My House, the Bird Killer :(

(Sis - don't read this. It will make you too sad.) :(

I'm a little traumatized....

Yesterday evening, we noticed a dead bird on the balcony of our house, right outside our family room. I was very sad about it. I love birds, and grew up with them as pets.

This afternoon, while I was down in my office, I heard a loud "thump".

When I looked outside, I spotted another dead bird. :(

I realized that these birds must have flown into the glass walls that surround the balconies in the back of our house. (we have two.) They must fly hard and fast into the walls, then fall down (in each case, at least 10 feet).

Each time, I sent Dick out to check on them, and each time, to my dismay, they were dead.

Poor dead birdies. :(

Dick and I have noticed that there's been a flurry of birdie activity in our backyard and our neighbor's backyards over the past week or so. I mentioned it to Blane this morning, and he thinks that it is bird hatching season. I've been seeing many more birds than usual, flying to and fro. Many of them are flying to our neighbor's backyard to a fruiting tree, plucking the fruit, and flying it back to their nests across the yards. My Dad said that he has heard of birds getting bit drunk off of too-ripe fruit, but we're not sure if that is the case here.

Anyhow, I was so traumatized by the two dead birds within 24 hours of each other. I tried to figure out what I could do to help them realize that there was a glass wall behind our house. At first, I put out several towels to drape over the railing. After a while, though, it was obvious that they were just gong to get wet, flap around in the wind, and eventually fall down.

Dick came up with the brilliant idea of putting blue painters tape up on the glass in large "X's". It won't be a problem if it gets wet or windy, and should do the trick.

So, I went out with a big roll of tape, and put several "X's" on each pane of glass. For good measure, I did one additional horizontal line all the way across. Don't want the birdies to think they can fly right in-between.

It looks pretty funny. I'm sure my neighbors are wondering what the heck I'm doing. Maybe they'll think I'm putting up some sort of modern art? ;)

I sure hope the tape works and that the birds will stop flying straight at the glass.

I'll be mighty depressed if my house continues to kill these poor birds.