Monday, May 05, 2008

A Window Strike in the Hand...

And the hits just keep on comin' -- literally, I'm afraid. On my way to work in Philly late Sunday afternoon, I found the carcasses of seven birds who'd slammed into the plate glass windows on the north side of the Wachovia  headquarters near Independence Hall. There's a pocket park between the building and Old Christ Church Cemetery, both of which make for good birding during migration. The cruel joke is that a fair number of birds never make it out of the migrant trap.  (Several Octobers ago, I went out to get a look at the lunar eclipse, and found a dead woodcock there. That one really hurt.)

Here's what I found Sunday:

4 Ovenbirds
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 White-throated Sparrow
1 Swamp Sparrow

They're bagged and labeled in my freezer, cheek by beak with the ice cream and Niman Ranch bacon, awaiting delivery to the Academy of Natural Sciences. It's a good bet they'll have company before migration's over.

3 comments:

Julie Zickefoose said...

Hi Catbird. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your comments on my blog. Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'm writing about a solution to window strikes in the March/April issue of Bird Watcher's Digest. It will be available on bigger newsstands.

giggles said...

Oh this is horrible!!!!

Glad JZ will tell us all how to fix it!!

Hey, can you take them to a local taxidermist and keep them for yourself? (Is that weird? I once, 12 years ago when my first child was born, had what I believe was an immature Coopers slam into the side of our newly built addition and break it's neck.... Having just given birth and hormones raging, did not know the right thing to do.... I wish I could have had it preserved because it was absolutely bee-u-ti-ful, but a friend said that would have been illegal... I forget, something about the kind of bird or something, but oh, I wish I had known to do something besides bury the creature....)

Kathie Brown said...

Ouch is right! Oh how it breaks my heart. I read that article by Julie. It's very good. Thanks for stopping by my blog. Blossom is doing much better. I've posted an update today.