Grand Designs and bird friendly building design

 

Chances are you are here off the back of the Grand Designs series 25 first episode on the Old Coastguard Station at Flamborough head.  The producers of the popular Channel 4 program contacted us in 2020 as the featured project has large glass panes in a migration hotspot and planners had stipulated anti bird strike glass.  

Our own project started many years earlier off the back of the need to replace some of our ageing hides and a visitor centre that were beyond repair and needed replacing.  A big problem for us was that in an age of social media, potential visitors were seeing amazing wildlife images but on arrival their first experience on the reserve was this:

People make a judgement about a site within the first ten minutes of arrival, and unfortunately that was frequently negative leading to user conflict.  We needed to get people of all abilities connected with the nearest habitat as soon as possible - and that meant more light and better visibility - but how to do that when we have a Site of Special Scientific Interest underneath us? 

With our architects Group Ginger of Leeds we looked at some of the research on mitigating bird collision risk.  The British Trust for Ornithology in 2004 estimated 100 million birds were killed by window strikes with glass in the UK, of which based on ringing data approximately 1/3rd die.  And research by Dr Daniel Klem in the US suggests that between 100 million and 1 billion birds are killed annually by glass representing potentially 5% of the breeding population second only to cats.  This image by Patricia Homonylo won 2024's Bird Photographer of the Year Competition featuring over 4000 casualties of glass collected in Toronto as a means to draw attention to this under-discussed issue:

Birds don't see the same triggers such as dirt or frames that we do.  Particularly when startled, they immediately go for open sky or dense vegetation.  Both of which can be reflected by glazing.  The American Bird Conservancy have a really good guide on the problems and potential mitigation of glazing here.   As a rule the 'falcon cut outs' many of us try out of guilt at a casualty on the patio doors don't work.  Advocated is Dr Klem's 2”x4” guideline – that birds are unlikely to fly through a horizontal gap less than 2 inches high, or through a vertical space less than 4” wide.   This can be manifested by installing external barring physical or etched onto the glass and many buildings have been retrofitted.  

However for our facility to be at one with nature that would mean our windows would look like; 

or 

Less than ideal for viewing. 

As such Group Ginger specified Ornilux glass.  It works on the basis that birds see in the ultra violet spectrum.  For us if we get it at the right angle you can just about see the etching internally;  

It does take the edge off optics to be fair (which is why we still have the conventional birder hide next door with 'old school' shutters for serious observers).  But for the casual user it's barely perceptible.  

This image shows the effect from the outside better; A cryptic pattern that comes across as an impenetrable barrier to birds;

It's fair to say whilst it has not eliminated bird strikes, it has certainly reduced them substantially for the frontage of glass.  Other measures we took included ensuring there is no open illumination of the building which could either confuse migratory birds or scare wildfowl on the reservoir.  So we use floor level cinema lights that give enough vision at dusk to move around with:

The book cabinets and units in the room are carefully located to block any through light.  That eliminates a temptation for birds to 'fly through' or see a human silhouette:

Even the log burning stove has no glazed frontage so there is no light emitted:

Continuing the Yorkshire theme the build was project managed by Mason Clarke Associates and built by Houlton of Hull, with all but three of the main suppliers sourced within Yorkshire.  

As a result the building achieved the Royal Institute of British Architects Yorkshire and Humber building of the year in its class; with myself on behalf of Yorkshire Water also picking up client of the year in 2018, pictured with then Conservation, Access and Recreation team leader Geoff Lomas: 

And subsequently it went on to receive a Yorkshire Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors 'Highly Commended'.  Subsequently the building saw its busiest year ever in 2023/4 and has consistently had over 1100 per annum attending Yorkshire Water funded education workshops.  

 

With this background and its locality to Flamborough the program's producers were keen to feature Tophill Low as a case study for the episode as an example of bird friendly building design, and a day was set in 2020 for filming with Kevin McCloud (all complying within covid guidelines at the time).  Whist a fun day and recognition for us, it is a great opportunity to bring this under acknowledged topic to a wider audience. 

 As Dr Klem referenced it, “if you accept my lowest attrition figure of 100 million annual kills at glass in the U.S. you would need 333 Exxon Valdez oil spills each year to match the carnage.”