For the Birds

This fall I’ve been enjoying the migrant birds in my garden. The sparrows (white-throated and song) are back and so are the yellow-rumped warblers.  Flocks of golden-crowned kinglets perch on branches and flower stalks to glean tiny insects.  They seem fearless and allow me to get quite close to them.  One day I was thrilled to observe a group of northern parulas bathing in the pond.  Amongst them was a further surprise - a lone Canada warbler identified by a dark grey necklace on its bright yellow breast.  Late-flowering plants, seed heads and berries are plentiful in my garden to feed these visitors.  However, I was alerted to a hazard for these birds when I kept on hearing the sound of dull thuds against my picture windows, from which I have beautiful view of surrounding trees looking resplendent in fall color.  But reflections of this canopy in the glass were proving to be deadly. 

So I used some specially designed bird tape from the American Bird Conservancy to prevent further collisions.  Now my windows have arrays of 3” squares of opaque tape. There is still a view from within, the birds can sense there is no way through and this arrangement is proving to be quite decorative. The squares sometimes shimmer with shadows and light.