Vanessa at night - no 3
Jaakko Kullberg
jaakko.kullberg at helsinki.fi
Fri Feb 1 13:35:06 EST 2002
Hi !
I wonder if the night is really dark for even dayflying butterflies. I have
seen red admirals also coming to baits almost dark conditions in archipelago
of small islands when going south and they fly remarkably nicely even it is
so dark you can't see them. I think they happily see polarized UV and can
find they just the direction where they should go. And this is also the
reason why birds come down only when the weather is so bad that you cannot
see anything. They see polarized UV and simbalabim they know where the sun
is :-)
Some of you may also heard about the a Finnish study where they resolved how
kestrels know where is profitable to nest. The urine of voles reflects UV
and these falcons start to nest in places where scientists were dropped
urine of vole here & there, even there was no voles.
cool,
jaska
> 1. well away from artificial lights
> 2. in the pitch black night sky (well after sunset & well before sunrise).
>
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