Pond Boss
Posted By: Zep Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 07/14/20 08:07 PM
For those of you that fight birds....

I have recently had some luck keeping birds from pooping all over my patio furniture by drilling a hole in the funriture and sticking a spinner in the chair.

You can still sit in the chair while the spinner is there....and I've gone from poop on chairs when I arrive for the weekend, to no poop on chairs.

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]

Bird Deter Spinners
Posted By: Jambi Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 07/14/20 08:37 PM
Cool idea. This might work to deter those dang &*@@ swallows every year that want to build (errr.....sling mud everywhere....) under our eaves.
Posted By: TGW1 Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 07/15/20 12:22 PM
Funny thing Zep, My first thought was a Daisy BB gun smile But I like your idea better.
Posted By: Zep Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 07/15/20 03:39 PM
Originally Posted by TGW1
Funny thing Zep, My first thought was a Daisy BB gun smile But I like your idea better.

Ha Ha...Tracy....they poop on the furniture Mon-Thu when I'm not there.
So as long as this keeps working....now when I arrive Fri....no poop!

Speaking of a BB gun....we have a Cardinal that constantly hits the very top pane of our picture window.
I would guess on a typical Sat/Sun the Cardinal taps/hits the window 30-40 times.
I have considered a BB gun for the Cardinal, but I think it's highly illegal.
That thing wakes us up every Sunday morning.
You'd think after 500 hits against the window, the Cardinal would know...he's not gettin in!

[Linked Image from tpwd.texas.gov]
Posted By: RStringer Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 07/15/20 05:15 PM
ZEP this sounds like a windex commercial. Maybe your windows are to clean.
Posted By: Zep Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 07/15/20 07:19 PM
I know RStringer.....I Googled "cardinal hitting window".....it was a popular search term....looks like a lot of people deal with it.
Shutters on the window?
Posted By: Zep Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 07/16/20 01:39 PM
Originally Posted by Dave Davidson1
Shutters on the window?

Dave I've thought about shutters, but gosh these windows are high....and it wouldn't be cheap....lots of glass to cover.

We'll probably just live with it....sometimes we just say "Hi Terry" because we think it's my deceased brother saying "Howdy".

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Posted By: Quarter Acre Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 07/16/20 02:41 PM
Most have luck putting a "flying bird" silowette on the inside of the glass (or outside, I can't remember) to keep other birds from running into it. The cardinal is either trying to fly into the house or it sees it's reflection and is being territorial.
Posted By: Flame Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 07/16/20 02:47 PM
Iv'e heard that saying a visitor from Heaven! I have a video I took while sitting in my truck of a Bluebird (not blue jay) repeatedly attacking my DRIVERS side mirror!! My window was up but he was still only about a foot away from me! I was told he probably had a nest nearby and thought his reflection was a intruder! I finally just moved so he would'nt hurt himself.
Posted By: RStringer Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 07/16/20 04:56 PM
It would be a shame to cover those windows. I would just continue to say "Hi Terry".
Posted By: Zep Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 02/23/21 06:58 PM
Originally Posted by KarensyKin
Does it really help? I'm afraid that my hair will get tangled in those things.

I guess most problems in life dont completely go away, so we manage them.

Nobody has had a hair tangle issue yet. It seems to me that the bird-away pin-wheels have eliminated about 75% of the bird poop on our outdoor furniture. I am not there all the time, so maybe when there is no wind the birds land and poop...I dunno. It's a relatively cheap tool to try out. It's not going to stop bird poop 100%

[Linked Image from thumbs.gfycat.com]
Posted By: nehunter Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 02/24/21 02:54 AM
May try putting up a mirror close by. That way it may bother the mirror and not the window. Had this problem with my car. Bird would fight the mirror and crap and bleed all over the car. Covered mirror and it moved to the other side. Wife said send that bird to see his maker.
Posted By: Zep Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 03/11/21 09:50 PM
I assume the disco ball I added this winter to a tree near shore may help deter a few birds too.

I've had less birds this year.

This short 20 second video I took last weekend shows the "streak of light" that shoots across the pond sometimes from the disco ball.

https://youtu.be/uOUJnA_dzbc
Posted By: FishinRod Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 03/11/21 10:25 PM
Zep,

The disco ball "effect" on your pond is awesome. Hopefully it will really aggravate the herons and cormorants.

