GREENPOINT — A glass bus shelter at the edge of McCarren Park is responsible for the deaths of dozens of birds — including a robin and a Merlin Falcon, according to bird-loving North Brooklyn residents.
Since spring, neighbors have spotted multiple birds a week rotting beside the B48 bus shelter, situated on the corner of Lorimer Street and Driggs Avenue, in between two sections of McCarren Park.
"It just keeps happening, said Karen McInnes, 39, a Williamsburg resident with two young kids who love watching the birds from their apartment that overlooks the park.
"For these beautiful animals to have such a pointless end, it just really struck a chord with us particularly because we enjoy the birds so much."
In mid April, McInnes walked passed a dead Merlin Falcon and snapped a picture. The bird of prey is rare to spot in North Brooklyn, according to experts.
"The kids were so upset," she said. “We watch them over the park, we watch them building nests. We’re in an area [where] there is so little nature. We take so much joy in watching those birds.”
Debra Kriensky, a conservation biologist at New York City Audubon, said while their efforts usually focus on bird deaths caused by buildings, they've been alerted to the McCarren Park issue as well as one other troublesome bus shelter on Randall's Island, which is also located on a road located between two sections of parkland.
There, the city's Parks Department has been trying to deal with the issue by using an array of methods from stickers to UV paint.
"There are all sorts of solutions," she said.
Kriensky encouraged others who notice dead birds at bus shelters (or any other dead bird) to report on their website so they can have better data on the issue.
"Right now we know of these two [bus shelters], but [maybe] this is a widespread problem in greener areas around the city," she said. "If we have enough data to present the DOT we could work with them to..[find] a cost effective solution."
The MTA and the Parks Department referred comment to the city Department of Transportation who is in charge of bus shelters. DOT spokeswoman Gloria Chin said they hadn't received any complaints but they were sending someone over to inspect the shelter immediately.
McInnes, who just moved into the neighborhood two years ago from England, posted a picture of the falcon on a North Brooklyn Facebook group. Being new to the country and the neighborhood she wasn't sure what route she could take to help address the deaths. Neighbors suggested reporting birds on Audubon's website and registering complaints with the MTA.
In the meantime, her young children, who recently were in a school production of the Lion King where they learned about the circle of life, have been troubled by the bird deaths, she said.
"They were leaning down looking at it saying 'Mommy, this isn't right they should die like this because this isn't the circle of life'," she said. "They felt like humans had made a mistake by putting that there and [the birds] were dying because of it."
