Death By High Wires

Consecutive Walks Turned Somber

While on different hot September morning walks my day was saddened by the death of a warbler, a nighthawk and pelican.

I (Rich) often walk around Cedar Rapids’, (Iowa) Cedar Lake. It’s near downtown, an interstate highway, and train track. While noisy and industrial it is close to home and sports a paved trail that makes a heart pumping pace easy. Usually, it’s a pleasant 30 minutes to round the lake, sometimes with pauses to watch geese and pelicans silhouetted against nearby factories.

What Could Have Caused its Death?

On different fall mornings I found recently dead birds in the trail. First a warber and another time a white pelican. As I gently picked up the warbler, I looked above me to find a high overhead power line. September is migration season and likely the bird was unable to see the wire and crashed into it in darkness. A couple of days later, the same thing happened. This time the dead bird was a pelican.

Identifying the Species

Fall birds, especially warblers, have recently molted and their fall/winter plumage is often far drabber than their bright springtime breeding wardrobe. What had I found? It looked like a warbler but many fall warblers look similar. It takes an experienced birder to make a positive identification. I didn’t know the species so I took a photo and emailed it to Dr. Neil Bernstein, a good friend, ornithologist, and professor of biology.

Then I gently placed the bird under a nearby shrub to let decomposers do their work and went home. Neil asked me to return and attempt to recover the bird to help with identification. So, I strapped my walking shoes back on, walked the lake trail and recovered the bird’s body and took another photo. “It’s a warbler. Probably an immature Nashville,” he said.

I also emailed the photos to Jim Berry, another friend and retired director of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in New York. Both he and Neil eventually agreed it was a Nashville Warbler.

Barriers to Identifying Certain Birds

It made me feel better that it took two experts’ close inspection to identify it. I struggle telling one warbler species from another, partly because many look so similar and partly because I have a red/green color deficiency. That makes it hard to see plumage the way most folks do.

High Wires Are Problems for Pelicans

Cedar Lake is a perfect stop over for pelicans both spring and autumn. But, the high wires on one side of the Lake create flying harzards as these large birds attempt to take off or land. Surely a way can be found to reduce hazards for migrating birds.

Somber Way to Start Church

A few days later on a Sunday, again, we found another bird that apparently had a high wire encounter and came out on the losing end. A beautiful nighthawk lay crumpled and dead in the church parking lot. Right overhead were long, thick wires strung across an open space.

People Inadvertently Kill Birds

Industrialization created hazards that birds never needed to face throughout their long evolutionary journey. Combined these hazards cause millions of birds to needlessly die.

In the week since I wrote the above blog and before Marion could post it we found a dead nighthawk under power lines and a dead pelican under lines near where I’d found the dead warbler.  

Overhead wires and towers: Birds don’t see them in their flights on dark nights and crash into them. Unfortunately, there’s not much a casual person can do about it. It’s estimated that powerlines kill upwards of 64 million birds a year. We can advocate with utility companies and communities to reduce bird kills. Creative ways do exist.

Lights: Lights left on after dark confuse migrating birds. Here’s our big and simple opportunity to help them. Turn off your home’s exterior and yard lights. The dark helps birds migrate.

Cats:  Well, cats aren’t technology but they are major unnatural bird predators if they’re allowed to run free. A solution is to let the family tabby outside in a Catio that keeps it away from birds. See our earlier blog on catios.

Helping Birds and Plotting Migration

Marion and I help birds by diversifying the vegetation in our yard, and we’re cautious about lights. We rarely have outdoor lights on after dark. If we need to walk outside, we carry a flashlight. We never leave them on overnight. It wastes electricity, gobbles up money needlessly, and outdoor lighting does not necessarily “prevent” crime.

Modern technology creates bird hazards but also helps anyone track migration.  Especially during the fall and spring migrations we check the Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology’s Birdcast Migration Dashboard at birdcast.info.

 It’s free to anyone. Simply access the site and type in a county and the site will tell how many birds flew over the night before, approximately when the heaviest migrations took place, and the direction and altitude of flight. Data are gathered by precise radar and the information is truly fascinating.

Why be concerned about birds? Fish eating birds like pelicans can rid waters infested with “trash fish”. Nighthawks patrol the evening skies and gobble up insects like mosquitoes that bite and can cause diseases such as West Nile Virus, common in the autumn. Warblers feast on tiny insects in trees helping to keep the trees pest free. Birds add color to our lives. And, remember, when you are outside and hear soft bird song, your surroundings are safe. When danger is abroad, either the area is silent of bird calls or the “alarm birds” like crows and blue jays, let you know to be alert with loud squaks.

May companies and communities work together to reduce dangers and help the avian wildlife that quietly helps us.