Bad neighborhood

There’s a fairly specific route we walk with our dog each night. One part of our walk takes us along a major road where the houses backing along that road are cloistered behind an eight-foot sound wall. A power line runs along that same stretch of road. For a while now we’ve been finding dead birds along that section. At first I thought they had just flown out into traffic and been hit, but we began to notice that the evidence of trauma was minimal. And nearly all of them were on the sidewalk, not the road, and laying directly beneath the power line. It seems likely they were sitting on the power line when they died.

But we started paying more attention. Something odd is going on. For one, it’s only along one particular block, and usually within a very specific 50-100 yard stretch. In most cases there’s no obvious damage like a hawk had killed them (there is at least one in the area), and certainly no sign that anything has tried to eat them. They’re almost entirely intact. A couple showed small holes and bleeding like they were shot.

We contacted the local animal control and, while they’re concerned, there’s not much they can do. They asked us to see what evidence we can gather to justify investigation, and so we’ve been doing what we can. The deaths have  been sporadic over the past two months, but they continue. One pigeon was still alive, its wing damaged, and we were able to get it to a local bird sanctuary for care. The dead species have included pigeons, doves, and starlings, so it’s not limited to a specific species.

Last night we found three dead birds and one still alive, but clearly injured. As we were trying to get a closer look and see if we could catch it the dove hopped out toward the street. At that point, though the street is often busy, only a single car was driving along that stretch. We were sure it would see us and, since there are two lanes going that way, could easily avoid the bird–and us. It didn’t. It headed straight for the bird and hit it.

Now it may be they didn’t see it–too busy watching us and our dog–or had a brain-freeze trying to decide what to do and ended up doing nothing, but it seemed rather heartless. The wheel missed the bird, but the undercarriage struck it and sent is sprawling. It lay in the road on its back, feet twitching. We were horrified, and if looks could kill that car would have suffered a Michael-Bay-esque explosion. I was certain the poor dove wasn’t long for the world and was wondering how we could euthanize it quickly.

Suddenly it fluttered back up onto its feet. It was stunned, and perhaps damaged, but it was still fighting for life. My wife was able to approach it and wrap it up in her jacket. She took it home, and it’s now recovering in one of our cat carriers. It survived the night, and my wife has been unable to see any indication of injured wings. We’re hopeful it will be able to recover fully and perhaps make friends with the doves in our yard where it’s safer.

But meanwhile we’re left to wonder just what is going on with that section of road. It seems like someone living in one of those houses backing onto that section is using the birds on the power line for target practice. We’re helpless to stop it for now, but we’ll continue to gather what evidence we can, and hopefully someday we’ll find a way to put a stop to it. But it’s so sad and frustrating to think that someone is purposely trying to injure these poor creatures.