Thursday 31 July 2014

I take pride in having clean windows................ but there's times I wish I didn't

I try and keep my windows spotlessly clean...
...a lot of my bird images and video clips have been captured through the glass.

Unfortunately clean glass has it's problems... birds see the reflected garden and fly full tilt into the glass.
 In my garden it always seems to be the Goldfinches.

This little fella hit the glass hard last May... it recovered but took over half an hour.
 I stuck adhesive decals on the glass which seemed to do the trick... this year I forgot!

 This juvenile Goldfinch crashed into the kitchen window the other night with quite a thud.

It ended up on top of the BBQ and seemed to be recovering.
I had to nip out to the shops....it only took me 10 minutes.
When I got home it was dead.... the decals are now back on the glass!

Linking to Saturday's CrittersCamera CrittersOur World Tuesday...
  ...Wild Bird Wednesday and  The Bird D'pot

30 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

i hate when that happens! even on my 'non-clean' sliding glass doors, we still get crashes. lost a female hummingbird the other day. :(

ADRIAN said...

Andrew, if I have feeders out by the truck I spray silicon wax on the truck windows, I use car polish but I guess Pledge would do. It saves dead birds and also deters moths and insects.

Bob Bushell said...

Yeah, it always does them every time, and they are dirty windows.

Stephanie said...

That poor bird. Beautiful shots!

John @ Beans and I on the Loose said...

This is always a problem. I will set them in a warm dry protected place, sitting upright with their head resting on a support. I've had good rehabs this way. If the neck is broke though, nothing can be done.

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

HI Andrew How sad. Interesting advise from John. Worth a try if it happens again.

Breathtaking said...

Hello Andrew!:)Beautiful pictures but with a very sad story. I hate it when that happens and it does seem to happen regularly, when birds try to fly through the closed Windows, but also when they fly through the open door and then try to fly out through the closed Windows. The tape is a good idea.

Brian King said...

It does happen. The decals are a good idea!

Stewart M said...

I can't say that clean windows are much of a problem in my house!

Shame about the birds - hope the decals work.

Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

EG CameraGirl said...

It's so sad that birds sometimes fly into windows. The decals sound like a good idea.

eileeninmd said...

Andrew, beautiful birds. The Goldfinch is always a favorite of mine.. Sad to hear about the juvie Goldfinch! The decals are a good idea.. Great shots! Thank you for sharing your post with my critter party.. Have a happy weekend!

Unknown said...

Poor little thing! It's so sad everytime it happens.

Rajesh said...

Very beautiful and colorful birds.

Adam Jones said...

That's such a shame. Poor thing.

sandyland said...

wow color poppin

sunshine said...

Wow, sunning birds, photos and details.

Andrea @ From The Sol said...

The decals do help in general, but the birds usually hit the windows hard when they have been startled and decals don't matter at that point. We were taught in rehab to fold a paper towel, put it in the bottom of a paper bag then pick the bird up and put him/her into it and put it in a quiet spot. Make sure you loosely close the top so it can't fly out. This relieves them of the stress and allows them to recover, if they are going to. If you hear them fluttering in the bag after a short time you can release them ... if they are still stunned and not active they need to go to a rehab facility if you are lucky enough to have one near by. If you don't have rehab as an option, you can probably just open the top of the bag and set it outside. If they do make a slow recovery then they can leave ... most likely you will find them dead in the bottom and then you have a bag to dispose of them with. If it is a head injury, our rehab has the means of giving them an injection that will keep the brain swelling down, thus allowing them to avoid brain damage from pressure on the brain. They recommend we bring in any head injury because, though they may seem to recover, as the brain swells they will run into trouble later and probably not survive. So, I know, too much information, but just trying to help out in case you are interested. Great post about a sad outcome ...

Andrea @From The Sol

Karen said...

Oh, I hate it when that happens! I've had a couple of casualties here from that.

Anonymous said...

Such a sad outcome for this little bird. Hope the decals do the trick.

Valerie said...

Gorgeous Goldfinch capture Andrew.

Ileana said...

Poor bird!:(

Fun60 said...

That is a really sad tale.

carol l mckenna said...

Wow! Beautiful birds and great photography for OWT ~ thanks,

artmusedog and carol ( A Creative Harbor

FAB said...

Sad end for the Goldie. Hope the decals work Andrew.

Anonymous said...

We were always having robins hit our windows. Never had any that did not recover. So sorry (

BumbleVee said...

Oh, dear ...sorry to hear about your poor birdies... but love the photos of the finch... what rich colours... once we took down our big tree in front of the windows...they haven't hit them since... thank goodness

A Colorful World said...

Poor baby! It's hard to know what to do...you want to enjoy them but they don't understand that there is a barrier sometimes. Glad the birds recovered. You got some great pictures! I had a Gray Hawk (which is pretty rare) fly into my back sliding glass door once when it was chasing a dove.I usually keep the metal grating ajar but closed enough that such things won't happen...on that day, the grate was more widely open. It was sad, but I managed to get one fuzzy picture of him before he recovered and flew away.

Anonymous said...

Poor bird! They just haven't quite evolved enough to recognize glass yet have they? We had that happen a few times when we had our house and bird feeders in Oregon. Nowadays my windows aren't clean enough for it to be a problem. (good excuse maybe?) (I think the decals are a bettr idea tho.)

Anni said...

Yep....we have placed those transparent decals on our glass also...they DO work.

Wonderful images....love the little baby finch. And of course, the adult is so very handsome.

Thanks for sharing and linking up at I'd Rather B Birdin' this weekend.

Arija said...

Clean windows or even not very clean windows are a problem. When I found a dead juvenile blackbird under the clothes line at the western side of the house, I closed the curtains on the offending window of the guest room. Since I have windows on opposite sides of all rooms except the kitchen, it is a perennial problem in spring with young birds around.