Lights out for spring migration
By Ilana DeBare
Spring migration doesn’t exactly work like an Olympic running race, with millions of birds lined up and ready to fly at the exact minute the pistol goes off.
But here at Golden Gate Bird Alliance, we consider February 15 the official start of spring migration season — and the start of our spring Lights Out for Birds campaign.
From February 15 through May 30, we ask people to turn off or dim the lights at night in tall buildings like the ones in downtown San Francisco and Oakland.
More than 250 species of birds migrate through the Bay Area each year. Many of them fly at night, and can be disoriented and drawn off track by bright urban lights. Sometimes they crash into buildings; other times they circle lighted buildings until exhausted and easy prey for predators.
Our message:
- Building owners and managers should turn off all unnecessary lights at night, including exterior architectural lights and interior overhead lights.
- Owners and managers can get rebates from PG&E to install motion sensors and timers, to assist in turning off lights at night.
- Individual employees who need to work late should draw the blinds, or use desk lights rather than overhead lights.
Turning out lights at night is good for people and the planet as well as for birds. By reducing energy usage, it saves money, reduces pollution, and can help moderate climate change. One municipal building in Toronto reported cost savings of more than $200,000 from taking part in a Lights Out initiative there!
Golden Gate Bird Alliance has been running Lights Out for Birds educational campaigns each spring and fall for about four years. We have some really supportive partners in the San Francisco Department of the Environment and at PG&E who are helping us spread the word.
This season we also have a gorgeous new logo, donated by Oakland artist Leslie Laurien, as well as new Fact Sheets and Posters designed by SF DoE.
Now all we need is… you! SF DoE and PG&E are helping us reach out to building owners and managers on an organizational level. But there’s no substitute for grassroots word-of-mouth.
If you work in a large office building, can you help us spread the word? Talk to your co-workers about drawing blinds or using desk lighting if they need to work late. Talk to your building manager about installing timers or motion sensors.
Print out and share Lights Out materials at your workplace. You can download fact sheets and posters on our Lights Out for Birds web page, which also has other cool stuff like a Lighting Calculator link to estimate how much energy and money you could save by turning lights out at night.
Thanks in advance for your help! Turning out lights is a small step compared to the thousands of miles that many birds fly as they move from Central America up to the Arctic.
But it’s a small step that can make a life-or-death difference for those intrepid travelers.