But one day, weeks if not months ago, I noticed this ghostly imprint of a bird on our window. It doesn't photograph well. But it was like a snapshot — raised wings, neck, head, beak, body. No mistaking it. A bird.
And here is the odd part.
Having seen it, registered it, repeatedly, over a span of time, I then did ... nothing. There seemed nothing to do. I went about my business, making coffee, washing dishes, warming dinner. All the stuff one does in the kitchen.
Now and then, I'd see the outline, and eventually a thought came to me:
"I ought to wash that off."
And even then the thought was held in suspended animation, not acted upon, and another period of days or weeks went by, which is odd, because I like to keep that window clean, because it is the window through which I watch the birdfeeder, and its constant menagerie of little brown birds and cardinals, doves and woodpeckers, swallows, wrens. Even the occasional hawk, though they feed, not at the feeder, but on the squirrels under it.
Then one day I decided it was time to do away with the ghost bird. I grabbed a bottle of Windex and a rag, exited the kitchen door with purpose, and walked around the sofa and coffee table and two chairs, to stand before the window, in order to spritz it with the blue liquid and wipe it clean.
The human mind is a funny thing. How many times are you home, because it's 4th of July or Christmas or whatever, and you think, "I wonder if the mail is here?" and you pop your upper body out the front door and have your hand on the mailbox handle when you think, "Duh. A federal holiday. No mail."
So it was only standing there, with Windex in one hand, and a rag in the other, ready to wipe away the ghost bird, that I angled my gaze down, to below the window, and ...
The funny thing is, I was surprised. Taken aback. As if there hadn't been weeks if not months of foreshadowing.
No need to go into the gory details. A dove of some sort. I went to get a shovel to transfer it to the wooded patch along our property. The ghost bird is still there.
Still not as bad as having sick cats decide to crawl under my back stairs & die there. Lots of fun shoveling that out of there!
ReplyDeleteI had an opposum die under my deck. In July.
DeleteMore sad than anything else. Indoor cats can routinely live 15-20 years.
DeleteFerals and strays only survive outdoors for 2-3 years, at most. Very sad.
And then I had to do it a second time in the exact same place a few years later. I had blocked the spot with large bricks, but the second cat pushed them away & died there too. I flat out hate the feral cats!
DeleteBelieve it was in the fall of '58 or '59 (sixth or seventh grade) when we heard a loud crash one Saturday morning, and thought a rock had been thrown at our picture window. My father went outside and found a large bird in the shrubbery. Cannot recall whether it was dead or alive. He looked it up, and said it was something extremely rare, some kind of bird that was usually found in the South. Can't recall its name anymore.
ReplyDeleteSearched my memory and I remembered my old man saying "yellow-something." Came up with "yellowhammer"...but that species is not native to North America. May have been a yellow-headed blackbird, but that is not a southern bird. They are mostly found west of the Mississippi, in the Plains and the western states. They winter in Mexico (smart!), which may have been where it was heading, as the window faced north. Wisconsin and northern Illinois are about as far east as that species gets, so it was indeed a rare bird (sorry).
The front of my house also faces north, but in decades of living in northeast Ohio, no bird has ever done what that bird did in Illinois so long ago. Maybe our huge maple tree protected the windows. But it's been gone since July of '23, so that may change. Stay tuned.
Grizz- the state bird of Alabama is the "yellowhammer". It is a colloquial name... we call it a Northern Flicker up in Illinois (used to be called the Yellow-shafted Flicker).
DeleteBird strikes seem to have become more common - some say it's because there are more people putting out bird feeders. But I think it is also partly due to the population boom of Cooper's Hawks . In the 1970's Cooper's hawks were considered 'threatened' in Illinois. Ha! They adapted to urban areas and now even strategically chase/flush birds into residential windows. Their favorite meal seems to be mourning doves. The imprint on Mr S's window is from a mourning dove. Something must have spooked the hawk into not going after it after it hit the window.
BINGO! That's gotta be it! My father looked it up, and said it was native to...guess where...Alabama. And way off course, whatever that meant.
DeleteWhen I looked up that bird...the yellowhammer...it said the species was native to Ireland, southeast England, and most of Europe...east to the northwestern corner of Russia and western Ukraine. Also in Russia, central Ukraine, the Balkans, and eastward to Siberia and northwest Mongolia. No mention of North America at all. I'm confused. But thanks, Jill.
We still have quite a few mourning doves here in Ohio, though not as many as in years past. Their cooing always saddens me. My first wife liked them a lot, so maybe that's why.
I would have outlined it in indelible ink. It's too beautiful an impression to Windex away. The moment of life ending and who knows what's next. A good daily reminder of the ephemeral nature of everything. At least you have the photo.
ReplyDeleteHow were you going to clean off the image on the outside of the window from behind the sofa and coffee table and two chairs? Maybe that’s why the image lingered so long. Because you were trying to clean it off from the inside.
ReplyDeleteDo they not have patio furniture in your world?
DeleteWe’ve heard a few of those whams against our kitchen window. No ghostly images and upon checking no injured or dead birds were found. We now place seasonal stickers, hanging colored crystals, or suncatchers in that window to warn our feathered friends of the barrier.
ReplyDeleteThat ghost bird was pretty lovely--I likely would've kept it for that or a possible deterrent I did also go down the rabbit hole a bit on your post from 10 years ago-before SLM was here. Bless you for this! I love the word Fuck and the video gave me so many versions to use in the new world of 2025. Fuckery is a great one too and will use that one as well, as we will be in a world of it. And, last Christmas I gave us a copy of EGDD and began reading one a day-most days. Actually I thought I started on new years but the past few daze, I've remembered reading the content. Today was Hazel Lavery day-her death in 1903. As it happens some daze, you sent me down a fascinating rabbit hole about her life-it would make a great film. I recommend EGDD to my Chicago raised friends and they enjoy it as well. I will pass it to my husband on NYD-but just may pick it up as a daily along with your post here. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteOh, I loved that one. To have someone say, "You know, there is a Chicago woman you never heard of whose face was on Irish banknotes for nearly 50 years...." Plus the guy telling me was Gene Tunney's son. And she turns out to be name-checked in a Yeats poem. A wonderful world, a times.... thanks for talking up my book.
DeleteBack to the fact that a bird flew into your glass…. I’m going to agree with Anonymous 10:59 am and offer another suggestion to help keep more birds from slamming into glass. You can purchase black bird silhouettes and put them on glass doors or big windows. It helps birds stay away from going straight to the glass, since they apparently tend to think that’s a straight stretch to fly through. These silhouettes have worked well for us for years (after unfortunate incidents years ago). —Becca
ReplyDelete