The onset of spring has triggered a flurry of activity with our wild birds as they prepare for the imminent start of the breeding season. Certainly this week we have had many reports of territorial birds seemingly attacking or flying at windows or other reflective surfaces. There is advice available on our website about birds attacking windows. Such as using window stickers on the outside of the reflective surfaces.
It would be interesting to see if anybody here has ever experienced this? - at this time of year or throughout the breeding season? If so how long did it go on for? Did you try anything to stop the bird, and if so what worked best?
Best wishes
Lloyd
I use clingfilm on the outside of whichever is the problem window. It doesn't stop light getting in, it doesn't prevent me seeing out or taking photos (stickers would get in the way) but it does prevent the reflections so the birds are not in danger of flying into it or trying to attack what they think is another bird.
The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.
The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!
Hi Seymour
Thank you for your advise about removal of stickers from glass windows.
I feel inclined to stick the stickers to our windows now.
Regards
Kathy and Dave
seymouraves said: CLEANING STICKERS off WINDOWS Hi, a squirt of lighter fuel or vinegar and then scraping with an old razor blade normally gets most stickers off:) S
CLEANING STICKERS off WINDOWS
Hi,
a squirt of lighter fuel or vinegar and then scraping with an old razor blade normally gets most stickers off:)
S
Another removal trick for stickers is to cover it with a wet tissue. Hold tissue & squirt water with spray bottle. Leave for 10 mins and you should be able to start peeling from a corner.
Hi Aquilareen
Thank you for your advice, and I will follow as per instructions.
So appreciated
aquilareen said: Another removal trick for stickers is to cover it with a wet tissue. Hold tissue & squirt water with spray bottle. Leave for 10 mins and you should be able to start peeling from a corner.
A blackbird flew into one of my upstairs windows not long after I moved into this house. This was in July, and I don't think the bird was very old. I was away at the time, but the person housesitting ran out and picked up the blackbird, who apparently just closed his eyes and died in my friend's hands. He buried the blackbird in the garden, and made a little headstone from a piece of slate.
I was so mortified when I got back, and felt really guilty; but it was that incident that first made me think of feeding the birds in the garden, so you could say that something good came of that poor bird's death.
In the village in Cumbria where I spend my summer, they have a lot of swallows (or possibly swifts - not quite sure which), and almost every house has strips of old carrier bags fluttering by the windows, or else a whole carrier bag, tied with the air inside so it's a bit like a balloon, and hung from the top of the window on a bit of string. I guess the way it catches in the breeze must make it seem like a large predator, or something to be avoided anyway. Not terribly pretty, I agree, but it does the trick.
Down here on the South Coast, I normally just close the curtains or use window stickers, but I must admit I had never thought of clingfilm; I'll have to give it a try. I did have a pigeon fly into the large patio window this summer just gone. The pigeon was fine (though a bit dizzy), but it did leave an impressive bird-shaped dirty mark on the window, which seemed to deter anyone else from trying it!!
As an aside, is clingfilm completely non-reflective? - ie if you put it on the inside of the windows, would you be able to take photos from inside without the flash reflecting?
BB
Hi BB, I haven't tried putting it on the inside. The advice to put it on the outside was given to me last year by a staff member of the RSPB HQ when I phoned in desperation after my male chaffinch began hurling himself at the window trying to attack his reflection. He stopped doing it instantly when I put the clingfilm on the outside of the window so I do know that works.
I only know of two ways to stop flash bounce back - one is to have the camera lens as close to the window as you can get (actually on it if that is possible) or to take the photos at an angle through the window rather than directly facing it. I turn my flash off, though, as it tends to make the birds jump!