#756:Bird decline and EMR in the Netherlands
From Frans van Velden:
Dear all,
This fits in (last two messages on this list) also with my observations in The Netherlands.
In 2005 I have seen some sparrows in Kijkduin, The Hague. Today no one. In the meantime more antennas were fixed on the roof of the hotel. For me Kijkduin has become a difficult place to be too.
In november 2005 I was in the village Kalenberg, in a nature resort so there are no masts, only private dect-telephones and wlan-networks. Where I was, the garden was loaded with house sparrows, they looked the way I remember from when I was a child: fast and full of energy. I measured 0.01 microWatt/m2 (Aaronia HF Detektor, 3 MHz – 3 GHz). I could sleep there without protection for eleven hours.
I checked the mobile phone roaming map with the data about sparrows in Great Britain http://www.stopumts.nl/doc.php/Onderzoeken/1137/huismussen
The disappearance of the house sparrow fits in with the development of the mobile network.
Effects on nerve cells of zebra finches were found (Beason and Semm, 2002).
F. v.d. Hengel in The Netherlands has observed changes in behaviour and well-being of canary birds near an antenna mast (in a regular cage, a faraday cage added respectively a sham faraday cage added). The birds did not sing and suffered from the radiation.
Zebra finches and canary birds are not much different from house sparrows.
Frans van Velden
The Hague
The Netherlands