On January 19, 2022, Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society (OPAS) was notified by National Audubon that we had been awarded a competitive Audubon Collaborative Grant in the amount of $1000 to study and reduce bird window collisions at Peninsula College. For well over a year our OPAS Project BirdSafe volunteers have walked through the beautifully landscaped college campus, with modern architecture and large reflective windows, to discover bodies of lifeless birds lying below them on the concrete. Students, faculty and staff had also noted these bodies. Our team began to photograph the birds and document their locations. We entered a series of meetings with the college administration to jointly identify an array of procedures and actions that would reduce or eliminate the strikes
A Pine Siskin lies dead following a window strike on reflective windows at Keegan Hall
Photo: Dee Renee Ericks
As with any project, resources are needed to fully document which windows needed priority attention, and how we could quantify the needs to implement the optimal science-based procedures. With grant money and matching funds from OPAS, our volunteer team will collaborate with the Peninsula College Biology Department to engage biology students in a supervised student monitoring project. Protocols are being developed for these students to gather and record incidents of bird strikes on the reflective, large banks of campus windows. Documentation of these hazards is required before college administrators can plan toward longer term solutions, such as landscaping changes, permanent window markers and window replacement.
An early morning view of Maier Hall’s reflective windows. Photo: Dee Renee Ericks
We plan to use our grant funding to purchase supplies for safe monitoring and collection of bird carcasses. Small stipend amounts will be available for students to oversee collection and compile data.
We intend to raise Peninsula College student and faculty awareness of the lethal consequences of campus window collisions.
Together with faculty, we’ll develop scientific monitoring skills. Students will be able to identify strike zones, the potential causes of collisions, and apply short term solutions (such as window artwork and bird scare tape).
Short Term Solution. PC Administrator Carie Edmiston and PC Biology Professor Barb Blackie place Bird Scare Tape on a reflective window at the Ceramics Classroom.
Photo: Dee Renee Ericks
OPAS will introduce the benefits of creating an Audubon Campus Chapter at Peninsula College. This would be a student-led organization that will create meaningful conservation knowledge and awareness on and off campus. Students are often provided with opportunities to assume leadership roles, train in field skills, and initiate projects on campus and in their communities. This hands-on project has the potential to point students toward a career in conservation.
If other OPAS members would want to be a part of our Bird-Safe team, please contact Dee Renee Ericks through our OPAS website.