For the birds

Here in Watsonville, we feed the birds year around. It's not cheap, but it's a small price to pay.
When people visit, we usually put on some soft music, pour drinks and sit in the great room and "conversate."
Most people are fascinated by all the activity just outside our windows.
Right now, the hummingbirds are still in a feeding frenzy. 
But there are also plenty of doves, wrens and sparrows.
The only bad think about having a glass wall in the living room is that with all the live plants we have inside in winter, the birds try to fly inside. There is always a tale tale THUMP.
I always walk over to check on my feathered friends. Usually it just knocks the wind out of them. They'll sit on the ground looking around as if saying, "Hey, who was driving that truck." Then after a while, they'll come around and fly off. 
But sometimes when we hear a WHACK. We know a bird has died. 
Last September we heard that sound, and when I looked outside, a dove was lying by the walk. 
I took it out back and buried it beside our beloved pets. When I walked back into the house and looked up at one of the windows near the apex of the vaulted ceiling, I saw what looked like the outline of a tiny angel where the dove had hit the glass.
That's the downside of having windows like that.
The upside is getting to watch birds up close and it's very hard to place a monetary value on that.