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March 25th, 2004  Off The Looking Glass If birds were like Alice - of Wonderland fame - they would have it made. Upon meeting a reflective windowpane surface they would zip right through - instead of bashing into it headlong. Well this isn't a wild bird wonderland we’re living in because impacting a window causes the demise of many a bird. Several days ago I received a phone call from a lady who lives nearby. Upon returning home she had spotted a dead bird lying beside her house. Judging by the position of the bird she assumed it hit a window. She said it was a Merlin and knowing my interest in birds, asked if I wanted to see it. I wasn't going to be home early next day, so on the way to work she planned to drop the bird’s body off at the storage unit in my driveway - I call it a storage unit, the neighbours call it a broken down car. When I got home later in the day I checked and sure enough there was a brown bag on the floor, on the driver’s side of the storage unit. I carried the bag to the house then changed out of my city clothes before going out to investigate the bag contents. I should mention that at sundown, the day before I received my bird, I washed the main outside front window of my house. This may sound like an incongruent paragraph in a story about a Merlin killed on a window and now in a paper bag - but trust me, it ties in. The window definitely needed washing after a year’s worth of dust build-up. Along with the grime I also washed off the tempera paint dots that I apply to this window every year. But now, back to the Merlin. I opened the bag on the front step and slid the bird out. I was quite surprised to see that it wasn’t a Merlin. It was a Sharp-shinned Hawk in mature plumage. Having been primed to see a Merlin spill from the bag, I had a moment of confusion. Well, maybe not confusion but at least a moment of self-pop-quizzing. First of all how could I tell it was a Sharp-shinned Hawk and not a Merlin? Both are about the same size, have about the same colouration in the interior of the province, and have gray, barred tails. One of the first things that made me think Sharp-shinned is I’ve held a number of window-killed Sharp-shinneds in the spring of other years. It is at this time of year when they migrate, hungry and unfamiliar with their surroundings. When they swoop to attack Juncos, Siskins, and other small birds that congregate around feeders, their speed and hasty decision-making cause window reflections to look like corridors through the landscape. Impacts at these speeds are often fatal. I was still interested in the bird even though it was a Sharp-shinned Hawk and not a Merlin. I unfurled one of its wings and noted its sturdy, round shape, not unlike the wing of a Ruffed Grouse, which is ideal for quick maneuvers in thick bush. The longer primary feathers were "emarginated" which means, and I quote from Taverner’s ancient bird book, ‘when applied to the shape of a feather indicates that more or less of one web is cut away as if a shaving had been removed with a jack-knife.’ Next I turned my attention to the thin yellow legs with their ‘pants’ as I call the long feathers that often grace the legs of raptors. The foot was a work of incredible adaptation. The inner toe and the hind toe essentially have no joints save for the spot right at the nail and where the toe joins the foot. The other two toes were long and multi jointed making them essentially clasping, squeezing devices. Comparing the two pairs of toes on each foot I deduced that the joint-less toes work like baling hooks and would make the job of hauling prey less fatiguing than having to perpetually apply squeezing pressure. The head too, was a work of art. The iris of the eye, though now a bit crumpled, still showed the chestnut red colour of an adult bird. Fine hair-like feathers bristled out in front of the eye and around the cere, or nostril cover, a good adaptation I thought, in an area that regularly saw gore and blood, which would easily cause matting on typical absorbent feathers. Predator birds need tools that can dispatch prey efficiently and the beak of the Sharp-shinned is obviously so designed. Though it lacked the tomial tooth of a Merlin, a pointed process that aids in cutting, the beak possessed its own version of a shearing tool, a drop down ridge that when pressed to the lower mandible would have a swift guillotine effect. The details of the Sharp-shinned so intrigued me that I decided then and there that I must do some sketches of it. Until that point I thought I would either scan the bird into the computer for later study or take a few photos. I went into the house to get my drawing paper and as I put together my portable drawing surface I heard a thump from the front room. Instantly I knew a bird had hit the window. I also knew instantly that I had not reapplied the tempera dots on the outside of the panes after I cleaned the window. Luckily it was a light impact and the Siskin that struck the window flew back to the water dish barely fazed by the sudden stop it was forced to make. I dropped everything and went to get my bottle of liquid tempera. Pouring a little paint into a shallow container I went outside and around to the front window. Using my fingertip (tempera is a non-toxic paint) I dabbed dots of paint over all nine of the panes. Now the window impacts would cease. When I first moved to this house the front window and a side window were deadly for birds but with tempera dots applied to the outside of the glass window strikes were totally eliminated. I found these dots also work in instances where a bird becomes fixated with its reflection in a window. A few years ago a Yellow-rumped Warbler started attacking the back window. I thought it would tire of flying up and down against the glass but after an hour of battling the phantom reflection it would retire to a limb then begin again. I went outside and applied the dots to the window. When I came back inside the Warbler flew up to the window to resume its antics but then backed off. The paint dots had ruined its game and it never came back. I finally got around to sketching the Sharp-shinned Hawk. When I was done I set the bird out the back of the property where it might be taken away by the local coyote. Having had a chance to see the details of this small raptor up close I couldn’t help but contemplate the exquisite and awesome creations that nature puts forth. I was also keenly aware of the seeming indifference with which the most perfectly formed creature is taken back without fanfare or grudge. To e-mail Tom CLICK HERE To look at previous column CLICK HERE |
