Thunk! …Another Bird Down

It turns my stomach when I hear that noise; the horrible thud of a bird hitting my window. I run out to pick the bird up before cats can get to it, if it has fallen and I can find it. They do not, anymore, always hit so hard as to fall, but in the past I have found a raptor, several hummingbirds, all manner of songbirds at either my cabin or at this new home…and last week, a chickadee which died. I nearly cried. While most birds, including the raptor and several many hummingbirds, seem to recover just fine after about an hour in a dark box in a quiet corner…I understand at least half recover enough to fly off and die later. It’s too sad.

I think it is both disgusting and irresponsible to let this happen. Having said that, I am balking at what is touted to be the perfect solution; a film, the same stuff you see on buses these days, applied to the outside of the window to remove the reflection a bird sees from the yard. You know the stuff, they paint it with advertising on the outside yet people inside still enjoy the view out.

While waiting for the sample, I hung (quite loosely; thinking the folds shifting in the wind would help) black bird netting outside the large, murderous kitchen window I just had installed to watch wildlife in my yard, as well as over the old back-door with all it’s small panes. And talk about a pain! I imagined the netting was temporary, and so it requires regular re-application of tape to hold it up against the window. The stuff is also ill-fitting on the door, and sometimes snags my (very large) dog, on his way out to scatter squirrels that eat at my feeders.

I want to not only watch, but photograph birds from my big, new kitchen window. The netting gets in the way…but not badly; my and my camer's lens seem able to focus past the stuff (when I use the camera properly, I mean.) Having applied a 1-foot square of this new film to my window, I am completely discouraged…and feeling guilty as the dickens. I hate the stuff! My window is 4’ tall and 5’ wide and is flanked by two more angled to the side. The other two have screens which make viewing and photography more than difficult. This film is worse than the window-screening! I hate it. I like the fact that my bay-window is south-facing and allows the sun to heat up my new porcelain floor. This is Colorado, after all…and solar heat helps! Besides, this film is stark white from the outside and black on the inside. In spite of the very many holes in the stuff…it makes the room considerably darker. I was told it cuts down on UV rays. Well, duh! I bet it’s dark enough to contribute significantly to SAD, too. I can see applying the stuff to huge office buildings where people don’t sit dreamily looking out the window for hours while watching wildlife…but I just don’t think it’s gonna work on my windows at home. Dammit, I was so hopeful, too!

I am wondering if I might find something in a slightly tighter ‘weave’ than the bird netting. By and large, I cannot really ‘see’ the stuff from inside my house, but I suspect even if it is drawn taut, birds will hit the glass. I have imagined building different frames to hold the netting, to keep it tight and yet using hinges to move the frame out of the way and allow cleaning of the window. Perhaps if I build a frame that holds it maybe 4-6 inches away from the window? I wonder if that would stop the poor things from hitting the window…and not propel them backwards into the pond I hope to build! OMG…what a thought!

I don’t think I can darken my new kitchen after spending so much to get it; it would be too depressing on so many levels…and the netting is making a pretty good difference already. Still, I hate how many birds deaths there are, for which I’m responsible. Has anybody an idea how to resolve this dilemma? I sure would appreciate help.

Preventing Bird Strikes

Well, I’ve given up trying for photographs for awhile; but I can tell you the black nylon bird-netting I’ve hung over my big kitchen window (and the back door with the 15 little panes) seems to be working. My dog, who knocks at the back door to come inside, pulled down the loose netting and before I could get it back up, I’ll be darned if yet another bird hit the glass! Arg!!!

The netting is ugly and loose; I’m trying to make it exceedingly easy for a bird to see the stuff and its working. More than once, I’ve seen something scatter birds, one or more heading directly for me, sitting inside, only to veer off well before they hit. I like this a great deal, but it’s totally messing up my photography…actually looking through the window ya hardly see the stuff, but the camera does.

The netting is the stuff one can put over a tree or shrub to keep birds away from fruit. It seems quite robust, but as the snow melts, it forms icicles on the netting where it’s not against the window, the weight of which pulls down the netting. Sheeshhh, it is temporary, but it gets old taping over tape every other day!

Soon the sample from CollideEscape will arrive…I’ll tell you all about it when it does. I was curious if it matters which way I hang the film (it doesn’t) and just how stark it will look from the yard (you can get it printed with just about anything…but that costs more). I rather like how the sun heats up the porcelain tile floor I have in the kitchen, but the film will cut down on UV rays. That’s a good thing, right? But can I really see through it? Can I learn to focus my camera past it? So many of my most recent photos show the webbing shadowed in each attempt, making my shots look even more childish than they really are.

I’ve been avoiding paperwork. I am the worst at sitting down and writing checks. I have no idea why…except that perhaps I’m afraid I’m not going to have enough money to pay all that I owe. Times are getting a bit scary; the utility bill at the shop, usually less than $80 for a month, was more than $350 for the thirty-one days of January. I find that scary; how does the cost of heat jump over 400%? I do not want to loose another 2/3 of my ‘retirement’…I have no idea what I would do were that to happen again. I’m going to go watch birds for awhile.

