Last week I took a long (unpaid) lunch to take a little warbler someone had found stunned outside to the Wildlife Care Center. He was alive, but twitching. It was sad.
Then today, I heard a smack and went out to see what it was – it was a dead bird. Freshly dead. Another dead bird, of exactly the same kind, was right next to it, having died earlier. One of the office dwellers said, oh yeah, the birds are smacking into the windows – “worse than usual lately.” He hypothesized that it was due to the wildfires burning all over our state, making the air hazy and smoky. Really, much of this week it has smelled like a campfire outside. There was another one someone had seen hopping around in the bushes, so he made it (hopefully is just recovering rather than permanently crippled in some way).
So I go online and find these things – http://www.windowalert.com – and order a bunch. An hour later, another smack. AGGGH!
This time, the little guy must have been going slower because he was still alive. I sat outside and waited to see if he’d die – I’d hate to make a creature’s last moments any more stressful than they already are. He didn’t, so I brought him inside and found a box. He wasn’t doing so well – had one (or both) eyes closed, didn’t appear to be able to move, was gasping for air. I gave him some peace while I went outside and put bits of tape all over the windows so the birds could see them.
When I checked on him a bit later, he had perked up. I took his box outside, where he could be warm and waited a few minutes. When I checked again, he was squawking at me. Still didn’t appear to be moving well, so waited a bit longer. Opened the box, saw he started to flutter around inside. I opened the box and here he came! He sat there long enough for me to get some pictures. Then he fluttered down to the bushes, where I hope he makes a full recovery.
Please let this be the last bird that runs into our windows!!! They are just so tiny and precious – and what a senseless way to die. :(
