“Mom,” whispered the small voice over the phone, “We have a situation.”
I was out running errands when I found out yet another chickadee had flown into our sliding glass door. This time – as in the past – my husband and daughter carried the small limp patient into the house and began nursing it back to health by placing it in a warm blanket in a lidded box, and uttering plenty of encouraging words.
Then, they went for a bike ride.
Don’t ask.
When they returned, the bird was nowhere to be found, although he had left a trail of poop, including a decent sized splat on my daughter’s homework, much to her delight.
After experiencing the adventure of a lifetime – apparently exploring every square inch of the interior of our house – our winged friend was safely released back into the wild, after being captured by a quick footed 8-year-old wielding a pink butterfly net.
Several years ago, my kiddo and I created some fabric paint window clings, but thanks to her curious little hands, very few of them remained on glass doors. So, a few days after “the incident,” we decided to make some new, “heavy duty” decorations that would not only deter chickadees, finches and nuthatches from thumping into our glass, but also bring some much needed Spring vibes into our ready-for-winter-to-be-over lives.
The process took some time but the results were fantastic.
Here’s how to make your own.
Supplies:
Wax paper
Wax crayons (we used Crayola) in bright Spring colours.
A pencil or crayon sharpener
An iron
Glue (white glue or hot glue)
Wooden craft sticks
Scissors
An old towel
Directions:
Glue craft sticks into square or triangular frames. We used hot glue to save time.
Sharpen some crayons onto a plate or sheet of paper, so you have a nice pile of colours.
Lay an old towel on a flat surface and cover it with a sheet of wax paper.
Arrange the popsicle stick frames on the wax paper and drop bits of crayon inside the frames. You can skip this step, but by taking the time to do it, you will make sure you have enough crayon shavings to go around.
Remove the frames, but keep track of the order you had them arranged.
Cover with another sheet of wax paper.
Carefully run an iron (set to low), across the paper, watching the crayon shavings melt as you go.
When everything has cooled, glue the craft stick frames onto the wax paper. Again, we used hot glue to speed things up.
Trim around the edges of the frames to reveal your sun catchers.
Glue string or fishing line onto the backs of the sun catchers and hang from windows or sliding glass doors using suction cup hooks, or tape.
Since installing our sun catchers, we’ve had no further bird collisions on our porch, although we have seen an increase the number of squirrel visits, which may or may not be a coincidence.
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