Football was for the birds this past fall on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai.  Several years of somewhat testy negotiations among federal, state, county and high school officials to deal with the problem of football stadium lights causing deaths of young seabirds came to a head with games at all three of the Island’s high schools being moved from Friday nights to Saturday afternoons.

Federal officials had notified county administrators in 2005 that the lights were hurting the rare Newell’s shearwater and constituted a violation of the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  Young birds were mistaking the lit-up stadiums for the moon and stars, causing them to fly around in circles.  Exhausted fledglings that dropped to the ground had a hard time regaining flight and predation by cats and collisions with cars then took a toll.  The county was ordered to install shielded lights that would shine only downward onto the field (not out), but nothing had been done by 2010.  Facing prosecution, school officials were forced to make the night-to-afternoon switch.

The shift has not been popular.  Angered parents and other fans have expressed their displeasure through T-shirts sporting colorful (and somewhat vulgar) slogans.  The complaints are about more than just a break from a revered tradition.  Because the day games are played in much warmer temperatures, many think players are at greater risk of heat stroke and related problems.  Football game attendance was down about 10 percent as some people refused to sit in the higher daytime temperatures.

A deal was recently reached requiring officials to install new shielded lights by next football season and to establish an escrow account to cover fines for birds downed during any night games.  But the issue will likely be debated for a long time

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