October 4: More warblers at my windows.

Almost ready to fly out the window.

I do most of my work from home, so am painfully aware when birds hit the window. This year, we had virtually no collisions all year, including this spring when we had a huge warbler migration. But here it is, the second day of starting this website, and four more warblers hit my window--all at the second story window right next to my desk that has feeders affixed. I've never had birds hit this window before, and these weren't feeder birds. This Palm Warbler was the only one who hit hard. I actually thought the poor thing would die within minutes--one eye was closed, and its breathing was labored. So I did what I tell people to do--put it in a dark box in my office. But I did not do the one thing I emphasize people must do--never ever open the box indoors.

Fortunately, the little thing flew to some bookshelves, then onto a Japanese wall hanging, then over to my plants. Meanwhile, I immediately closed one set of shades and opened the windows at my desk all the way, with towels draped over the actual panes of glass so it wouldn't collide all over again. It took over 2 hours between it colliding and it finally flying off. Its flight was fine, but it was confused for most of the time. It's so scary realizing it may have a subdural hematoma or other internal injury, but by the time I took this photo, it seemed fine. 

So today's total was one Palm Warbler and three Yellow-rumps, just here. With the hundreds--probably thousands--of birds in my own yard today, I can't imagine how many other collisions were taking place in Duluth. I'm so relieved that this photo is of a bird that has at least a 50 percent chance of making it--I did not want to be photographing a carcass.

1 Palm Warbler
3 Yellow-rumped Warblers