One overwhelming early morning, Flint Creek
Wildlife treated 129 birds that had been gingerly collected off the sidewalks
of downtown Chicago. It was fall migration season, and songbirds of all species
were at it again, flying south for the winter and – many of them – along the
way bumping into the city’s famously picturesque skyline.
Nature is full of jaw-dropping examples of
wildlife learning to adapt to the city (you’ve heard ofbirds that
sing over car horns and coyotes
that comprehend traffic). But this is not one of them. Chicago, like
Toronto, happens to have grown up beneath one of the four major North
American migratory flyways that birds follow up and down the continent
each spring and fall. And a migratory flyway is too big a thing in nature to
mold itself around our metropolises.
"The first year was this emotional
rollercoaster."
That means that most nights about this time of
year, birds collect on the ground in Chicago, about half of them still living,
half of them not. The only reason you rarely see one is because groups
like Flint Creek Wildlife
Rehabilitation make a point of getting there first.
"It’s a busy, bustling city, right?"
says Dawn Keller, who founded Flint Creek eight years ago. "When people
are walking from the train station to work they’re not necessarily paying
attention to a little 8-gram bird that’s sitting on the sidewalk." This is
why volunteers go out before dawn, before the city wakes up. Plus there are
other problems that come with daylight. "I remember one time coming around
a corner and having something catch my peripheral vision," Keller
continues. "It was this little bird flapping as this gull was trying to
swallow it whole."
No comments:
Post a Comment