(((Bonk)))) ((((Thunk))) (((Bonk)))

  We installed brand new, energy efficient and very reflective windows last Fall and as a result, that's the sound of little bird bodies hitting the livingroom window approximately every 5 minutes.
We'd gotten used to the ocassional collision during the last 2 weeks of every October as flocks of robins and varied thrushes swarm the mountain ash tree and devour every last fermenting berry till all that remained were hundreds of empty stems.  With the old windows, impacts were far less frequent but usually serious or fatal; the unlucky bird often transformed into a mess of puke, crap and feathers then sliding with the whole mess down the glass to land in the garden.  (to the delight of neighborhood cats)
     I had a private lesson yesterday afternoon and it was getting pretty embarrassing as I and my student involuntarily flinched each time a bird hit the window.  "Is there going to be a pile of little bodies when I leave here?"
We go look at - and out - the window.  There are a few splats and feathers but no corpses.  A robin flies straight towards our faces then bounces off and frantically flies in a different direction.  It seems these windows are far more forgiving.
     Later, I head to the Dollar Store to pick up some blue place mats and masking tape.  When I return home I tape a series of place mats over the window. 
It isn't pretty but at least it's reduced the carnage to about 3 hits per hour.