Mya Bell's Backyard Birding Diary - 9 July 04

Mya Bell's Diary 9 July 2004

Location:

My back yard in the Pacific Northwest.

Critter highlights:

• Chestnut-backed Chickadee

• Red-breasted Nuthatch
• Mystery Wren

Mya Bell's Diary:

Dangerous Obstructions.

On June 21, at 9:20, I was at the sitting at the computer, in my writing corner, when I heard a loud whack. There is a window in the house that seems to be invisible to birds, the others aren't usually hit. A while back, I added a screen to one side of the dangerous window and thought the visibility problem had been solved--no birds flew into it during the winter or early spring, so I stopped worrying. Then I heard the whack and I was sure it must be a bird.

I ran to the deck and looked under the window. There, on the ground, was a tiny lump of feathers. It was a chestnut-backed chickadee, probably a juvenile (it seemed stubbier than a full-grown adult). I was heartbroken. It looked dead, and the sound of the collision was loud. I didn't think there was any chance the little bird had survived but, just in case, I ran outside to make sure.

Dead or Alive? There was no movement when I reached the bird. It didn't even look like it was breathing, but I gently picked it up and it began to move its head and to open its eyes. It was in shock and had its beak wide open. In my childhood I lived in a house with many tall windows and birds often hit them. I remember being devastated every time one of them died. Gradually, by the time I was about 11, I began to notice that the ones I held cupped in my hands for an extended length of time seemed to do better. After a while, I started putting them in a small box, in a dark place (away from disturbances) and these birds did better still. If they didn't have broken necks, they survived, and I was able to set them free in about 15 or 20 minutes. I thought about that as I kept the little chickadee covered up with my hands and tried not to startle it. It didn't seem very inclined to move and I wondered how badly it was injured.

Shock. I kept the little bird in the dark for some time and then was eager to set it free so it could live its life as a bird--unconfined. I took it out into the back yard and set it on a branch in one of the smaller trees. Its little feet clung to my fingers. It didn't want to give up the certain perch for an uncertain one on the tree. Usually a bird will hop onto a branch if you touch the branch to the back of its ankles, but this little chickadee was determined to stay put. I was so focused on trying to peel it gently and safely off my finger that I didn' t notice it had begun to "pant" again, with its beak wide open. I didn't even notice until I took a step back to raise the camera for a farewell picture. Then I realized I had released it too soon. This left me with a dilemma. Should I recapture the bird and put it in a dark box for a while longer, or leave it and hope it would come out of shock and be all right? It was a difficult decision. In the end, I decided to leave it alone, since capturing it would frighten it and the little bird didn't need any more trauma. I took a quick photo and then left it in peace to recover, making sure there were no cats around (we have many cats in the neighborhood). Later, when I checked, the little bird was gone.

Concerned about the near-death of the chickadee, I moved a hummingbird feeder so it was in front of the deadly window and reflected clearly on the glass. I was hoping this would be the last time a bird would be killed or injured on that window.

Deja Vu. Fate Strikes Again.

On July 8, at about 10:20, I was sitting at my computer, working on my novel, when I heard the awful sound again. Whack. Another bird had hit the window. I jumped up and ran to the deck. There, lying on the planks, was a little red-breasted nuthatch. Like the chickadee, it was just a bit stubbier than a full-grown adult and I assumed it was a juvenile. Because the chickadee had survived, I had hopes that the nuthatch was still alive, but when I picked up the little bird, there was no movement, no pulse, no heartbeat.

I grieved for a while, then realized there was nothing I could do. At that point, it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to photograph the bird. We used to have quite a few nuthatches inhabiting the trees around our neighborhood, but this year I have only seen two, so I was especially sad to see this little one die. I thought if I had a record of it, perhaps it might be of use to ornithologists now or sometime in the future.

I photographed and measured the bird. It was about 10 cm long, with a width of 18 cm and a wingspan of 8 cm for each wing. The leg length (excluding feet) was 1 cm. I didn't think to weigh the bird on my postal scale. I found it difficult to do all this weighing and measuring. It seemed somehow disrespectful of the dead, but I went ahead and did so anyway, telling myself it would do more good to have the information and maybe contribute to our overall knowledge of birds in the area, perhaps someday helping future birds.

Short of covering up the window (which provides light for my plants), I wasn't sure of what else I could do to stop birds from flying into it. I moved the patio furniture and the umbrella closer to the window, hoping that would help. I also thought about getting some stickers. I'd like to find something that doesn't block the light or "uglify" the window. Perhaps something that looks like stained glass would do the trick.

Bad Luck in Threes. Today, July 9th, I was taking a dinner break around 18:30, when I heard a ruckus near the deck. It suddenly sounded as though three or four crows were right outside the window. This was unusual indeed. Steller's jays usually chase away the crows and even when they don't, the crows are usually reluctant to come near the house.

In the rare instances where I see crows near the house, there are usually only two or three at a time, but when I went out to look, there were at least five or six. They quickly high-tailed it to the treetops when I stepped onto the deck and then left with a lot of noise and circling. I wondered if a hawk had come into the neighborhood and gone to ground from crows trying to scare it away, but I didn't see any hawks in the vicinity. Eventually I went inside.

Mystery Bird. A couple of hours later, to our great surprise, we discovered a little brown bird on the deck under the window where the nuthatch had died. This greatly surprised me. I had been sitting by the window for hours, working on the laptop, and I hadn't heard any birds bash against the window. As we looked at the bird, it occurred to me that this is what had caused the crows to pay their noisy visit. Perhaps a crow had raided a nest (although this bird looked old enough to leave the nest) and the others were trying to get a piece of the action. Unfortunately, the little bird was dead and was just beginning to become stiff. There was nothing that could be done and I realized it was probably a coincidence that the bird was near the window, since there had been no sound of a collision all day.

I didn't recognize the bird and had to look in several field guides. Even after looking at three bird books (I'm still very much an amateur at identifying birds), I couldn't identify the bird. The tail was longer than a house wren. There was no eye stripe (maybe juveniles don't have them?) and the legs were dark, almost black, unlike the birds in the field guides. I'm going to have to leave this up to the experts. I'm not sure if it's a house wren or perhaps an immature Bewick's wren or some other type of wren. I'm pretty sure it's a wren, but I'm not 100% sure. Perhaps it's a juvenile of some other species. Here are the pictures (this time I remembered to include a ruler in the picture). Perhaps someone reading this can figure out the species of bird.

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