Beaconsfield’s bird burden

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

A giant black cloud made up of thousands of birds might sound like something from a certain 1960s Alfred Hitchcock movie, but for the residents of Beaconsfield Court and its surrounding area, it is a daily reality. “When I say there’s a cloud of birds, I’m not exaggerating. You can literally hear the birds fly. There are so many wings flapping,” said Beaconsfield Court resident Richard Speak, referring to the starling problem his neighbourhood has been experiencing for at least the past five years. “Last year, I thought we were having a bit of a reprieve from them. But not this year. They’re back in full force.”

Every evening before the sun starts to set, the birds fly to the tree canopy on Beaconsfield Court to roost for the night. They may leave in large flocks the next morning, but their presence lingers all day long. “The droppings are awful. There are feathers all over the place. When it rains, it smells to high heavens,” said Eastbourne Avenue resident Pierre Parent, whose property backs on to Speak’s. “It has to be a health hazard.”

The uric acid contained in the starlings’ sprayed feces can damage automobile paint jobs and corrode other materials like metal and stone. Starling droppings also contain bacteria and fungal agents, which can cause serious diseases in humans, like salmonella. “We want to fix the problem. There’s so many now that it’s become unhealthy,” said Beaconsfield Mayor Bob Benedetti, adding they are currently researching different solutions and are in communication with the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill University. “We want to solve the problem this year, so they won’t be back next year.”

Some bird control options the town has looked into include scaring techniques that involve firing off loud bangs on a regular basis for a certain period of time, bird nets, and “scare eyes.” “They’re products that look like they have eyes on them, so the birds think they’re being watched,” explained district 2 councilor Karen Messier.

McGill professor of wildlife biology David Bird said he has also heard of small towns holding “harassment events,” where residents get together and bang pots and other instruments together to make enough noise to scare the roosting birds away. “I don’t know how effective this is,” Bird said. “There are no easy options for this problem.”

While Benedetti said the city will still look into other options and consult with residents before proceeding with anything, the most feasible solution so far seems to be disrupting the starlings’ habitat by

heavily pruning the trees on Beacons-

field Court. “The problem with that is, if you look at it (the tree canopy), it almost covers the whole street, like a tunnel. It’s really nice,” Benedetti said. “But the birds think it’s nice too. And I think it’s one of those choices we’re going to have to make.”