For the Birds

The Audubon Society and the Minnesota Vikings are fighting about the new stadium going up in Minneapolis.  The bird lovers are afraid that the two hundred thousand  square feet of glass walls will be a “death trap” for migratory birds.

"We're talking about a billion dollar stadium here, and the cost to save perhaps thousands of migratory birds -- and make the Vikings a global leader in green stadium design -- is about one-tenth of one percent of that," Audubon Minnesota executive director Matthew Anderson said in a statement issued Wednesday. "Hundreds of millions of dollars of public money is going to build this stadium, and we know the people of Minnesota do not want their money killing birds."

There are new Minnesota state laws designed to minimize the problem, but the stadium design was approved before the regulations were passed, and the Vikings say they will not change the design in the middle of construction.  Looks like the Audubons are one team the Vikings can beat.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Smithsonian Institution studies show that up to 988 million birds are killed annually in the United States by collisions with buildings, especially ones featuring glass windows.

But the danger doesn’t have to come from glass.

Back in the 50s, when we first moved to Liverpool, Texas, we lived in what had originally been half of a World War II mess hall.  We coated the leaky roof of the old building with an asphalt based aluminum paint.  It stopped the leaks, but several times – usually on foggy nights – we were awakened by the crash as geese tried to land on what they thought was water.  It was a scary way to wake up, but that shiny roof not only kept us dry, it provided several tasty meals.