Birds keep postal worker on lookout
We all know a Carol Davis.
She’s the type of person who would open a screen door to free a fly, or gingerly flick a ladybug off her clothes rather than crush it with a Kleenex.
When Davis, a mail handler at the U.S. Postal Service Processing and Distribution Center on South Spotted Road, thought co-workers had suffocated baby birds with foam spray, she fell to pieces.
“I had to leave and go home,” said Davis, 52, who lives in the Shadle Park neighborhood. “I can’t cry and drive a fork lift at the same time.”
Davis’ concern for birds escalates every spring during the nesting season. Much of her job is done outdoors on docks, under 18-feet high eaves and awnings where mother birds can build nests.
The birds are mostly English sparrows and European starlings, neither of which are protected species. Their droppings dirty the equipment and land on workers and their cars.
According to Madonna Luers, public information officer for the Spokane office of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, these problems are common during every nesting season.
“That’s when people typically call, and they say, ‘I’ve got this really messy problem,’ ” Luers said.
“I tell them, ‘Well, deal with it as best as you can, kind of grin and bear it. When they are gone you can clean up the nest and clean up the area and come up with a screening device.’ “
The season runs anywhere from a month to six weeks, depending on the species, Luers said.
Davis said all she’s asking is that her employer come up with a solution during the off-season. However, the situation played out differently this season.
For the last few springs, netting has been hung in the eaves and throughout the property to prevent birds from building nests in cubby holes. Davis said last year she helped the birds get around the netting, but she wouldn’t elaborate on how she did it.
This year, she says she left the nets alone, “but these birds were so industrious, they were able to get inside and make their nests.” She estimated 10 nests were built.
Davis’ day of anguish occurred on June 8 when she arrived at work after two days off and found a baby English sparrow fledgling on the ground. The bird fit into the palm of her hand. He was shivering and in shock, Davis said.
She said foam had been sprayed into the holes and the nets had been tossed into a trash bin. The adult birds were lined up on a wall, and Davis said she could hear their babies chirping, suffocating behind the cream-colored foam.
“Nobody cares but me,” Davis said. “I cannot believe it.”
Frank Nick, maintenance manager at the center, disagrees. “The guys are sensitive to the birds as well,” said Nick, whose has 50 birdhouses on his vineyard property. “The foaming is something we waited on until June. They should be well beyond their nesting season.”
Last year, Nick said Davis called the wildlife department, which paid a visit and told him none of the species around the center was an endangered species.
Nick said his workers saw one nest a few weeks ago while spraying the foam in the shallow cavities, but left that area it alone. He also said he knows nothing about Davis’ claim that baby birds suffocated behind the foam.
“These guys are not some kind of monsters. If they thought there was something behind there they surely weren’t going to do that,” Nick said.
Nick also said it’s not out of the question that “a bird sympathizer” is making it so birds can get through the net.
He’s apt to take Luers’ advice and try to prevent the problem by doing out-of-season maintenance.
“Maybe once everybody’s gone this summer, I might tear all the nets down and buy new nets or find something thicker and something people or birds can’t get through.”