what another individual, even another species, is thinking is shared only by our closest primate  relatives. It's a complex cognitive property called possessing a theory of mind. They share with humans the ability to lie and deceive, to misdirect and prevaricate. They are the opposite of simple-minded. 

Pen and ink drawing by Tony Angell

Crows may come to the rescue of an injured flock member, or alternatively they may show aggression and rage, ending up killing disabled bird with their beaks. The author has various theories about what in the crow's brain could trigger such behavior, which chemicals or what neural events may be playing a role. Regrettably much of the book is taken up by these detailed discussions of the underlying mechanisms and pathways. 

Corvids appear to think a lot like us, but have arrived at this ability over different pathways, that is, by convergent evolution.  I found such discussions interesting only to the extent that I learned that bird brains have a very different architecture from mammalian brains.  Perhaps the authors felt the need to buttress their anecdotal observations with a scientific foundation. Most readers will probably find this arrangement distracting. I skipped a lot of it. 

But still, it was fascinating to read about their complex behaviors demonstrating calculation, aforethought, planning for the future, playing tricks, and even showing gratitude in giving token gifts to humans who have treated them kindly.

So, when glancing at a crow it's tantalizing to think that there's an intelligent being looking back at you. We always wonder how animals can be so much like us. Maybe we should turn it around and wonder how much we are like animals, or how little separates us from animals. We are smart, we can figure things out but, like our avian relatives, it's our emotions, much more so than intellect and reason, that make us who we are.

American Crow on picnic table

Darwin in The Descent of Man wrote:

"The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, is certainly one of degree and not of kind. We have seen that the senses and intuitions, the various emotions and faculties, such as love, memory, attention, curiosity, imitation, reason, etc., of which man boasts, may be found in an incipient, or even sometimes in a well-developed condition, in the lower animals."

There's an interesting PBS Nature Video "A Murder of Crows" (about 40 min) on the author's research on crow's facial recognition, and how they pass on any bad experiences to flock members and offspring.

The European Magpie is believed to be one of the most intelligent of all animals

The mirror test is the ability to recognize oneself in the mirror. A mark is attached to an area invisible to the animal's eye, but clearly visible in a mirror catching the animal's attention. Until now only three species have demonstrated this self-awareness: apes, Asian elephants, and bottlenose dolphins.  In 2008 the first non- mammalian species was added to this list: the European Magpie (Helmut Prior, Goethe University, Germany)

Magpie in mirror test (newscientistvideo approx 60 sec)

The deeper we dive into animal intelligence, the more complex it becomes.  We have finally gotten beyond looking at  animals as mere biological mechanisms.   We test them and are astonished to find that they can count, determine the difference between classes of objects, are able to predict another bird's mind, detect faking and misdirection. These abilities are as useful in their world as in ours; so it's not that surprising that they resemble us in many ways.

The AlexStudies: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots – by Irene Pepperberg

If you want to get an inside view of what it takes to unlock a bird's intellectual powers you should read Irene Pepperberg's book "The Alex Studies" which describes the experiments designed to explore an African Grey parrot's ability to grasp  such abstract concepts as color, shape and material. The author acquired him at age 1 and kept him in her lab until his premature death. During his life he followed a grueling schedule of lessons lasting of  8 to 12 hours a day.  A Grey parrot's life expectancy is about 60 yrs. So his sudden death at age 30 came as great shock. An autopsy failed to reveal clues as to the cause. After reading this book though I wondered whether he died perhaps of boredom? of  loneliness? lack of companionship, lack of physical closeness and emotional attachment to other members of his species? ------But maybe not. Read on:

Alex &Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process -- by Irene Pepperberg

In this book the author recounts Alex's life from a personal perspective as she struggles to find appropriate lab space and grant money. She also struggles to have her research recognized. That in part determines her relationship to the bird: an emotional attachment to the subject of her study would rob it of its credibility.

She usually had a number of assistants working with Alex. He learned quickly how to manipulate them for extra treats. In fact he played the boss in the lab, often strutting around like a little Napoleon, giving orders to all and sundry.  He liked to play tricks such as shouting out wrong answers to a younger parrot who was being trained nearby, or wolf-whistle at male students walking through the lobby. He grew close to one assistant in particular, calling him by his name and running up his arm to perform the Grey's mating dance. But when the assistant had to be away for three months, Alex felt abandoned and never forgave him. Upon his return he never spoke to him again.

Fleshed out by countless observations and anecdotes Alex becomes a fully rounded character. His achievements and personal quirks are celebrated in newspaper stories and at fundraising events. He gains such world-wide renown that when he dies letters of condolences from fans around the world flood into the lab. Along with such luminaries as Ingmar Bergman, Luciano Pavarotti, and Lady Bird Johnson, he even merits an obituary in the Economist. 

Meet Alex in person: Nova Science Now video ( ~ 12 min long)


(This is a re-post of my February contribution to Birding is Fun on 2/6/13)