One day last week we heard a loud thump and saw a bird on the steps to the deck. It had flown into the sliding glass door and broken its neck. This was a first for us here.
I noted it's demise in the front of my Peterson Field Guide to Birds:
2022 - A Hairy Woodpecker.
The entry was preceded by these birds who met their deaths flying into windows at The Lodge (the house we built and lived in from 2005-2016 in Baltimore County, Maryland)
2005 - Cedar Waxwing
2006 - Falcon, Cardinal, Blue Grosbeak, and an unknown gray bird
2007, 2008, 2009 - a Thrush each year. (Funny thing is I never saw these birds alive but would hear their beautiful call in the evening)
2010 - White Throated Sparrow.
[There was a hummingbird that died but not from hitting the window. It was hanging from a plant support. I did rescue lots of hummingbirds from the screen porch. They would fly into the screen and get their beaks stuck.]
I hope there won't be more bird deaths by window in our future.
***
Shutterfly sent me a photos from 6 years ago on this date - we were madly in the midst of downsizing and all the family was visiting to decide what they wanted of the stuff we were parting with. The Lodge had sold the first weekend in April and we'd signed the papers to move to the continuing care retirement community (Vantage House) in Columbia, MD. Boy has our life changed since then!
Two photos from 2016
...I would have found it difficult to say goodbye to the Lodge!
ReplyDeleteAw, too bad that happened — happens.
ReplyDeleteThankfully I don't have a problem with birds hitting the windows in this house - though I've no idea why. A friend who lives just down the road from me had to stop feeding the birds as they had a Sparrowhawk which flushed birds from his feeders in such a way that many flew into the window as they tried to escape, the hawk then just came and picked up the dead or senseless birds.
ReplyDeleteCan you put a decal or big flower emblem on the sliding glass door? Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteWe had a mourning dove fly into our window (slidingglass doors) and die. I was so sad!!
ReplyDeleteI love woodpeckers and we get them at the feeder in the far backyard but i've never seen one get very close to the house.
ENJOY the rest of the weekend.
If it happens often, you can try cutting a silhouette of a flying hawk out of black paper and taping it to the window.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you're enjoying New Hampshire, Marcia!
ReplyDelete