The US government is testing wild migratory birds for a deadly strain of avian flu. The GLRC’s Rebecca Williams reports, so far, no wild birds have tested positive:
Transcript
The US government is testing wild migratory birds for a deadly strain of
avian flu. The GLRC’s Rebecca Williams reports, so far, no wild birds have
tested positive:
Researchers have tested 13,000 wild birds in Alaska. They’re worried
that wild birds could carry the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu as they
migrate from Asia to North America and infect other birds in Alaska. The
virus has killed more than 140 people in Asia, Europe and Africa.
Gale Kern is with the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services
Program:
“We still don’t know how effective wild birds are at carrying the virus long
distances. I think we need to remain diligent and really keep up our
surveillance efforts because we just really don’t know a lot about this
particular strain yet.”
Kern says biologists will now focus on testing birds in the lower 48 states
as fall migration south begins.
Agencies also consider poultry imports and smuggled pet birds ways the virus
could get into the States.
A mosquito taking a blood meal. Only a tiny fraction carry West Nile virus, but health officials say it's best to avoid being bitten. (Photo by Lester Graham)
At the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Michigan, Jenny Barnett says they protect their birds and horses with a vaccine for West Nile virus. So far there is no vaccine for humans. (Photo by Lester Graham)
With above normal rain in much of the country this spring… mosquitoes have been heavier in many areas. The quick warm up after a cool spring has also helped hatch out a lot of the pests. The GLRC’s Lester Graham reports you only have to step out your door to see the result:
Transcript
With above normal rain in much of the country this spring mosquitoes have been heavier in many
areas. The quick warm up after a cool spring has also helped hatch out a lot of the pests. The
GLRC’s Lester Graham reports you only have to step out your door to see the result:
It’s not so much hot days, but the fact that the nights are warmer that’s helping the skeeter broods
hatch out in hordes. I’ve been painfully aware of the mosquitoes this year because I live right next
to a river in a year where there’s been plenty of rain to make little pools of stagnant water
everywhere. It’s a real nuisance.
(sound of mosquitoes)
“I’m in a very hot car and a lot of mosquitoes are trapped in here with me.
(pause) All these mosquitoes got here, just because I opened my hatchback and took
some groceries out, and they just swarmed in.”
(sound continues… smack!)
I don’t like ‘em much. Most people don’t have a very high tolerance for mosquitoes. They’ve
actually studied that. John Witter is a biologist with the University of Michigan who spends a lot of
time in the woods, studying bugs. He says there was a Michigan State University study that tracked
interaction of people and mosquitoes while camping.
“If you have more than about four mosquitoes landing on your body per minute, the people leave
the hiking trail. They go back to their campers because they just cannot handle that annoyance.
So, higher population numbers of mosquitoes, more bites, more annoyance.”
But not everyone, or everything, can get away from the pests. Jenny Barnett works at the Binder
Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Michigan. The zoo is in the middle of a forest. The mosquitoes love it
there.
(sound of birds)
The zoo’s tried to use different kinds of fumigation in past years, but with sensitive animals and birds
like the ones we’re watching there was a lot of concern; and really it just didn’t work.
“With 430 acres and a lot of it being wetland, we didn’t even make a dent on it. So, after a couple
of years, we stopped doing anything.”
The mosquitoes weren’t always that bad, and guests at the zoo didn’t seem to mind that much. A
little mosquito repellant and everyone was good to go.
Then along came West Nile virus. Like a lot of zoos, Binder Park put its birds inside – not good for
the birds – not good for the people who wanted to see the birds. A couple of years after West Nile
was detected, a vaccine that was developed for horses and it was used on birds, too. Jenny Barnett says it
seems to work.
“So far we’ve had success with it and we are continuing to do testing on their blood to check for
West Nile virus and we’ve been successful so far, but we will continue to vaccinate. We’ll
vaccinate our horses, and we’ll always worry about it, but a lot of the birds do have immunities right
now.”
