Rus writes in and points out this question/response in the AJC earlier this week…

Q: What kind of birds are currently camping out in Decatur Square and why have they taken up at the square? Is anything being done?

TERRY FARR,

Decatur

A: Did you see birds, or just hear them? The One West Court Square building recently installed a speaker system on its roof that plays the sounds of birds of prey: hawks, eagles, owls and sea gulls. The idea is to scare birds away from the building before they fly into its glass-paneled sides. Aside from the noble goal of saving avian lives, the panels cost about $2,500 each to replace.

The building manager has adjusted the sound several times. It started out a bit loud but is now hoped to have gotten to a sound level that scares birds but doesn’t confuse humans.

You may recall that Carl has both written in and approached the city commission about this issue in the past.  If not, here’s the link to that post.  I also remember hearing somewhere that at least one commission member wondered why this was suddenly a problem that needed to be addressed by recordings of coked-up, chirping birds of prey.  (OK, they didn’t say “coked-up”…that’s me employing “artistic license”)

Well, Carl couldn’t stand it then, and though the AJC writes that the building manager has “adjusted the sound”, Rus reports its still too darn loud.

“It doesn’t seem to me that the sound level has been decreased at all. I used to be able to read the paper on the square but now I can’t due to the horrible screeching of what sounds like flying monkeys! They are too loud at Pastries a Go-Go to sit outside, I can even hear them at Dancing Goats! Why hasn’t the city done anything about this? How many windows were actually broken by birds? I remember one or two on the courthouse side that were cracked for years they certainly didn’t rush to replace those and I didn’t see any new damage in the past couple of years. What about the hawks I used to see near downtown? They seem to have been driven away by the recordings. But I’m starting to see more of the critters the hawks kept in check downtown: Rats and Pigeons (Sky-Rats).

So to recap, The recorded “birds” offer:
1) lower quality of life for taxpayers and tourists resulting in less income for local businesses
2) Disturbance of the balance nature that promotes vermin and disease
3) A questionable deterrence of bird strikes on windows on ONE building (may scare confused birds into striking other buildings).”

I’m not usually one to take such strong stances on things, but this action seems to be in blatant disregard to the surrounding area.  A couple initial questions come to mind:  Was permission ever asked for or granted?  How many birds are we talking here?  Has this bird laugh track solved the problem?

As I’ve said before, its not bad enough that its such an unsympathetic building right on top of the courthouse, but now we have to hear from it for miles around?  Give me a break. Prove you’re saving the lives of hundreds of birds and have no other alternative, or turn the dang thing off.