Cruisers Forum
 


Reply
  This discussion is proudly sponsored by:
Please support our sponsors and let them know you heard about their products on Cruisers Forums. Advertise Here
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 19-02-2015, 21:13   #31
Marine Service Provider
 
Steadman Uhlich's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 6,103
Re: Bird control methods

Perhaps the folks putting plastic owls and rubber snakes on their boats are using the wrong kind of animal.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	image.jpg
Views:	213
Size:	17.4 KB
ID:	97470  
Steadman Uhlich is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19-02-2015, 21:57   #32
Registered User

Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Narragansett Bay
Boat: Able 50
Posts: 3,139
Re: Bird control methods

The supermarket chicken thing might just work. If the birds come round this summer I'll try it. For reasons I cannot explain birds poop all over some boats and totally ignore others so I don't get them every year.
savoir is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19-02-2015, 22:51   #33
Registered User

Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Back in Montt.
Boat: Westerly Sealord
Posts: 8,180
Re: Bird control methods

Be thankful you don't have turkey vultures to deal with in Tasmania....

Apart from destroying everything at the mast head the buggers - when sitting on the spreaders- would just glare at you if you tried the old 'dislodge them with a good halyard flogging' trick... then turn their back on you and take a dump.
The mast ended up like a well greased pole in a fire station....
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	turkey vultures.jpg
Views:	248
Size:	26.2 KB
ID:	97477  
__________________
A little bit about Chile can be found here https://www.docdroid.net/bO63FbL/202...anchorages-pdf
El Pinguino is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-02-2015, 03:41   #34
Registered User

Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Mallorca
Boat: Dragon
Posts: 82
Re: Bird control methods

I think I would rather clean bird s..t off my boat than have dead and rotting birds in the rigging...
Duct Tape is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-02-2015, 04:01   #35
Moderator Emeritus
 
a64pilot's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Jacksonville/ out cruising
Boat: Island Packet 38
Posts: 31,351
Re: Bird control methods

Quote:
Originally Posted by El Pinguino View Post
Be thankful you don't have turkey vultures to deal with in Tasmania....

Apart from destroying everything at the mast head the buggers - when sitting on the spreaders- would just glare at you if you tried the old 'dislodge them with a good halyard flogging' trick... then turn their back on you and take a dump.
The mast ended up like a well greased pole in a fire station....
We have those things where I cave dive (Mariana FL) among other things, they will tear the cushions and upholstery out of the pontoon boats there. I don't know what draws them there, joke is of course dead cave divers.
Actually I think ours are Turkey Buzzards, what I guess is sort of a smaller version of what you have?

As a low level pilot I hate the things, and have a few stories about them
a64pilot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-02-2015, 04:45   #36
Registered User
 
Rustic Charm's Avatar

Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Boat: Bieroc 36 foot Ketch
Posts: 4,953
Re: Bird control methods

Quote:
Originally Posted by Duct Tape View Post
I think I would rather clean bird s..t off my boat than have dead and rotting birds in the rigging...
I don't think you quite grasp the problem. On a mooring, as apposed to living in a boat, bird **** can eat away paint work, rot wood, delaminate fibreglass, and I'd aloud to go to far can block cockpit drains and even sink boats.

And you don't need a 'rotting' bird, just a dead one.
Rustic Charm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-02-2015, 06:10   #37
Senior Cruiser

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Coos Bay, Oregon
Boat: Valiant 40 (1975)
Posts: 4,073
Re: Bird control methods

I am late to this thread, but I think I have found something as effective as a dead bird- we put this up the mast:
http://www.amazon.com/Bird-X-SE-PAC-.../dp/B000QUWTS0
You can get three for under 10 usd if you shop around. Fully inflated they only last a season or so, but we have a under inflated in our back yard, it has been there for 3 years not and still going strong. No birds will come close.
We have also tied Aluminum pie tins with a bright ribbon up, they seem to work as well although they are constantly a little noisy.
s/v Beth is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-02-2015, 11:13   #38
Registered User
 
rwidman's Avatar

Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: North Charleston, SC
Boat: Camano Troll
Posts: 5,176
Re: Bird control methods

I tried some metallic reflecting tape marketed as a bird repellant. I was not impressed. It made noise and the wind finally destroyed it. My marina tried the inflatable snakes and the plastic owls. The birds perched on the owls and hopped over the snakes. They tried the fishing line but pelicans kept hitting it when trying to take off or land. And it did nothing to keep the birds off the boats. I've never tried a dead bird and I'm not sure I want to. A chicken from the supermarket? I can just see the marina folks now walking down the dock and seeing a rotting dead chicken hoisted on my flybridge!


