LAST week was such a busy one. I had a list of jobs to plough through before the weekend, but found myself using a whole morning cutting out simple shapes from coloured paper and sticking them to my office windows.

It was a small thud on the door that prompted me to take this action. A swallow had flown into the pane of glass, bumped its head and was now lying on the ground. My heart sank.

It had just flown all those miles only to die on my doorstep. In a desperate effort to revive it, I carefully picked it up and placed it in the sunshine.

Luckily, it must have only been stunned and after a few minutes it righted itself, had a quick breather and then shot up into the air again.

Glass makes a near perfect mirror when conditions are right. To a songbird, a patch of blue sky in a wall can mean a broken neck and death.

Our architectural designs are now using more and more glass to make our living space bright and spacious but resident and migrant song birds pay dearly for our comforts. This is because they see a reflection of what is in front of the window, such as sky or landscape, and believe they can fly straight on, or because there is another window or a mirror on the opposite side of the room that allows them to see straight through.

Small, quick, ground birds (mainly songbirds and thrushes) are the most susceptible to our windows. Lighter birds have a better chance of bouncing off the glass and surviving the impact but larger birds like the robin are more likely to incur severe injury.

In most cases, it's not the impact that kills birds but the onset of shock and its associated complications. A small bird might freeze because it collided with a window then fell dazed into a snow drift. Or, the neighbourhood cat comes over to investigate when our stunned warbler is cowering in the dirt.

In one way or another, shock will leave a bird vulnerable to its environment and with the perils we bring in our urban and suburban lifestyle, our little friends do not have much of a chance.

A common solution, albeit one that has mixed results, to prevent the birds from flying into the window is to affix a silhouette of a bird of prey to the inside of the glass, the intention being to frighten the bird away before it flies into the window.

It seems a songbird's natural instinct is strong enough even to avoid this predator's likeness, but these shapes probably decrease collisions because they break up the smooth reflective surface and make the glass more "visible" rather than because they are shaped like hawks; but, in any case, they seem to help.

The silhouettes are most effective if used in multiples. It is helpful also to attach the silhouettes by a suction cup or a hanging device from the outside so that movement caused by wind will catch the birds' attention.

Most people think the graceful shapes are interesting rather than unsightly. They are available commercially from places such as RSPB gift shops, bird food suppliers and some garden centres, but they are also easy to make, which is what I was doing with my bits of paper and sticky tape, instead of making my way through my tight work schedule.

An alternative deterrent is to hang a sun catcher, dream catcher - or something else that glistens in the sunlight - in your window; these seem to be quite successful and are less displeasing to the eye than silhouettes.

Some people have successfully deterred birds from flying into their windows by hanging lengths of string or ribbon outside from the top of the window.

Reducing transparency and reflectivity by changing the angle or surface of the window helps, as does covering the window's external surface with a film, changing the lighting, and keeping all curtains closed.

If this leaves you in the dark too much, how about a more permanent solution such as stretching netting across the windows? Fine black netting that is used to protect berry bushes and fruit trees is available at many garden centres or DIY shops.

Stretch the netting across the window or across a frame that can be installed outside the window. Be sure it is stretched with adequate tension to hold it several inches from the window's surface.

Birds may continue to fly towards the window, but they will bounce off the mesh unhurt.

Making sure that your bird feeder is either a minimum of three metres away from windows, or less than one metre away keeps the death rate down. Birds may still fly into the window if you move the feeder closer, but they will not have enough momentum to injure themselves.

Next time you wash your windows, remember you are also making it harder for birds to avoid and you are going to have to make extra time to spend making hawk shapes to stick on the inside of your sparkling panes. A brilliant excuse for leaving your windows a little bit dusty.

Brigid presents Ask About Gardening every Sunday on BBC Radio Cleveland 95FM from 1-2pm. Questions will be answered on the day by e-mailing Cleveland. studios@bbc. co. uk, texting 07786200995 or phoning (01642) 225511. Alternatively, send questions to brigidpress@hotmail. com or The Clow Beck Centre, Old Spa Farm, Croft-onTees, Darlington, DL2 2TQ www. thisisthenortheast. co. uk/leisure/ gardening. html JOBS THIS WEEK This is 'National Love Your Lawn' week which signals the start of a regular mowing routine. Remember to keep the cutter fairly high still, so as not to scalp the lawn.

Finish planting out onion sets Hang pheromone traps in fruit trees to catch codling moths.

HORTICULTURAL HAPPENINGS Thursday sees the start of Harrogate Spring Garden Show. It runs right through till 5pm on Sunday.

Raby Castle Orchid Show starts on Saturday and finishes on Monday.

Compost and pricking out are the themes on Clow Beck Centre's Organic gardening course on Tuesday. On Thursday you can take part in a traditional woodworking class (info on 01325 721778).