The Union Square Squawk

Here's an odd one.

I can't remember when I started noticing it, but for at least the last two or three years, it's been a mystery that's befuddled me. Every morning as I emerge out of the mouth of University Place on my way to work in midtown, I walk by The Spingler Building, otherwise known as 5-9 Union Square West near East 14th. Emanating from somewhere unseen behind the latticework of fire-escape outside its second floor comes a tireless cacophony of squawking. I've looked and I've looked, but I cannot for the life of me pinpoint the source of the din. While I suppose it could be a malfunctioning machine of some kind (although I can't imagine any air conditioner making this sort of racket), the sound conjures to mind a nest of birds. That said, I've never heard a pigeon make this sort of noise. To stand beneath it in the mornings is maddening (how the tenants of the building deal with it I'll never know). Oddly, when I walk past it again in the evenings, it is silent. I can only assume that the mysterious buzzards or invisible pterodactyls that reside there take wing and flap through the city in the late afternoons, scouring for food to bring back back for their young.

Has anyone else ever noticed this?

Comments

[Jon]

iphone... record... post.

[GEF]

ALL THE FUCKING TIME WE NOTICE IT!!!!!! let us know when you find out wtf it is, IT INSANE, you are at a loss for words here, you have to hear it to believe it people! this is why he actually wrote about it, it's beyond bazaar how so many ignore it when it's SO FUCKING LOUD! and not one sight of a bird!

[Goggla]

Maybe it's a recording to scare pigeons away?

I hear there are fake bird songs played in Grand Central Station to guide blind people to an information kiosk. I've not heard them, but maybe this is something similar...although I can't image why.

[emily]

I have always thought it was a fan or something scraping. When it was under construction I blamed it on that, but now?

[James Taylor]

The air conditioner in my office is so loud I have to turn the thing off before answering the phone. It's like sitting in a room with three jackhammers. I can't wait until September 1st when I ceremoniously boot the decrepit device to its much overdue 6th floor demise.

[Matt]

It really sounds like a parrot. maybe someones got a pet?

[Tim]

Heh! Glad to see I am not alone. I heard the thing again this morning, and again no sightings of anything but pigeons — and no way it's one of them. I also heard a series of cheeps and squawks that sounded like young birds clamoring for food. Which first seemed like a clue and then just seemed odd — birds tend to bear their young in spring, not fall. One bird I'm certain it's not is a peregrine falcon. They do live in Manhattan, but their vocalizations are nothing like the mystery bird's. The idea of a scarecrow recording seems solid ... but the truth on that front is at hand. Next time I'm in the area, I'll see if someone in the building can tell me what's up.

[trish]

Oh my god this is driving me nuts! I want to know what it is too!

[trish]

I just found this:
At first we thought the wild calls must be coming from some exotic bird species lured by the lush foliage of the Gandhi Garden outside the southwest corner of Union Square Park. The invisible avian’s shrieks were loud — verging on the demented, if birds can indeed go bonkers. “Maybe it’s a snipe?” opined Shane Kavanagh, spokesperson for the Union Square Partnership. No way — this couldn’t be a mere snipe, whatever that sounds like. So we made some inquiries at Staples, whose building seemed to be the epicenter of the din. One Staples staffer said she usually only hears the cries in the early mornings, but has also noticed it once in the evening around 8:30. “A woman came in once and said, ‘Why don’t you do something about it?’” she said. But another Staples employee explained that it’s not a real bird, just a recording to keep pigeons, and maybe hawks, too, from roosting on the building’s fire escape. We also hear the building had a serious pigeon-poop problem. It was apparently the landlord’s idea for the bird-call contraption. When we passed by the other day, though, the mechanical maniac was momentarily quiet, while a flock of pigeons were perched peacefully on a nearby ledge. Maybe they had pulled the thing’s plug.

[Goggla]

Here's an update:

http://www.dnainfo.com/20110602/murray-hill-gramercy/fake-hawk-of-union-square