Anyone else see trapped birds at your local Lowe's?
Our Lowe's (Chambersburg, PA) has a canopy structure at the exit of the building, the place where you pull up and load concrete and stuff. There is a screen stretched across the underside of the entire canopy, I'm assuming to prevent birds from settling on the railings and lights and soiling the precious merchandise below. Yesterday I looked up and there were 4 dead birds caught in the screen, and one live one chirping and fluttering around for a way out. So the birds are getting in somehow, panicking, starving to death over time, and possibly leaving babies to starve in nests elsewhere. That chirping bird was so frantic and had such a will to live, it was horrible.
I did speak to the customer service person, who cheerfully said they do not have a maintainence department or anything, but they have a "company that comes and checks on it every couple of days." She said she would call and have them come out. One, that's not a solution, that's just cleaning up bodies. And two, one of the bodies was nearly a bare skeleton, so that company definitely did not come out "every couple of days." Regretfully, I was too emotional to push for details and left.
Has anyone else seen this where you live? I was thinking that if that screen is standard in building plans for multiple Lowe's stores, maybe my concern would be better addressed higher up. Do you think I would have any luck with the Department of Natural Resources since it involves wildlife? I wanted to offer to take care of it myself, get up on a ladder, and start cutting through wire, but I'm sure that's a big insurance no-no. Other ideas?
You could talk to the store's general manager and see what he/she says. Toss in the word "PETA" and I almost guarantee you'll see the problem rectified immediately. If you don't, alert PETA or an animal activist group in your area - one you can get involved with. I don't know if the wildlife commission will do anything, but alerting them certainly can't hurt either. I've not had the misfortune to see this happening at the Lowe's in my area since I rarely go there and I'm sorry you have, but next time I drive by it I will definitely look because I know exactly which canopy you're talking about.
Mushington-
Sorry to hear you had to witness that! Unfortunately the bird you are talking about is a House Sparrow, which is a non-native species and does WAY more harm than good in America. Where the city/shopping areas meet suburban areas, these aggressive birds drive away and kill our native cavity nesters. Non-native species aren't protected by federal law at all, so there is nothing any wildlife authority would do. (It would actually be LEGAL to shoot the birds with a gun!) It's a human introduced bird in another human introduced problem, which sucks because just like all of our many other "non-native" problems, weather it be insects, plants, or animals, it's not the their fault, it's ours.