A vividly red fox, dead, in the middle of the road, and so often the quick hop to the roadside by the busy rook fails, and leads to a squishy end. But a writer in an English magazine declares that many, many bird deaths occur when they try to fly across a busy road - perhaps being pursued - and dash against the glass of the windows. Haven't seen that happen, but don't doubt that sun on glass has a bewildering effect on birds. Sometimes a bird, seeing the window at one side of a house which is duplicated by a window on the other side of a room, thinks it can fly where it can see - and ends its days there. Somewhat analogous, a pair of young kingfishers were skimming down a winding river and, rounding one bend, made for what they must have thought was the continuing sun-reflecting river. But it was not. It was a glass sliding door. The people inside heard two simultaneous thumps and looked out to see one bird dead or unconscious at the foot of the pane, the other writhing on the short grass a yard away. The first was dead. The second lasted only a few hours, coddling it in cotton wool being of no avail. That was a blow. The next bird death took place near the spot but not for the same reason.
There is a tall tree, almost bare at the top, just across the river, a good look-out point for a sparrow-hawk. One can often be seen surveying the two areas where the bird-feeders are. The first death was inexplicable, for the sparrow-hawk was found dead just under a small side window of plate glass. No one was in the house at the time of the incident. The other two took place around the feeding places. One was in an angled part of the house where the nuts etc., are well tucked in and are also protected by a curtain of chicken wire. One side of the angle is a one-storey boiler-house and utility room. The dead hawk was found on the ground there, obviously having swooped on a bird departing from the feeder and failed to pull out of its dive, so crashing into the wall or drainpipe. The third sparrow-hawk death (and these three incidents spanned something over a year) was likewise without a witness but it could have met its fate, which was near the scene of the kingfishers' death, but no marks on the glass. Might have hit a branch which protects the feeders. A few small birds over the years have hit the glass; a blackbird was once stunned but after an hour or less of rest in box in a darkish room, well cushioned, he stirred and, shortly after, put out gently on the grass, made off, apparently undamaged. Y