I’ve spent several long sessions at the kitchen window avoiding paperwork. At one time, I watched three Woodpeckers (both male and female Hairys and a little male Downy), two White-breasted Nuthatch, a bunch of Juncos, two or three Chickadees and the ever-present Eurasian Doves. I love the woods around here; they are thick with birds and offered up yet another I had not seen before. Well, perhaps I have but I failed to really notice it, other than to realize it looks much like a chipmunk with its rich chestnut and white-stripped body; the brown being much richer than so many of the other little brown birds. I will teach myself to look at birds.

This bird, though, had a black or velvet-grey crown and dark bib, with white cheeks and still those stripes of brown on its head; like a chipmunk. These days I try very hard to notice these things so perhaps I might identify the bird later. I remember telling myself: ‘black head and bib, white cheeks.’ The closest I found were the Harris’s Sparrow, though there was brown on its head, flanking the dark crown, and the cheeks were white...and there was the very dark bib. I wonder what it was…this little bird that only eats from the ground.

Heck, even the blasted Doves eat from the feeders; like huge bees trying to get inside a small flower; I’m not talking flat, tray-feeders here, this is a tube feeder with two narrow rings around the edges. These Eurasian Doves actually manage to perch, precariously on the edges and feed…not unlike the pesky squirrels! I am beginning to consider squab for dinner...

Okay, kidding aside, if anybody has a clue what this new little brown bird, here in Huerfano County (early February), might be…please leave a note. I’d appreciate it.

Oh, and I discovered two things today; a Slate Junco is not a Black Phoebe, and I could have Pine Warblers at my feeders. I recogonize the Siskins, and perhaps the American Goldfinches...but the olive-green backed, bright yellow-breasted little things might be Pine Warblers, no?

Bugs Catch and Eat Birds?

Who knew Preying Mantis eat hummingbirds? I sure didn’t. Click here for an astounding story with a couple very interesting, if somewhat gruesome pictures.

Okay, I’m a Googler; look what I found: a video clip of the same trick and another here where the big bug catches and eats a mouse! Sheeshhh!

Ya know, I might have nightmares…

I've been having a hard time at home these days; birds are regularly hitting my new kitchen window. I finally hung bird netting over the thing, not tight...but wrinkled, bent and moving a bit in the breeze. It's helping. Good lord, I was finding several every weekend; the only reason I didn't come home to the poor things at night is a cat has figured out where to get an easy meal. Ugg... I feel so irresponsible! I know full well that when I heard that sickening thump and went out to find a bird on the ground, keeping it safe for an hour or so till it could fly does not mean the poor thing lived. Generally they just fly off and die anyway. It's too sad.

When I lived off grid, I had the two feral cats that lived up there spayed and neutered and still felt horrible the number of birds the two of them caught and ate. If I ever keep another cat, it will be an indoor cat! I'd always understood that the main reason our song-birds are disappearing was domestic cats, but recently read windows are another huge contributor. It's the reflection, of course. Here are some disappointing stats regarding how many birds we kill annually. Hold on to your hats...

However, I've discovered some really cool stuff: a film ya put on the window which looks like a shade from the outside, but which you can see through from the inside! I've contacted the company and plan to buy the stuff as soon as I can. You can read all about the easy-to-install stuff here, and order it here; it keeps UV-rays down, too.

Speaking of bird fatalities, I've always enjoyed very dark dark. I am not a fan of 'light polution' but I had no idea it killed birds. This is such an easy fix; point lights down, keep the voltage low, turn them off at night. This is a quote from http://www.flap.org/ (Fatal Light Awareness Program)

Bird mortality at human-built structures receives relatively little public attention, but structural hazards are actually responsible for more bird kills than higher profile catastrophes such as oil spills.

Human-built structures have been recognized as a hazard to birds for more than a century. However, the accelerated rate of urban development in recent years has seen the proliferation of radio and television towers, office buildings, power lines, cooling towers, emission stacks, and residential housing, all of which represent an increasing threat to flying birds.

In the dark, and especially in foggy or rainy weather, the combination of glass and light becomes deadly. Confused by artificial lights, blinded by weather, and unable to see glass, birds by the hundreds and even thousands can be injured or killed in one night at one building. Over 140 different species of birds have collided with buildings in Toronto alone. One expert estimates that across North America, up to 100 million birds die in collisions each year. Many species that collide frequently are known to be in long-term decline and some are already designated officially as threatened. Compared to habitat loss, pollution, and over-hunting, the issue of building collisions is neither well-known nor adequately understood. Yet across North America, more birds die from collisions each year than succumbed to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Birds migrating at night are strongly attracted to, or at least trapped by, sources of artificial light, particularly during periods of inclement weather. Approaching the lights of lighthouses, floodlit obstacles, ceilometers (light beams generally used at airports to determine the altitude of cloud cover), communication towers, or lighted tall buildings, they become vulnerable to collisions with the structures themselves. If collision is avoided, birds are still at risk of death or injury. Once inside a beam of light, birds are reluctant to fly out of the lighted area into the dark, and often continue to flap around in the beam of light until they drop to the ground with exhaustion. A secondary threat resulting from their aggregation at lighted structures is their increased vulnerability to predation. The difficulty of finding food once trapped in an urban environment may present an additional threat.

I really hope you consider this stuff.