Simple, Effective Bird Deterrent--Finally!

[nybor]

Hi. here is my birder method. I have to raise it every so often. Birds are too smart!


Nybor

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by Paul Howard

Stringing light monofilament fishing line around the boat works for seagulls and cormorants, too. I kept a fishing reel on the boat and when leaving the boat I would crisscross the boat with four or five lines, looping around stantions and over the boom, around the roller furling, etc. Birds would hover, but not land, as they knew there was something there but did not risk harm to themselves by landing.

And we have a winner!

Having had pet birds, I know that birds can be very skittish about anything new... at first. Any change in the environment will keep them away. It doesn't have to be a plastic owl, snake or any particular shape at all.

But after a while, they get used to it. I've heard so many people say "it's been a week, and I've finally found something that works!"

Ask them again after a couple more weeks, and the answer is different.

But monofilament isn't just something new in the environment. It's a very real hazard for birds landing or, especially, taking off in a hurry. They are smart enough to recognize the hazard and avoid it.

[Normanskier]

Originally Posted by Bruce K

I have had a Simple,Effective Bird Deterrent (SEBD) and it has the advantage of silence! A dead seagull, laminated between two sheets of clear adhesive plastic, simply lying flat on my roof. Said SEBD needs to be replaced occasionally because UV gets to the plastic. I get occasional "fly overs" by gulls looking and squarking, but they never land. Dead seagulls are easily obtainable by applying small steel balls elastically propelled.

Sick.

[Normanskier]

Originally Posted by danielamartindm

I hate to say it, but in America, someone would likely report you for cruelty to animals.

Good I would be one of them if not taking things into my own hands.

[Buzzman]

Hmmmm.... love how it's "okay" to kill a full grown cow or sheep with a pneumatic steel bolt, but it's not ok to kill a seagull or similar - with anything....

We humans are all messed up....

[LeGe]

Originally Posted by auwekamanu

in re SEBD:


In Maine it is illegal to kill birds other than game birds. That includes seagulls.

Really, they are that ridiculous in Maine?????

[LeGe]

Originally Posted by jen1722terry

Actually, gulls are a Federally protected species. Killing one could get expensive.

We summer on our boat in Maine (Northeast Harbor on MDI) and the local cormorants can really make a mess out of a boat that is left unattended for just a few days. We got really clobbered a few years back and came up with a system that seems to work on our sailboat. We tie off halyards to make it difficult to land on the radar scanner and spreaders and also run lines from the mast to the bow and stern just above the sailcovers and bimini. This makes it hard for them to land so the birds just go to the next boat.

Works for us.

Cheers!

Jenn and Terry

Gulls are federally protected???? I feel like I’ve woken up in a mad house... we’re going to protect mosquitos next????

[senormechanico]

Salmon are an endangered species, but we eat them anyway.
Sea Lions are one of the biggest consumers of salmon, but it's illegal to shoot them.

In the state of Wackafornia, you can't even shoo them off your boat.
Argh.

[Buzzman]

Reckon the only non-endangered species on the planet is homo sapiens.

So maybe we should bring back cannibalism to even up the odds...???

[mowerandy]

The rather beautiful egret that currently lives in my cockpit can nimbly step over the spiders web of lines that I string up, and has now made friends with my plastic owl. I was thinking about getting one of those new movement sensing hooting owls, but providing conversation as well as companionship might not be the right approach meethinks….

PS: once, on an inland property here in Oz, in total desperation of watching a flock of galahs (pink and grey parrots) killing the last standing tree on the block by ring-barking the branches one by one, apparently out of boredom, I shot one, wired it up with an old coat hanger and threw it up into the branches. Suffice to say that while the flock was not at all amused at the callous murder of one of their brethren (like a horror movie, I thought I was a goner for a minute there), thirty years later I have taken no further action and I still have that tree! This probably also means that members of that flock (they are very long lived) will still have my eyes out if they get half a chance.
I am mostly joking with that last line, tho it has been recently shown that this is exactly how crows operate...up there with dolphins on the intelligence scale, they tell their friends and family exactly which human needs an eye out (or which one to ask for food) - so do be kind to crows and other corvids, for your own safety if nothing else!!

[Buzzman]

If you think galahs or sulphur-crested cockatoos are bad, check out the destruction wrought by NZ's kea. They strip windscreen wipers and exterior trim from your car, while you're sat in it!

[a64pilot]

My new bird deterrent, it’s gone up $10, but does seem to be a good air rifle.

[Lineguy]

I've had some luck with owl decoys and rubber snakes....

[lituya1617]

Sounds do not keep birds away. The FAA spent millions trying to clear runways and airspace around airports of birds. Bird strikes on aircraft have killed a lot of people and if a mere recording could keep them away, you can bet your @$$ the airports would be using them. Many years ago (the statute of limitations has expired) I would hang crows and seagulls I had shot in my rigging on my commercial fishing boat. This kept the birds away really well and kept my aim in tune. Of course, it is illegal to kill seagulls almost everywhere. But it works. You have to put up fresh birds every month or so, less often in winter when they do not decay so rapidly. Hang them high or the flies will be worse than the birds.

[Steve Bean]

I use monofilament fishline or parachute cord, strung about a foot above the boom and decks. It works.