Beckoned to the light
Saving the boreal birds from Toronto’s financial district
Story by Lindsay O’Reilly
The early-morning sky is dark as fog hangs thick over the city of Toronto. Several members
of FLAP (Fatal Light Awareness Program) tread the sidewalk between towering rows of illuminated
buildings, breaths visible in the cold spring air.
Suddenly, the group pulls up short. In the gray light of early dawn, the silhouettes of
close to a hundred birds are visible at the foot of a nearby office tower. Some scurry away,
or manage to fly a short distance. Some just lie still. Many of these birds, having already
flown hundreds of miles from their winter feeding grounds, will not live to complete their
journey.
Every year, more than 17,000 birds many migrating to or from Canada’s rich boreal forests
collide with buildings in Toronto’s financial district, drawn to the beacon of the glowing
towers.
For these volunteers, this morning will become a fight to save as many birds as they can.
Michael Mesure, creator of FLAP, says he first learned of Toronto’s mass bird fatalities
in 1989.
"I was in disbelief that this was happening right here in my city, so I went out one morning
to see for myself," Mesure says. "Sure enough, birds were all over the sidewalks."
Mesure found more than 30 dead, stunned or injured birds that morning. He says the experience
left him saddened, fascinated, angry, and determined to help.
Mesure walked Toronto’s streets for several years by himself, rescuing birds in the early
hours before work. He was overwhelmed the first time he encountered a "major strike."
"There were hundreds of birds," Mesure says. "I just ran around, doing what I could. Birds
were being scavenged right in front of me and there was nothing I could do about it. I managed
to rescue the tip of the iceberg, but I hated the fact that so many had to be left behind."
After doing a few interviews with local media about his efforts, Mesure began to get calls
from people who wanted to join him.
Numbers of volunteers grew and FLAP was founded in 1993. It now has more than 300 members
and 80 volunteers, including a core group of five or so volunteers who’ve been with the program
from the beginning.
Like fledglings from a mother bird’s nest, FLAP affiliates have spread to cities across
Canada and the United States. Some, like those in New York and Chicago, have been successful.
Many, however, have failed to "take wing."
"Sometimes people go out for a few days and don’t see anything, so they decide there isn’t
a problem," Mesure says. "They don’t realize you have to be out there every day."
"It’s not something a lot of people are willing to do, to get up at four in the morning
and wander around Toronto," says Irene Fedun, who’s volunteered with FLAP for the past 10
years. "It’s a unique way to contribute."
When volunteers find what they call a "bird strike"‹a site where birds have collided with
a building they approach the birds slowly and gently scoop each one into a paper bag. Here,
the birds have a warm, dark place to recuperate and calm down.
After volunteers examine living birds for injuries, they sometimes give them an injection,
to help reduce any head swelling. Injured birds are taken to rehabilitation centres for treatment,
while birds that were only stunned are transported to open areas outside the city. Here,
they can take to the sky again without becoming confused and panicked by forests of concrete
and glass, crowds of people and noisy, fast-moving cars.
"It’s remarkably rewarding," Fedun says, "to release a wild bird into its natural habitat
and see it fly away."
Some birds the group finds are already dead, either from the collision, shock, or from
scavengers that have learned to search near these buildings for an easy snack. Volunteers
put these birds in separate bags so they can count and identify them later.
In the past ten years, they’ve collected Golden-crowned Kingslets, White-throated sparrows,
Eastern Bluebirds, and over 150 other species of bird‹the majority them boreal.
FLAP has tried to cut to the source of the problem by asking owners of office towers to
turn off their lights at night. This has caught on over the years, Mesure says, because it
also saves building owners money and reduces energy consumption. They’ve also begun "holding
stations," in which people who find injured birds can take them to their building’s security
desk, where someone from FLAP will pick them up.
The group continues to look for ways to reduce the number of migratory birds killed in
building collisions each year.
"We still only see a small fraction of the birds affected," Mesure says. "If we save two
birds on one side of a building, there are probably two more on the other side being scavenged,
or hiding where we can’t see them. Until there’s a clear indication that we’ve done everything
we can to resolve the problem, we can’t turn our backs on it."
top
|
