A few days ago, I hung bright strips of tape on the windows to prevent the pups from perching on the glass. The flashes are driving away the birds and my ability to concentrate. There is a circle of hell where you have to finish a task, and these striking tapes just keep shining.
It all started last spring, when a baby bush took one of its first flights directly in my window. I can still remember his parents jumping and screaming around the dead blue corpse. Although outdoor cats are the main killers of an estimated 1,850 million birds a year, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, glass construction ranks second. The birds fly towards the windows that reflect the surroundings, turning the glass into an optical illusion that kills approximately 676.5 million birds every year.
So this spring, I decided that I had to do something about my windows. The decals seemed like a good solution, but I had read that they had to be placed every two or four inches to prevent the birds from flying through the gaps. All those decals would be a giant pain to endure. So, instead, I ordered the Scare Reflective Tape by Predator Guard on Amazon. The ribbons are designed to scare birds by fluttering and sparkling. For birds, it is a harmless irritant that prevents them from dying. For me, it's a nightmare: my eyes follow the constant movement and blink as a cat follows a laser pointer, and I can not look away.
To be clear, this does not seem to be one of the use cases that Predator Guard had in mind. The photos on its website show Scare Tape hanging from the bow of a boat, the railings of a dock and in a fruit garden, without sticking in residential windows. (Predator Guard did not respond immediately to a request for comment.)
Still, the good news is that it seems to be working. I watched two black wings fly away from the ribbons that fluttered in their direction, clearly disgusted by my decorating options. The bad news is that Scare Tape is having the same effect on me: I do not want to go near my windows either. Next year, he could invest in the installation of window screens to avoid bird collisions, or at least cushion the impact. But that's significantly more expensive than the $ 9.89 I paid for 150 feet of Scare Tape.
So for now, I'm living in a bright prison of my own creation until I see that this year the baby bush flies successfully away from my windows, or until I can not take it any longer and knock down the gleaming ribbons Those little birds will be Better grateful that I care about their feathered noggins.
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