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Re: Building strikes

From:

David Czaplak

Reply-To:

David Czaplak

Date:

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:31:19 -0700

The building where I work is mostly cement with smallish windows. However in the middle there is a long, eight story high, all glass section facing north that is quite effective at injuring and killing night migrants. This section is not particularly brightly lit, so I think it is a case of the birds cannot see what is in front of them. On the morning of Sept 25 there was heavy fog, with lots of Swainson's and Gray-cheeked Thrushes flying  around the face. I picked up a fatally injured Yellowthroat and a Ruby Hummer that seemed just slightly stunned. On the morning of OCT 20 I picked up a Grasshopper Sparrow that seemed to be ok, but it died a bit later. I get there well before dawn, before the crows etc. get to work. I think all glass and fog are the worst combination. I don' find dead birds along the not-all-glass sections of the building.

Of course this building just won an award for being so "green", with its state of the art heating and air conditioning. I have no questions!

Dave Cz


On Oct 21, 2011, at 10:16 AM, Paul Pisano wrote:

> This week I had the misfortune of finding 2 dead birds at the base of my
> office building - the U.S. DOT HQ in SE DC.  The first was on Monday and
> was a NORTHERN PARULA.  The second was this morning and was a
> YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO.  I think there were others lat night because I
> found an unusual feather (secondary?) of varying shades of brown, as
> well as a small mound of unidetifiable body feathers at two other spots.
> The secondary? could have been from the cuckoo, but was kind of far
> from the rest of the remains.  Actually, the "remains" only consisted of
> a head, so clearly other factors are at play here.  I'm surprised that I
> found both of them this week as:  1) it's getting late in the season so
> the number of migrants at all is going down, and 2) these are the first
> I've ever found here.  Why I haven't found others earlier in the season
> is unclear to me (though might have something to do with the fact that I
> drive a few days a week, which doesn't have me walking along this
> stretch of the building - except this week when I took metro 4 of the 5
> days).
> 
> Has anyone ever recorded a pattern between building strikes and the
> migration season?  I'm sure that they've looked at weather, but Sunday
> night and Thursday night were very different in that respect (if I
> recall correctly).  Just thinking out loud, perhaps later migrants are
> weaker, which means they might not fly as high (and hence more prone to
> hitting buildings)?  I don't know, that's probably connecting dots that
> don't exist, but just has me wondering.  Interestingly enough, this
> building is not even the highest in this area, and it not much higher
> than the building immediately across the street.
> 
> 
> Good birding,
> Paul Pisano
> Arlington, VA
> 

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