If you spend enough time walking around downtown with eyes open — specifically, near the buildings that make up the Constitution Plaza mistake — you will encounter more dead birds than feels normal. Sometimes, you may jump to avoid stepping in one. I would name names, except that I have seen them laying dead beside any structure made of glass, whether we’re talking tall buildings with lots of windows or the bridge and plaza railings that contain glass panels– a choice that feels odd, dated, and kind of dangerous if you’re a bird.
Finally, someone is doing something about it.
Sadly, not all of it, and only temporarily.
Recently, bright plastic fencing was attached to the weird glass bridge barriers on Nassau’s property — so, only one piece of Constitution Plaza.
As they explain, the addition was made “to protect the Cedar Waxwing birds that migrate through the area each spring.”
The only Cedar Waxwings I have seen in Hartford have been nearby in Riverside Park, so, no lies detected.
Then, they say: “These birds feed on the nearby shadberry fruit, which causes them to fly erratically and potentially collide with the clear glass barrier.”
Shadberry is another name for the Serviceberry, Shadbush, or the one I prefer, Juneberry, which tells you when to expect the berries. This is the native tree species dominating much of the area around the Nassau building, and then further down the plaza along the Connecticut Science Center’s garden. When a tree died in my yard, this is the kind I replaced it with 2.5 years ago because of what it offers birds.
I was curious about the accusations of erratic behavior, and while I don’t know that this has been happening right in downtown Hartford, it seems that birds who gorge on berries, like Cedar Waxwings, sometimes overindulge in ones that have fermented . . . so there’s a drunk flying situation. Basically, the orange fencing is the equivalent of all those Wrong Way flashing signs getting installed on highway exit ramps.
Good for Nassau for taking a simple step to prevent bird deaths. I don’t know if it’s because they’re bird lovers or because someone got sick of having to clean up bird corpses, but whatever motivates, fine.
It would be nice to see other property owners stepping it up, and not just for the Cedar Waxwings since many other types of birds are crashing into buildings, year-round.
Glass that is too clean is deceptive to birds, who see their desired destination (or a reflection of it) and don’t realize there is an obstruction between them and it. There are fairly inexpensive fixes that can be made to both windows and the glass barriers. Maybe people are now ready to start caring about how nature exists in the urban core.