And it’s assumed a lot of people also have immunity to the West Nile virus. They probably have been
infected and didn’t even know it. People with immune deficiencies are at much greater risk, but
many healthy adults can contract it and dismiss it as a summer cold or bad allergies, but health
officials say do what you can to avoid being bitten. Now, they’re not saying that you shouldn’t go
outside. They’re just saying if you do go outside, you should use a mosquito repellant with DEET.
Natasha Davidson is with the Health Department in Ingham County Michigan. She says don’t
douse yourself in repellant. A light spray will do.
“And if you’re applying it to your face, you should really put it on your hands first and then apply it.
And even applying it to children, it’s better an adult put on their hands first and then apply it to a
child.”
Davidson says don’t use DEET on children six months of age and younger, and don’t put it on
toddler’s hands because they’ll just put them in their mouths. Ugh… not good to ingest DEET.
Some advise using a cream based repellant because it doesn’t go into the skin as easily, and stays
on the surface where it can do some good. It’s also a good idea to wear loose fitting clothes with
long sleeves and long pants. I know it’s hot, but it beats scratching mosquito bites for days on end.
Natasha Davidson says even on heavy mosquito years like this one you can help reduce your
exposure to the pest.
“Other things that people can do is to make sure they have no standing water in their yard,
whether it’s at home or at a vacation property. Empty your gutters. Make sure that they’re clean
so that the water flows through. Make sure that you don’t have flower pots that have standing
water in it, old tires, different things like that. If you have a bird bath, change the water in the bird
bath once a week.”
Beyond that there’s not much you can do. Mosquitoes aren’t going away and with a little
preparation…
You might be seeing more mosquitoes this year. Conditions are right in many areas to see a bigger than normal crop of mosquitoes. The GLRC’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
You might be seeing more mosquitoes this year. Conditions are right in many areas to see a
bigger than normal crop of mosquitoes. The GLRC’s Lester Graham reports:
The mosquito populations in a lot of places are high this year because of above normal rainfall.
Although you don’t hear as much about West Nile virus these days, it’s still a threat, especially
to those with compromised immune systems, particularly older people. Natasha Davidson is with
the Health Department in Ingham County, Michigan where there’s been a bumper crop of
mosquitoes lately. She says the best prevention is avoid getting bitten:
“Well, you want to make sure you’re wearing an insect repellant. And also when you’re outdoors
when mosquitoes are active been dusk and dawn, wear long sleeves; wear long pants; wear
socks. And apply the insect repellant to your clothing.”
So far there’s no West Nile vaccine for people. Researchers are working to come up with one.
They believe healthy people who’ve already contracted the virus and built up antibodies might be a
source for a successful vaccine in a couple of years or so.
A big female Lake Erie water snake and a territorial male goby.
Snake researcher Dr. Rich King caught the snake out of the lake
with the goby in its mouth... the snake was swimming toward shore to enjoy its meal.
(Photo by Rebecca Williams)
A recently barfed goby in the plastic bag on the right. Snake biologists barf
snakes to see what they're eating... and sometimes, the snakes regurgitate meals voluntarily when you pick them up. (Photo by Rebecca Williams)
Occupational hazards for water snake biologists include: possibly twisting an ankle when leaping over rocks and giant tires, three-foot-tall poison ivy, mosquitoes, sunburn, heatstroke... and oh, yeah - snakebites. Here, Rich King makes a flying leap to catch a big snake with a goby in its mouth, out of the lake. (Photo by Rebecca Williams)
These ten threats to the Great Lakes are complicated. Researchers are finding new ways that nature reacts to them. For example, alien invasive species often compete for food and crowd out the native species. Once a foreign species takes control in an area, there’s not much anyone can do to get rid of them. But occasionally, a native species will bite back. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has that story:
Transcript
Invasive species have been a real problem for native species in the Great Lakes, but some native species are turning tails on the invaders. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham is our guide in exploring the series Ten Threats to the Great Lakes:
These ten threats to the Great Lakes are complicated. Researchers are finding new ways that nature reacts to them. For example, alien invasive species often compete for food and crowd out the native species. Once a foreign species takes control in an area, there’s not much anyone can do to get rid of them. But occasionally, a native species will bite back. The GLRC’s Rebecca Williams has that story:
(waves)
These islands in Lake Erie seem like floating Gardens of Eden. They’re
popular with tourists. These islands also really appeal to a rare
snake.
