Pockets of the sacred
and the Mystery stood sentinel on either side of existence
Hello. This post is about Death & Birds.
It’s been a strange week... Norman and his crew arrived and settled nicely into their aviary. These birds already feel like part of our family, our community; in as much as, their happiness and wellbeing directly impacts my happiness and wellbeing. I spent all of last night dreaming about them.
A few days ago, a juvenile Robin flew into one of our upstairs windowpanes, dying instantly. We have ‘anti-collision’ stickers on our windows, so rather than seeing foliage reflected in the glass and heading for it (which is the cause of most window strikes) it is likely that she was being chased.
As is customary in our household, she was laid to rest on a bed of herbs and flowers, in a wooded area of the garden—a prayer wishing her well on her journey to whatever may be next. She looked like a Waterhouse painting.
Her Death led me to look at figures relating to window strikes. According to the American Ornithological Society an estimate of between 365 and 988 million birds are killed annually by building collisions. In the UK it’s around 100 million—again, annually. These figures are secondary to the Deaths caused by habitat destruction.