Bird problems

[Rocker]

I have two bird problems at my place - swallows that want to nest in my shed-workshop and poop all over my machinery and wood stock; and magpie-larks, which want to perch on my car when it is in the carport, poop on it, and attack their reflections in the french doors, wrecking the insect screen. Some Americans in an internet chat room mentioned that they use models of owls over there to scare pigeons away from multi-storey car-parks. When I enquired about bird-scaring devices at bunnies, the best they could come up with was a chemical for deterring cats:) Any suggestions as to where I could get owls? My carving skills are not up to making them myself.

Rocker

[Nic0]

One thing you could try is hanging some empty longneck bottles from the roof on top of where the birds roost at night, I have seen it done in a hall and it worked.

I drove down to Narromine NSW from Brisbane and spent the night a the local Pub. In the morning there were 4 Murray Magpies attacking my newly waxed bonnet, there were marks all over it.

[Ben from Vic.]

Rocker,

I have the perfect solution.

[ozwinner]

This is even better, one keeps the birds away the other keeps the cats away.

Al

[Gumby]

put one of those cheap plastic snakes from the $2 shop on the bonnet - it works here for cockatoos

[Rocker]

Gumby,

Great idea:) I will certainly try the snakes on the car. Probably wouldn't work for the swallows in the shed though.

Rocker

[Ben from Vic.]

Gumby,

Just how 'outer east' are you?
I live in Boronia, the Cockatoos hang around a little, but we don't get that many.

Ben.

[rodm]

Generally it will be a male bird that attacks their reflection in glass. They see their reflection as competition for their little lady.
We have a problem with this at work and the only solution we came up with was to place paper over the glass when the birds are active. I like the idea of the plastic snake though.
On multistory building they have problems with pigeons nesting on window ledges. A fine wire strung along the ledge and a couple of inches above the ledge stops them. They do not want to get their wings schredded so they find somewhere else to perch.

[Gumby]

Originally posted by Ben from Vic.
Gumby,

Just how 'outer east' are you?
I live in Boronia, the Cockatoos hang around a little, but we don't get that many.

Ben.

Just around the corner.........Upper FTG

they roost in the national park over the road, bastards.

[journeyman Mick]

I tried the rubber snake trick to try and keep flocks of starlings from stripping my mulberry bushes. Unfortunately nothing seems to scare them, not even the Hawks and Kites that sometimes hover overhead. The kookaburras thought they were on to a good thing and spent some time trying to kill the rubber snake. Another thing that is meant to be sure fire bird scarer (but also doesn't work on 100 strong flocks of starlings) is to hang CDs up on fishing line. The discs twirl around in even the lightest breeze and their glittering frightens birds. I now use what orchardists use - a bird scaring cannon. In my case it's some 100mm PVC fittings, a squirt of hairspray and a gas igniter, scares them off for a few hours at least.

Mick

[Gumby]

If you hang up a Kamal CD, nothing will come within miles of it........:D

[journeyman Mick]

Yeah, but all the flaming mulberries will drop off too!

Mick

[Neil]

The swallows will have fun with the snake. I have seen a pair of swallows attacking an 8 ft king brown and the snake going lickety split for its life to get away from the little blighters. We used to have dozens of them nesting in the rafters at Welshmans Reef and the only way to win is to learn to live with them. Cover the saw bench etc and let nature take it's course.

As for those other little blighters, cover everything shiny or use the ultimate solution suggested by Ben. I doubt the snake will work on them either. Never used to bother them when we lived at the Reef and we had quite a few of each.

Mick - Mulberries are easy to protect. Just let the ants get to them first. The starlings won't eat them because the toxins in the ants kills them or something like that. Just be sre that you check for ants before you eat the berries cause the little buggers bite and hang on to the inside of your mouth with a vice like grip. I know this from experience, and they really ruin the taste of a good mulberry. Hehehehe :D

Cheers - Neil

[Christopha]

I have used CDs and bits of plastic mirror to keep all flying rats away from my eating grapes , worked like a beauty. you can buy rolls of mirror tape from rural stores if you don't want to use your Deep Purple CDs. As for the little buggers in the shed, an old twenty two and ratshot does the trick nicely.

[Eastie]

Ben, a perfect solution, but I’m sure the noise from the 50cal would be ear shattering at my place and I’m positive that Gumby might even soil his pants on a still day :D

Christopha - playing those deep purple cd's would work better than hanging them in trees.

Rocker - if you know anyone who runs a market orchard you could visit them for some 'advice'. I have a small bottle of such 'advice' but you're a bit too far away and I'd be arrested for terrorism if I sent it through the post.

[Rocker]

Gumby,

Thanks; I went one better and got a $3 snake, and it works like a charm; and throwing offcuts at the swallows has finally encouraged them to look elsewhere than my shed for a nest site.

Eastie,

I used to have a rambutan orchard near Darwin, but I found that the only thing that was effective against the flocks of rainbow lorikeets, which could strip off all the fruit in a day, was to net the trees - not an easy task once the trees grew taller than 4 or 5 metres.

Rocker