“So there’s a dozen or so of them heading out into the water.”
Meet the Lake Erie water snake. It can grow up to four feet long. Snake expert
Rich King and I are watching a bunch of them swimming away, gray heads
peeking up like periscopes.
These snakes like the lake. They like hanging out in huge piles on docks
and boats, and Rich King’s discovered the snakes love to eat round gobies.
Gobies are invasive fish that are thought to have hitched a ride in the
ballast water of ocean-going ships from foreign ports. The gobies eat the
eggs of native fish such as smallmouth bass, and compete with other fish for
food and nest sites. As gobies have taken over the lake bottom, the native
fish the snakes used to eat are getting harder to find.
“What we’re seeing is that the gobies are apparently a very abundant food
source for the water snakes. Compared to the 1980’s and early 90’s when the
snakes were feeding exclusively on native fish or mudpuppies – the snakes
are now consuming over ninety percent of their prey items are round gobies.”
(Sound of walking over rocks and zebra mussels)
Today, Rich King and his students from Northern Illinois University are
prowling the beaches for snakes. They carry their catches in faded
pillowcases tied to their belt loops. This is the annual snake survey,
Nerodio. That’s Nerodia, the snake’s scientific name, and rodeo, as in
cowboy roundup.
The snake biologists don’t just look under rocks. They dive into the lake
for snakes. They sneak up on piles of snakes and then grab the whole
writhing mass.
The snakes bite. The researchers’ arms are covered in snakebites. The bites aren’t life threatening, but they’re really, really bloody. And then it comes to the job at hand. The biologists are going to force the snakes’ stomach contents out. They call it “barfing the snakes.”
“Some snakes are easier to puke versus others. The water snakes, for
example, they sometimes voluntarily just, bleagh, just puke it out when you
pick them up.”
PhD student Kristin Stanford promises me it’ll be a good show, and we’re in
luck: just down the road, Rich King makes his first prize catch of the day.
“I got a snake with a goby in it. See the bulge: that’s the head end of
the goby. I’m virtually sure it’s a goby. (laughs) So you just very gently work it
forward, and drop it into our ziplock bag. That’s a round
goby.”
King says the snakes are growing faster and getting fatter on their goby
diet. Bigger snakes are less vulnerable to predators, and bigger females
can have more babies.
The researchers are pretty happy about that. That’s because the water snakes
are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This is the
only place in the world these snakes are found. For years, people were
shooting snakes and bashing them with rocks. Their numbers were getting
dangerously low.
The snake biologists say they understand that a lot of people hate and fear
snakes, but they say now that the snakes are eating gobies, they’re
starting to get a little more popular, especially with fishermen.
(Sound of fisherman casting a spinning rod)
Mark Green fishes for smallmouth bass. Green says it seems like when he
sees more snakes, he has better luck.
“If they’re eating the gobies, that is a good thing. I mean, I’m sure they have their
place… just not at my place.” (laughs)
Green didn’t realize until today that the snakes like to hang out under the
metal rim of the pier, right by his feet. He cringes, but his curiosity
gets the better of him, and he peeks inside one of the pillowcases bulging
with snakes.
GREEN: “When they get ahold of you, do they let go pretty quick, or do they…”
STANFORD: “Typically, but every now and then you get what
I call a “chewer,” and they’ll just sit there and errr-errr-errrng.”
