Why Iowans Need To Turnoff Exterior Lights This Weekend

Make sure you turn the lights out before you go to bed.

If you've already put out lit Halloween decorations in the yard or you have lights that stand at least kinda tall on your house or around it, you're asked to turn those off this weekend in particular.

Fall starts on Sunday and critters are getting ready for the new season. That includes birds migrating.

Centennial Bridge in Davenport turned their lights off on Thursday night to help the birds see better but the migration doesn't look to be done.

Over 27 million birds have flown over Scott County to migrate and millions more are expected this weekend. Over 67 million birds flew through Iowa last night. You can see the realtime count at BirdCast.

There are a bunch of bird species that are migrating now. Those include the Eastern Wood-Pewee (pictured below), American Redstart, Warbling Vireo, and more, including the very well-known House Wren.

Why You Turn Off Your Lights

Birds start migrating about 30-45 minutes after sunset. They're comfortable flying at night. The manmade lights can confuse and distract the migrating birds. They might be drawn to city lights, not realizing it's taking them off of the natural migration course.

You're asked to turn off all unnecessary lights and keep the pets (like cats) inside. That includes lights in windows or any lights that you don't really need at night.

Northerly winds also help encourage birds to migrate and any wind and rain we get this weekend could push any birds that are still hanging back to migrate on Sunday.