Local brewery windows help migrating birds stay safe

Nancy Melcher

Bird Friendly Uxbridge’s Carly Davenport makes the Second Wedge Brewing Co. a custom-designed migrating bird deterrent for the craft brewery’s windows. Photo by John Cavers

World Migratory Bird Day was on Saturday, May 10, and visitors to Uxbridge’s craft brewery, the Second Wedge Brewing Co., were greeted with windows covered in dots and designs meant to ward off birds so they don’t crash into the windows while flying.

Carly Davenport was the artist behind the window treatment. Davenport is team leader of Bird Friendly Uxbridge, a group that, last fall, worked to get Uxbridge certified by Nature Canada as a Bird Friendly City. This spring, Bird Friendly Uxbridge partnered with the Second Wedge to showcase how residents can make windows less dangerous for migratory birds. Davenport created designs for the lower windows at Second Wedge that are like those she used to treat the Township municipal offices lower entrance windows. They involve images of signature brews by the brewery interspersed with small dots at regular intervals.

“My goal with the mural is to show the community what bird-friendly windows can look like,” explains Davenport. Designs, like Davenport’s, can be temporary, applied with paint markers, or a more permanent installation with small, evenly spaced dots. Either method makes the glass highly visible to the birds, so they avoid it instead of crashing into it.

The Second Wedge also hosted Bird Bingo, and the debut of the Great Annual Uxbridge Bird-Calling Competition! Davenport’s handiwork will remain on the the brewery’s windows for at least a couple of weeks.