The people and snakes are starting to arrive at an uneasy truce, and the
snakes seem to be well on their way to recovery from all the feasting on
gobies.
The researchers are hoping to learn just how big a bite the snakes can take
out of the goby population, and if, in the long run, it’s good or bad for
water snakes to depend on a foreign fish.
Instead of a traditional classroom, the students of Goodwillie Environmental School are learning outside. (Photo by Michel Collot)
Most 5th and 6th graders right now are enjoying outdoor activities during their summer vacation. But at one public school, the outdoors is part of the curriculum, year round. The school aims to turn kids who love the outdoors into lifelong stewards of the earth. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:
Transcript
Most fifth and sixth graders right now are enjoying outdoor activities
during their summer vacation, but at one public school, the outdoors is
part of the curriculum, year-round. The school aims to turn kids who love
the outdoors into lifelong stewards of the earth. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton
reports.
(Sound of sawing wood)
Sawing logs is hard work, especially for fifth graders like Amelia, Leoni,
and Taylor. The results can be seen in this rustic, but sturdy log cabin
overlooking the Goodwillie Environmental School. The cabin was built almost
entirely by the fifth grade class in half hour shifts, because the work is
so demanding.
“We worked on the chinking, the floor inside here – I did that
chinking! And then we worked on the floor inside here – and
when we get enough bricks, that’s what the fireplace is going to look like.”
The students get most of their instruction in science, math, history, and
other subjects as they hike through the woods or work on an outdoor project
like the cabin. Of course, they spend some of their time in the classrooms
in the southwest Michigan school. But today, volunteer George Stegmeyer is
building a kiln, where he will fire raw bricks for the cabin’s fireplace. The
bricks were made by the students with mud they dug from the grounds.
Stegmeyer explains how the hot air will move through the kiln and then blast
through the chimney.
“Just like firing pottery, it reconfigures the molecules so that they are no longer water-soluble.”
The students call Stegmeyer “grandpa,” an example of the extended family
atmosphere of the school. Only about fifty children are selected each year:
the ones who show a passion for the outdoors. Parent Peter Chan says it’s
not for every kid, but he wishes all school districts had an option like
this.
“I spent from sunup to sundown, most of the time, I can remember playing outdoors, if not exploring
the fields, the farmer orchard, or the woods by my house. Unfortunately
today, children don’t have that experience.”
Chan went to a similar school when he was young. He’s now a meteorologist.
He’s enthusiastic about his son having the same opportunity. Some of the
parents might worry that their child could fall behind in traditional
coursework here. But fifth-grade teacher Rick Gillett says there’s nothing
to fear. Students consistently score one hundred on the state’s annual standardized
test, all without “teaching to the test.”
“For instance, in the science test, when you get into the physics, in inclined planes and pulleys,
when you’ve actually used them in building the log cabin, it makes sense. You really understand how
the physics work.”
Gillett says he doesn’t expect every student in the outdoor school to become
a biologist or forest ranger, but he does expect the school to make a
lasting difference. He says some of his former students have come back
to see him when they’ve reached college age. He says that’s when it really
seems to sink in how much they learned here.
“I really do… I think that once it’s in your heart you’re never going to get it out of
there.”
That already seems to be the case with most of the students. Fifth-graders
Spencer and Evan can’t wait until sixth grade, when they’ll have a chance to
tackle a project in the Native American village that’s tucked into the woods
below the log cabin. They show off the two buildings that previous sixth
graders built: an Ojibwa smokehouse and a winterhouse.
“This is the inner bark of basswood it basically ties whole thing together, holds it up. These go
down about five feet into the ground, these go down about ten feet into the ground, so as you can
see it’s very, very sturdy.”
This fall, a brand new group of fifth graders will arrive at Goodwillie
Environmental School. They’ll take up where the last class left off and
build the fireplace for the cabin. Along the way, they will also pick up
the knowledge, experience, and passion for the outdoors that will help them
be lifelong stewards of the earth in years to come.
