When 9/11 Memorials and Birds Collide

I've seen many a way to kill a rat in New York City, but this weekend was a first. Strolling a narrow strip of park along the Hudson River on Saturday, I stumbled upon a family of four red-tailed hawks and spent 20 minutes watching the baby tearing apart and consuming the flesh of its big, fat gray-tailed furry prey.

Though Saturday was a good day for that urban hawk, it was a bad day for other city birds. New York City is smack-dab in the middle of the Atlantic Flyaway, a major aerial highway for migratory birds making their way down south for the winter. And the path through the City That Never Sleeps is a huge hazard for our feathered friends. According to the Audubon Society, every year 90,000 birds meet their demise in building collisions in the five boroughs alone. Sometimes there's foggy weather and birds don't see the window glass in time; often, it is nighttime, and the birds are also confused and/or attracted by the lights emanating from inside the city's skyscrapers.

In the last decade, September 11th has become a more hazardous day to be a bird in Manhattan than most. That's due to a well-known 9/11 tribute—two blinding beams of light pointed skyward on the Twin Tower grounds—launched every year by the Municipal Arts Society. Some years, depending on weather conditions, this is not a big deal for birds. Others, birds aren't so lucky.

This year was one of the unlucky ones.

According to Animal Planet, this Saturday, more than 10,000 birds were trapped by the light beams—completely disoriented as they flew in circles around the bright blue lights. This wasted energy is a big risk because birds usually store up just the right amount of fat to tide them through their long journey. What gets wasted in traps like this can mean the difference between a bird making it to its destination or dropping dead from exhaustion. Aware of these risks, the Audubon Society already has an agreement in place with the Municipal Art Society, which shut of the beams for 20-minute intervals several times throughout the night to encourage birds to fly on. But this could become a bigger problem if the Municipal Art Society follows through on its goal to keep the light display a permanent feature of the downtown skyscape.

On a bigger scale, the Audubon Society has for five years been encouraging major office building owners to turn their "Lights Out" in the fall from the hours of midnight to 5 AM. (Of course, why office buildings keep their lights burning at all hours in the first place is totally beyond me). Already many participate, including the Rockefeller Center, the Chrysler Building, the Time Warner Center, and JP Morgan Chase. The cities of Chicago and Toronto have similar programs too.

I was in New York on 9/11 and would never want to see this emotional light display shut down. But given that 10,000 birds were trapped in one night, it seems a huge risk to keep those lights burning every night of the year. Besides, I wonder, wouldn't lighting up the beams every night numb us to the memorial's emotional punch?

I'm not sure what the right solution is here, but I can only hope that as the Municipal Arts Society goes forward with its future plans for the light tribute, it does so with the risks to migratory birds at the forefront of its considerations. Just as New York is a wild place for its millions of visiting tourists, it should stay a safe place for visiting wild birds passing through on their journey.

On a broader scale, I think this story shows how even in the most dense urban places, it is unwise to ignore the unexpected wildlife in our midst. An amazing article in New York Magazine out this week highlights all of the surprising natural and wild places tucked within the Big Apple's folds. Wild animals—from hawks to deer to coyote—apparently frequent these places in droves, attracted by the varied accidental forests and wetland marshes that dot the city. These ecosystems create a uniquely wild playground to stop even I've-seen-it-all New Yorkers dead in their tracks.

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