Blog for the Birds

Downtown Lights Off - Saves Energy and Birds

Birds often fly into tall buildings and die or become severely injured as a result.  This is especially problematic in migration season. Minneapolis/St. Paul is taking a pro-active approach to this problem by asking building owners to turn off unnecessary lights after hours. This apparently makes the buildings less visible to the birds and therefore less of a hazard. As a side benefit, the building owners that comply with this get to see energy savings. Why aren’t all cities doing this?

What birds don’t see can’t hurt them (as much)

Fall Bird Watching

Many bird watching texts and birders will tell you that fall is a time of departure for many birds and you won’t see them in your backyard again until spring.  This isn’t necessarily the case.

For example, in the Southeast US, birds that ordinarily leave for the winter don’t leave at all.  There is even some evidence that points to regularly stocked feeders changing the habits of some bird flocks. So they might just hang around for the steady chow! This is particularly true of the seed eaters.

At any rate the fall is generally a slow migration so there is still time to many of them before they go.  So Fall is not necessarily a bad time for birding. You might be surprised who you see hanging around late in the year!

Grackle Cleanup in Texas

In Temple, Texas, there was a problem with grackles. Apparently the grackles messed up City Hall and the city officials did not take too kindly to them.  So bad was the problem that the city had to pay workers overtime to clean up the mess.

Former grackle-removing methodology failed to impress these smart birds.  Those included noise makers, faux oils and other methods.  Newer methods include trimming trees and a blowing horn before dusk.  This seems to be keeping them at bay.

City making progress on bird problem