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PSF Fall Update 9

Dear PSF friends and volunteers,

This is the last update for the year and I wish to thank you for reading them week after week and for giving me all those positive feed-backs.

In this update, I will go over the final numbers for the season as well as report about all the other, “behind the scene,” Project Safe Flight efforts for the year.

NUMBERS:

The total number for 2006 is 904 birds, with 768 birds from the fall season alone.

Out of these 768 birds, 120 were injured, representing about 15%. The graph below indicates what happened to these 120 birds.

The total number of species found this fall is 56, plus a Bat, found by Kellie at the Work Financial Center on November 30^th. The PSF database includes seven bat collisions.

Red bat

Source: http://home.earthlink.net/~cmsquare/redbat.jpg

The following table compares the top ten species for this fall season with the general top ten species found since 1997:

This past year, NYC Audubon invested time in other aspects of Project Safe Flight:

OTHER INITIATIVES:

- Lights Out NY initiative

In fall of 2005 NYC Audubon launched the well-publicized and highly successful Lights Out NY initiative, a voluntary program in which building owners and managers turn off building lights on tall buildings during spring and fall migration.

Partnering with NYC Audubon on this initiative are New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, the New York City Department of Buildings, Buildings Owners’ and Managers’ Association (BOMA), Associated Builders and Owners (ABO), and the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY). This initiative was carried out again in the spring and fall of 2006. Several well-known buildings have signed on to this initiative, including the Chrysler building.

The above accomplishments created substantial interest in both local and international press. For instance, the Lights Out NY initiative was covered in other countries, including Israel and Japan. Below are examples of international and national press coverage:

New York Times – 09/23/05 (Lights Out NY)

Corriere della Sera – 09/24/05 (Lights Out NY)

ZDF, National German Television – 11/10/05 (Lights Out NY and Project Safe Flight)

Voice Of America – 10/15/05 (Lights Out NY)

Queens Chronicle – 03/03/06 (Project Safe Flight)

- Research

As you are all aware, this fall marked the beginning of a research study. This study is part of a two year program to assess where collisions occur and ways in which to prevent them. The two year program is party funded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and is called “Making Buildings Safe” project. Below is a description of additional work associated with this project.

1. Data analysis

The first task was to synthesize all the data collected since 1997 into one electronic, online database. The main focus of this portion of the project was to transfer data from data sheets, dating back to 1997, to the electronic database. At the end of this process, 2,352 bird collisions were transferred. Additionally, data on weather conditions were added for each day a collision occurred, allowing future research to focus on the relationship between weather patterns and collision intensity. 

2. Comparison Study

New York’s “top ten” collision species were compared to those in Toronto and Chicago, the only other North American cities with bird collision monitoring. 

3. Guidelines Booklet and LEED Program

As part of “Making Building Safe”, Kate Orff, architect, was hired to lead the effort to create a “Guidelines Booklet” for architecture and design professionals as well as for building managers and real estate owners. This booklet provides thorough guidelines on how to build a bird-safe structure, as well as providing instructions on how to retrofit an existing building.

It is our goal that in the future, any building considered “green” should be also safe for birds. We hope to achieve this by incorporating our guidelines into the Leadership in Energy and Environmental De­sign (LEED) guidelines.

The booklet will be made available by early 2007.

- NYC Audubon’s role as advocates of bird-safe buildings

NYC Audubon is also active in helping developers and building owners make their structures more bird friendly. Relying on the years’ worth of data we’ve collected, we meet regularly with architects, developers, and building owners to advise them on how to retrofit existing problematic structures and how to design new, bird-safe structures.  

For instance, in Lower Manhattan, NYC Audubon played a key role in the development of Freedom Tower, to be constructed at the old World Trade Center site.  Our meetings with architects and developers have resulted in changes to the vegetation and glass at the base of the building, helping prevent needless collisions. We are also in constant negotiations with some of the high-collision sites across town, such as Morgan Mail and the Met, to help find a solution to the ongoing collision problem at such sites.

Of course, we wouldn’t be able to do all this without your continued support. Thank you for all your efforts and commitment.

I wish you all a happy Thanks Giving and look forward to seeing  you again in the spring.

Until then, stay warm and enjoy the harshness of winter birding.

Take care,

Nicole