Scientists say a newly-dedicated computing system called the Open Science Grid could improve research on the environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
Scientists say a newly dedicated computing system called the
Open Science Grid could improve research on the environment. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Computer grids allow users in one group to tap into another group’s
computer data. Several Midwest universities have been working with
federal agencies on a grid for physicists, biologists, and others to be
used in scientific applications.
The hope is that the Open Science Grid will help different fields of science connect. Dane Skow is with the Fermi National Laboratory near Chicago. He says researchers might combine satellite images of crops with data on water quality.
“You may be able to track algae plumes so that you can see fertilizer runoff patterns from fields. There’s a whole bunch of things people are doing, looking at, and tying this kind of data together.”
Skow says creators of the Open Science Grid have put in controls to try to limit who has access to the system. He estimates the grid costs about ten million dollars to build.
A new bill would make the prevention of the spread of Asian carp a higher priority. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service)
A new bill in Congress aims to ban the importation and possession of a fish that threatens the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
A new bill in Congress aims to ban the importation and
possession of a fish that threatens the Great Lakes. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports.
Biologists say if Asian carp ever get into the Lakes, the fish would do major
damage to aquatic life.
Even though the carp are already in some Midwest rivers, several states ban people from importing or having the fish. Wisconsin Republican Congress member Mark Green says the ban needs to be nationwide.
“There are some areas that don’t have Asian carp now. So by
banning the importation we at least hopefully stem the flow while we
take other steps.”
Steps like making sure a new publicly funded carp barrier is finished in a canal southwest of Chicago. A bill Green has introduced would add four types of Asian carp to a list of destructive species currently banned under federal law.
Green expects opposition from parts of the aquaculture industry. It’s generally thought that the Asian carp first entered Midwest rivers when they got away from fish farms during floods.
Veterinarian Dr. Tara Harrison operates on an Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake to implant a radio transmitter for tracking in the wild.
(Photo by Chris McCarus)
Indiana-Purdue University graduate biology student Joe Sage, a few feet from the wetlands in which Eastern Massasaugas hibernate, showing a team of state and municipal workers how to identify the snakes and where they live. (Photo by Chris McCarus)
Michigan State University Fish and Wildlife graduate student Kristin Wildman with one of the snakes she caught and placed in a tank before its operation at Potter Park Zoo. (Photo by Chris McCarus)
The Eastern Massassauga Rattlesnake used to be found all over the Midwest. Now there’s only one state where the population is fairly healthy, but even there it’s threatened by rapid development. A group of scientists is trying to protect the snake before all of its habitat is gone.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris McCarus reports:
Transcript
The Eastern Eastern Massassauga Rattlesnake used to be found all over the Midwest. Now there’s only one state where the population is fairly healthy. But even there, it’s threatened by rapid development. A group of scientists is trying to protect the snake before all of its habitat is gone. The GLRC’s Chris McCarus reports:
(Sound of snake rattling)
A team of veterinarians and researchers is pulling an Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake from a bag. They put the snake on an operating table. Then the doctor snips open the skin.
“Okay, so I’m into the abdominal cavity.”
She’s putting a radio transmitter the size of a AA battery into the snake’s belly. This will allow them to track the snake’s movement in the wild for the next two years.
Kristin Wildman is a graduate student at Michigan State University. She catches and tracks the snakes. She’s involved in a project with federal, state and university biologists. They’re trying to protect the Massasauga.
She thinks of the snakes as being much like herself. She identifies with their personalities. Wildman says these snakes are just modest. They don’t like to attract attention and don’t like to hurt anybody.
“Like with this snake, she’s one of the bitier snakes I have in this study. And she only strikes the tongs – the snake tongs – because I’m grabbing her with the snake tongs. It just kind of gives you an idea. They don’t really strike unless you’re messing with them, unless they have a really good reason to, or unless they’re harassed enough that they feel they need to.”
