Northern Flicker Sonnet
Western Birds Meet Western Windows
By Joseph Friedrichs, 4-15-08
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| A Northern Flicker. | |
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I was near the fireplace when the bird hit. The creature smacked the glass sliding door with a massive “thawwump” sound. I was terrified by the noise. Yet when I rose to investigate the source of the sound, and saw the small bird twitching and breathing its last in a pool of its own dark-red blood, a strange sense of calm came over me.
The bird died seconds after I saw it suffering there on the deck. It was a Northern Flicker, and all I could do at that moment was hope its time on this planet was well spent. Then I picked up the carcass and heaved it down a steep embankment for the coyotes, or some other scavenger to gnaw on.
There are an estimated 35 million bird deaths each year in the United States due to collisions with windows. The death of this Northern Flicker was not unique. In fact, it’s believed that window-collision is the number one cause of death for birds in the U.S.
All across the country birds are meeting their demise by bashing at full speed into panes of glass. It happens most often because birds see the reflection in the window as an extension of their natural habitat. My dead Flicker likely didn’t see some goon trying to light a fire inside a small cabin, as was the case. Rather, the poor feller just saw juniper trees and jagged rocks before reality jolted to a sudden stop.
I’ve read that the only way to stop birds dying from this morbid means of death is to get rid of the reflection on a window or interrupt it so that it looks less real to the bird. Cutout figures resembling a bird or placing plants near large windows are rumored to reduce bird-to-window collisions. In reality though, the more windows humans continue to put up, the more birds that are going to die.
Right now you might be asking, “If all these birds are dying by hitting windows, how come we never see them?” Truth is, scavengers such as gulls, crows, magpies, vultures, rats and feral cats and dogs often clean up the evidence before most of us get to see it. You know when you look to the sky and see a gull peacefully soaring through the air, and you say “Honey, look, a seagull is enjoying the beautiful day.” Wrong. It’s looking for a dead relative to chew on.
There’s a belief among those of French-Canadian descent that when a bird hits a window someone is going to die. Oddly enough, not long after this Northern Flicker came to its ultimate demise, Charlton Heston passed away. I’m not sure if there’s a link, but it sure makes you think, doesn’t it?
And on that note, I’d like to dedicate the following sonnet to the Northern Flicker whose life came to an end here in Central Oregon by flying into a sliding glass door:
What You Knew I Now Know
I must believe you’d known of death
Its common knowledge to all beasts,
even those of red flashes and speckled breast
I wonder of your finest meal, you earthly treat:
Did you find a golden seed upon to feast?
Was there fruit upon the glowing vine?
Often times your great wings flew east
Northern Lights and Flickers will forever shine
Birds and love are free to soar,
Believe that life goes through a pane
As pain and angst cost a mind more
That sheet of glass had none to gain.
And now you’re dead my bleeding friend
Life is bliss and tragic, and then it ends.
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Comments
So, to save birds, environmental organizations sue over farming practices. Cat food gets more space in the grocery aisle. And the birds continue to die. You almost wonder if Cormack McCarthy is writing the script. It all seems hopeless and bloody for the birds, with no evident reason for their aimless, random deaths. The nature of cats and cars to kill. The lot of birds to die. And mankind not really giving a good god damn without a tax deduction.