The problem with fighting birds is, there are many more of them than you and there is an endless supply of them.
__________________
Ron
HIGH COTTON
rwidman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-02-2015, 11:24   #39
Moderator Emeritus
 
a64pilot's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Jacksonville/ out cruising
Boat: Island Packet 38
Posts: 31,351
Re: Bird control methods

This is the only thing I've seen that really works, but I doubt it would go over very well in a marina

a64pilot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-02-2015, 13:26   #40
Moderator
 
JPA Cate's Avatar

Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: aboard, cruising in Australia
Boat: Sayer 46' Solent rig sloop
Posts: 28,432
Re: Bird control methods

You know, I bet the dead bird trick will work, and the local birds will stay away till younger ones come along and then you might have to get another one.

I hadn't known that birds (at least one pelican could) could recognize individual boats, but in the Sea of Cortez, a motor boater friend of ours rescued a pelican that had a fish hook embedded just under its eye and fed it back to health. For years afterward, when he rejoined his boat, this bird would come by for a visit and a feed. So at least that bird could recognize that boat. What Rustic Charm describes of his experience, makes me think the same kind of recognition takes place here, among these birds.

I wonder if they understand that the feathers of the feather duster are dead bird parts!?

Ann
__________________
Who scorns the calm has forgotten the storm.
JPA Cate is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-02-2015, 13:33   #41
Registered User

Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Back in Montt.
Boat: Westerly Sealord
Posts: 8,180
Re: Bird control methods

Quote:
Originally Posted by a64pilot View Post
Actually I think ours are Turkey Buzzards, what I guess is sort of a smaller version of what you have?....
I think its the same bird, different regional name.
The ones on the edge of the Atacama live entirely on garbage dumps and in an area with no trees the few yacht masts are prime real estate.
__________________
A little bit about Chile can be found here https://www.docdroid.net/bO63FbL/202...anchorages-pdf
El Pinguino is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-02-2015, 13:36   #42
Registered User
 
captain58sailin's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Homer, AK is my home port
Boat: Skookum 53'
Posts: 4,042
Images: 5
Re: Bird control methods

I can attest to the efficacy of the dead seagulls.
__________________
" Wisdom; is your reward for surviving your mistakes"
captain58sailin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-02-2015, 13:50   #43
Registered User

Join Date: May 2008
Location: daytona beach florida
Boat: csy 37
Posts: 2,976
Images: 1
Re: Bird control methods

I strung CD's from the main halyard, hoisted to the masthead. Maybe 20 of them in a 40ft length. The bright shiny surfaces sparkle and apparently scare them off. I went from being the local avian toilet to the cleanest boat in the anchorage.
onestepcsy37 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-02-2015, 14:23   #44
Registered User
 
Saleen411's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Discovery Bay, CA
Posts: 1,183
Re: Bird control methods

Quote:
A chicken from the supermarket? I can just see the marina folks now walking down the dock and seeing a rotting dead chicken hoisted on my flybridge!
I was thinking along the lines of a FEATHERED chicken from a local farm....the prettier the better to make the rigging look nice. Don't know if gutting the thing first would be a good idea as decomposing bird innards will smell and the drippings would FOWL the deck.
__________________
"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore"- Andre' Gide
Saleen411 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-02-2015, 18:43   #45
Registered User

Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Niagara Falls
Boat: Westsail 32
Posts: 629
Re: Bird control methods

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate View Post
Does the species of the dead bird have to match the species of the ones you want to deter?
No, any whole dead bird will do, preferably still with feathers. I have seen a dead sparrow keep everything away.
Seymore is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Cleaning the Prop - What Tools / Methods ? rebel heart Construction, Maintenance & Refit 61 05-12-2010 22:49
Rainwater Collection Methods Nauti-Ness General Sailing Forum 7 26-07-2009 15:14
Bird Chase Super Sonic from Bird-B-Gone Roy M Product or Service Reviews & Evaluations 16 02-10-2008 20:36
Cat recommendation - Construction Methods, longevity and price adampyfrom Multihull Sailboats 14 22-08-2008 02:08

Advertise Here


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 04:14.


Google+
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Social Knowledge Networks
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.

ShowCase vBulletin Plugins by Drive Thru Online, Inc.