Birds vs Windows

While working on some writing I heard a loud "bang" at the window. I knew immediately it was a bird, they do tend to smack into these big windows.  I turned and noticed the bird bounce off the glass and then zoom right back and grabbed the screen with his little feet and just hung there.  I found a great solution to keep birds from striking the windows last fall, and I knew I just needed to refresh it, (I'll show you my trick) but first, I was worried about the bird!

So I grabbed my phone figuring it would fly off soon, and I started snapping photos. The closer I got, I realized that the bird was really stunned. It was blinking it's little eyes and it beak was hanging open. The little chickadee allowed me to get really close.

Mouth open, eyes half closed, poor baby....

I was shocked, this bird must have really been seeing stars.  So I decided to Reiki the little sweetie through the glass.  Reiki is a specific kind of energy healing method that originated in Japan.  It allows you to channel universal life energy through your hands in order to heal people, animals, plants, and even situations, it's very soothing and works amazingly well.  I've been a Reiki Master/Teacher for years, but this was a unique situation that I've never had come up.  I sat with my hands against the glass for 3-5 minutes and the little bird just sat there soaking it up! I was just amazed. Finally, it closed it beak and the eye blinking slowed down as it began to turn it's head left and right looking around like, "where am I, what the hell happened?!"  It sat there a bit longer enjoying the Reiki, and then finally fluttered away.

Some Reiki energy for my feathered friend, I can't believe it sat there for that long!

Last fall when I noticed that birds do fly into the windows a lot, I've added some UV stickers to the windows, and I also dot  the windows with transparent UV liquid, both products help the birds see the window. To them, they just see the trees reflected in the glass and they think they can fly right on through, but the UV really stands out to their little birdie eyes so they know somethings up.  The UV liquid lasts awhile, but it's not permanent, and I knew after the experience with the stunned bird, it was time to refresh it.

THIS is the stuff! I found this last fall online on a website called Window Alert, I bought two bottle and some of their stickers too.

This is really cool, it's like a bingo marker, but it has special UV liquid that's designed to help keep birds from striking windows. I ordered two bottles of it last fall long with some UV leaf shaped stickers.

One of the leaf stickers, these are transparent and still are UV visible to the birds.  I didn't want to cover my windows with stickers, so I put them on the panes where birds were striking hard last year, and then I add dots of the less visible to the human eye liquid to the rest.

The stickers are pretty transparent so they don't mess up your view, I bet you never noticed them in my previous blog posts, but the birds can see them and the liquid very well, to the birds, they actually glow! Just so you know, I'm not getting paid to write this post, I'm just sharing it because it works.

Just dot it on, I do the middle of each square and the center of where the white lines on the windows meet.

They suggest you can use the marker in shapes too, if you choose to, you could make hearts, or magical symbols for healing and protection.  The stuff is slightly visible to the human eye, I just kept it simple with dots but applying magical intention and Reiki as I went.

I find that our birds strike the screened part of the windows too, it's a little more bouncy, so they probably don't get hurt as badly, but I like to treat that area too. push the screen against the window with one hand and apply the liquid right through the screen.

Here's the view out my studio window, it's quite jarring when I'm sitting there working on art or writing and a bird bashes into the window! I jump out of my skin, and then I worry about the little guys. You can see the difference between the stickers and the liquid here, it's really hard to take a photo of the liquid dots.  Visitors don't notice them unless I point them out.

You would think sun catchers in the window would help...

...but their little birdie eyes just see the trees reflected off the surface of the glass window!

I do have to add new liquid UV dots from time to time, I know when it's time because the birds let me know with a few big "bam" sounds.  If you love to feed and watch the birds the way that we do, and have a window or several that they seem to be smacking into, this stuff really works, it's affordable, and doesn't ruin your view.  Here's the link: http://www.windowalert.com/

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions, I've been using this stuff for about a year.

Blessed Be!,
Mickie