Caroline Chadderdon stands by the bird-safe window decals she championed, helping to protect birds and reduce collisions.
As Assistant to the Associate Dean (Faculty) in the Dean of Arts Office, Caroline Chadderdon keeps faculty projects and workflows running smoothly while also championing bird-safe window initiatives on campus.
In this interview, she talks about the project that inspired her to advocate for bird-friendly windows, the colleagues who helped bring those installations to life, and how persistence became her superpower in tackling a problem that affects thousands of birds each year.
Describe what you do at UBC in 10 words or less
I’ve been at UBC for about eight years. I assist with faculty portfolio projects and workflows and I also advocate for bird-safe windows.
What is a project or work achievement you are most proud of? Why?
Perhaps you have noticed the matrix of dots on several of the large glass facades at the Buchanan complex. I’ve been thrilled to be a part of making these bird-friendly installations happen. Working with professors and students from a Human Wildlife Conflict course that monitored the bird strikes over a four-year period, we have been able to identify which facades to prioritize for bird safety, as well as relish the ongoing successes of the completed installations. Knowing that each year, on our UBC campus alone, an estimated 10,000 birds have fatal collisions with clear and reflective glass facades, we are eager for more work to be done, but we are grateful to have three installations completed, and a fourth in the works.
What or who inspired you to succeed?
It wasn’t long after I started working in the Dean’s Office that I heard a resounding thud…then another thud. I asked my colleagues what the sound was, and they told me, “Those are birds hitting the windows.” I couldn’t unhear that sound, and fall migration was just getting underway. Every time I heard a thud, it was distressing. Then, leaving work one day, I saw a beautiful varied thrush—a first for me, not having lived in Canada long. It was dead at my feet, and I could see the black and orange feathers it left behind on the window above where it had struck. Another day coming in to the building, I nearly stepped on a sharp-shinned hawk, dead — again having struck the window above. I knew I couldn’t stand idly by. I took a photo as evidence and began in earnest to seek out someone I could talk to. I collected far too many similar photos.
Bird-safe decals on the exterior windows of the Buchanan complex. The matrix of dots are installed on the outside of the glass, breaking up the reflection that is otherwise drawing the bird to an often fatal collision.
Tell us about the team you work with on this project
Initially, I connected with Nick Smolinski, who was also situated in the Dean’s Office. During COVID, when most of us were working from home, Nick had to continue going into the office. By that time, it was spring migration, and being mostly alone in the office, hearing the bird thuds against the windows was very difficult to endure. Nick has been a steady teammate, without whom none of these installations would have happened. Along the way, Jacob Pryce and Emma Novotny from the Arts Service Centre, Communications team joined Nick and me, and together we have written a successful grant for a fourth installation, which will feature a bird-friendly Musqueam artwork, rather than the more utilitarian matrix of dots, to cover another glass facade. This grant could not have happened without each team member bringing generosity of spirit, time, and ingenuity to this developing project. I’m so grateful to be working with Nick, Emma, and Jake.
What is the best advice you have received?
In my drive to find a way to stop the bird collisions, I was encouraged and supported by many people along the way, but one person did say to me, even before that first installation, that my persistence would eventually make something happen. (This may or may not have been a compliment.) Well, it turns out, persistence is my superpower!
Is there anything else you would like to share?
According to FLAP Canada, “In Canada alone, glass claims the lives of around 25 million birds every year.” We can each be part of changing this staggering number of bird fatalities. It has been said that we count things we think are important. If you find an injured or dead bird at UBC, make it count by contacting Building Operations.