Although it would rather avoid you, if you’re bitten by a Massasauga Rattler, its venom can kill you.
But it can’t fight people destroying its habitat.
Mike DeCapita is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He and other experts say rapid development is the snake’s biggest enemy. It’s not only destroying the snake’s habitat, it’s also destroying other wildlife habitat.
“The Massasauga is sort of an indicator species or a keystone species; perhaps that if we adjust so that we protect the needs of the Massasauga then all those species that use that same type of habitat also are protected.”
The onslaught of development has made the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake a candidate for the endangered species list, though it’s not on the list yet.
(Sound of hammering and cement mixing)
A new subdivision is being built in suburban Detroit. It’s just beyond the gate of a park where the research team came to study Massasauga habitat.
(Sound of people walking on a trail and talking)
Andy Hertz works for the State Department of Environmental Quality. He has the authority to refuse a building permit to anyone who could hurt Massasaugas.
“This is part of an effort of making us more aware of the habitat the Massasauga’s found in, so hopefully, we can direct developers and landowners to stay away from these more sensitive areas.”
In the winter, the Massasauga joins the frogs and turtles. They hibernate in marshes about two feet underground. Then, in spring and summer, they’ll seek higher ground for feeding. They can’t survive if they can’t move back and forth between their summer and wintering grounds. The research team has figured out this rule for minimizing damage to the snake’s habitat: don’t tamper with wetlands in winter nor the uplands in summer.
The team is focusing on Michigan to see why the population is the healthiest there. Then perhaps they can understand how to protect the rattlers in the rest of the Midwest where they’re nearly wiped out.
While she’s looking for more snakes, graduate student Kristin Wildman laughs about how a woman once called her to take a Massasauga away from the side of her house.
“We said, ‘Well, we’ll come out and we’ll move it for you.’ And we usually just move it down into the nearest wetland, down the hill. We pull in and she lives on Rattlesnake Drive. I didn’t expect to move out here and have all these rattlesnakes and stuff. It’s like, you live on Rattlesnake Drive. It’s called that for a reason.”
Wildman says when people come into conflict with wildlife, the wildlife almost always loses. If the Massasauga Rattler is going to survive it will take constant attention from all kinds of experts. They’ll have to stop developers from building over the snake’s habitat and threatening its existence.
A pair of piping plover chicks. (Photo courtesy of Michigan DNR)
In the last century, the increase in shoreline development has
driven a small and rare bird close to extinction. Each spring, the Piping
Plover nests along the shores of the Great Lakes. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tom Kramer gives us an update on the effort
to protect the bird:
Transcript
In the last century, the increase in shoreline development has driven a
small and rare bird close to extinction. Each spring, the Piping Plover
nests along the shores of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Tom Kramer gives us an update on the effort to protect the
bird:
The Great Lakes population of Piping Plovers has been on the endangered
species list since 1986, when the number of nesting pairs dwindled to 17.
These days the number of nesting pairs is up into the 50’s. But biologists
say the bird still needs protection.
Lisa Gamero coordinates the Piping Plover Patrol for the Michigan Department
of Natural Resources. Gamero says nesting sites are becoming scarce as the birds compete with
people for lake frontage.
“Their habitat needs are basically, kind of a wide open beach, with a lot of small pebbles or cobbles, sand, and they usually have to be within a hundred feet of the water, and the nearest vegetation needs to be about a hundred feet away from where they decide to put their nest.”
The plover will remain on the federal endangered species list until its
numbers increase to 150 healthy nesting pairs, for 5 consecutive years.
