Bird dies in soccer net mesh
Incident at Memorial field characterized as ‘unusual’
A bird was found dead in a soccer net at Memorial High School.
The bird, which is believed to be a hawk or an owl, was found by a resident walking in the area on Saturday.
The animal is dark in colour and is believed to have died after getting stuck in the soccer net meshing. It’s unknown how long the bird was in the net or when it died.
The soccer field, located at the back of the school near a wooded area, is owned by the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board.
Paul Oldford, director of operational services for the board, confirmed the bird has been removed from the netting.
“The (bird) was found, removed and disposed,” said Oldford in a phone interview. “The custodian (at Memorial High School) did become aware of it — it was described to me as an owl, but I’ll leave that to those who saw the (bird).”
The soccer field was built as part of the local high school in the mid-1970s.
“This is the first incident that I’ve heard of,” said Oldford, when asked if birds are regularly found tangled in the netting. “It’s not something you hear of every day — I would characterize it as unusual.”
The incident was not reported to the Department of Natural Resources.
Bob Petrie, biologist and director of the wildlife branch at Natural Resources, said unfortunately wild birds suffer from collisions with human structures all the time.
“If a bird was found dead under peculiar circumstances or for no apparent reason (for example possible poisoning) then we would prefer hearing about that as it may point to a different problem,” he said, in an email statement.
“If there was an unusual number of mortalities in a given location, for example, if hawks were commonly getting caught in this same net, then the local biologist or department office should be contacted and can advise what could be done to prevent unnecessary injuries or death.”
The Cape Breton-Victoria board owns other soccer fields in its coverage area, aside from the Sydney Mines location.
Oldford can’t recall the school board taking down meshing at its other soccer fields.
“It’s not something that’s in our programs to take the meshing down,” said Oldford.
The school board has a number of soccer fields that are used in the summer by different soccer programs. The Sydney Mines field is used for high school soccer, starting in September. The most recent soccer season wrapped up in early November.
Oldford said taking down meshing at soccer fields is something the school board will review.
“We will look at whether or not we should be taking the mesh down over the winter season.”
Natural Resources has four locations across Cape Breton including facilities in Baddeck, Coxheath, St. Peter’s and Whycocomagh. Contact information for those offices can be found online at www.novascotia.ca/natr.