An additional bonus would be if you can get your fish to start dressing in polyester and gold chains. I am sure that dress code combined with the disco ball would lead to some epic spawning behavior in your pond!
Posted By: Zep Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 03/12/21 08:18 PM
LoL @ FishinRod

I hope the herons and cormorants are not..."Staying Alive"!
Posted By: FishinRod Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 03/12/21 08:59 PM
If the cormorants are Bee Gees fans,

then I hope your fish like dancing to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive". grin
Posted By: anthropic Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 02/21/22 03:22 AM
We have hummingbird feeders on the porch and, well, hummers would occasionally fly into the windows trying to get inside. Usually they were okay, but we didn't like it. Why did they do this when they had food outside?

I looked around and realized we had a red flower arrangement in the living room, fully in sight of the porch. Put it away, and the thumps stopped.
Posted By: jpsdad Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 02/21/22 03:53 AM
Originally Posted by anthropic
We have hummingbird feeders on the porch and, well, hummers would occasionally fly into the windows trying to get inside. Usually they were okay, but we didn't like it. Why did they do this when they had food outside?

I looked around and realized we had a red flower arrangement in the living room, fully in sight of the porch. Put it away, and the thumps stopped.

Enjoyed this recounting very much Frank.

I share couple of my experiences as well.

When may wife and I made a trip to Colorado (our first) we timed it around ice out in the Taylor River Valley. We were fishing Taylor Reservoir just after the ice broke but snow was literally everywhere. My mom loaned my wife a straw hat. As we fished a hummingbird dropped by and just hovered trying to take a sip from the flowers embroidered on the hat. Was a hoot. I remember thinking these early birds were going to starve but later that day we had lunch at a resort up the road and they kept dozens of feeders out that were absolutely swarmed. There were plenty of gnat to mosquito sized insects out including baetis mayflies for their protein needs.

So then we moved to Colorado. And made trip to OK to visit the folks several times a year. Returning from a Christmas trip that had a huge snow we were driving back where the snow was piled up on both sides of the road. I began noticing dead birds on the road and I soon hit one myself. After the second, I mentioned all the dead birds and talked with her about what may be the cause. We decided that they were responding to late to clear cars as they approached and so we slowed down to 50 mph. Dang it seemed slow be we didn't hit another bird. Unfortunately, a lot of folks whizzed by us giving us WTF looks and we saw a lot more dead birds on the road ahead, but at least we didn't kill any more. Actually we only had to drive a couple of more hours to where the grass was uncovered by snow and we stopped seeing birds huddled on the roads.
Posted By: anthropic Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 02/21/22 04:17 AM
Wow, they went for the flowers on the hat! Now that's funny.

You know, bird populations seem to be in decline in Europe as wind turbines become popular. Problem isn't just birds getting hit, it's also that the turbines are placed along windy areas used for insect migrations. Less food, fewer birds.
Posted By: jpsdad Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 02/21/22 01:34 PM
The windmills don't have to strike a bird to kill it. In Europe a migratory bat is also being killed by windmills. The bats evade the blades by echo location but there is a pressure front followed by vacuum. This may be exacerbated nearer blades and nearer the tips. The wave of pressure-vacuum are said to burst blood vessels around the heart. The bats crumple just after passing the windmill. In daylight. I imagine most birds avoid windmills but its going to kill some that take chances.

Song birds are in severe decline in North America. Some could go extinct in our lifetimes but probably many will in our children and grandchildren's lifetimes if we do not find a way to reverse the tide.
Posted By: Hirsch56 Re: Bird Deter for patio furniture.... - 04/02/22 02:44 PM
Originally Posted by anthropic
We have hummingbird feeders on the porch and, well, hummers would occasionally fly into the windows trying to get inside. Usually they were okay, but we didn't like it. Why did they do this when they had food outside?

I looked around and realized we had a red flower arrangement in the living room, fully in sight of the porch. Put it away, and the thumps stopped.
We FORMERLY had hummingbird feeders on the deck and porch. They were popular, but our furniture became coated with what I imagine was hummingbird pee. It was like the whole place had been sprayed with sugar water. We moved the feeders out into the yard in order to get our clean deck back!
I leave our multicolored holiday lights up year-round, and when the Hummers come around, they always make one trip along the light strings to check every yellow, red or orange bulb. It's comical!
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