In Chicago, many migrating birds are attracted by the lights on tall buildings. This attraction causes some birds to crash into the buildings, often resulting in death. (Photo by Lester Graham)
Scientists estimate up to a billion birds are killed every year when they collide into building windows in the United States. Now, a group of bird watchers, biologists and architects are working together… hoping to lower the death toll. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lynette Kalsnes has the story:
Transcript
Scientists estimate up to a billion birds are killed when they collide into building windows in the United States every year. Now a group of bird watchers, biologists and architects are working together, hoping to lower the death toll. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium Lynette Kalsnes has the story:
If you call the group the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, you’ll hear this message:
“If you have found an injured bird, please place the
bird gently in the bottom of a brown paper sack. A
grocery bag is just fine. Please put the bag with the bird in it in a quiet, dark place that’s warm. Inside, please.”
That’s the voice of the group’s founder and director Robbie Hunsinger. She’s followed those same instructions herself hundreds of times.
During migration season, in a single night, thousands
of birds fly over Chicago. They are attracted to the
lights on tall buildings and crash into the windows.
Hunsinger and other volunteers get up before dawn so
they can rescue the injured birds before the rats and
gulls get them.
After a morning of picking up injured birds, Hunsinger
has filled her car with brown paper bags containing
hurt swallows and cuckoos. Then, she’s driven up to 3
hours round-trip to get the birds to wildlife
rehabilitators.
She’s even cared for some of those birds herself.
Hunsinger has filled her music studio with mesh cages
and used up all her dishes for food and water. She says she decided to do something to help the birds three years ago after she saw 80 dead birds one morning in just a small area downtown.
“It was horrendous. Everywhere we looked, there were
birds, and they kept coming down. They were still
hitting when we were out there. So you’re standing
there, and birds were falling out of the sky.”
Hunsinger says she found the fallen birds clustered on
the sidewalks just as the busy city began to wake.
“It was rather surrealistic. Especially as the sun
started came up, and people started coming to work.
People were stepping over birds everywhere. People in
suits, people in high heels, coming in from the train
stations, going to their jobs in the Loop.”
Hunsinger says something changed in her that day. She
says she could no longer be an armchair
conservationist.
So, she formed a group of volunteers to help her save
the birds.
But rescuing injured birds didn’t seem to be enough.
Now she’s working with biologists, architects and bird-watchers to make buildings safer for birds.
Chicago already asks the managers of its tall
buildings to turn out the lights at night during
migration to avoid attracting the birds. But it’s
become clear that something more has to be done to
prevent so many birds from crashing into the building
windows.
This spring, the city and the Chicago Ornithological
Society will host what’s believed to be the first
conference on bird-friendly design. Those who’ve studied it say the problem is that birds
don’t recognize glass.
“The glass surface will act as a perfect mirror.”
That’s biology professor Daniel Klem Jr. of Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. He estimates that collisions with windows kill a billion birds a year in the U.S.
“A bird is not capable of determining that that image
on the glass surface is not a real tree. It attempts
to fly to it. Or it attempts to fly to light seen in
the window, as if it was a passageway to safety. And
the bird gets whacked and dies.”
Klem says installing windows at an angle or using
patterned glass can help. So can shades or
decals. Klem’s also pushing for research to develop special
glass or coatings that would be invisible to humans
but visible to birds.
It’s a new field. Limiting bird crashes isn’t part of
building design. Ellen Grimes is an assistant architecture professor at
the University of Illinois at Chicago. Grimes says
architects think about light, heat, power, water and
human traffic, but not bird traffic.
“When architects have approached sustainable design,
it’s been an engineering question. But there has not been a lot of consideration of
the biological interactions.”
Grimes acknowledges the issue of protecting birds
might be a hard sell because it might mean
compromising other design elements. But she’s hoping bird friendly design becomes as much
a part of green buildings as energy efficiency.
The rescue group’s Robbie Hunsinger says we share the
migrating birds with other nations. We have an
obligation to be good stewards of the birds.
“This can be fixed. These our our buildings. And we
should do it. We, by God, should do it.”
Meanwhile. Hunsinger is among a group of bird
watchers pushing for a center in downtown Chicago to
care for injured birds that collide with the building
windows. She’d like to keep the cages out of her home music
studio so she can actually practice music.
