Bird Scarer

[stripee]

There has been one going off for a month here, and I have just given in and phoned the owner as I'm fed up with jumping when it goes off every 10 mins.
He grumpily said it was flocks of starlings ravaging the seeds, but I am wondering what effect it is having on birds in the wider area. Do they get used to it and tolerate it or are they all jumping too?

[naturelover]

some people are such missery gutses,there is us lot trying to encourage the birds into our gardens, then there is people like that trying to get rid of them,i very often hear banging sounds more like a gun though,some poor bunnies meeting their maker no dought,as for jumpy birds i would think they would jump as well,poor little things,how long dose this go on for,and how far away dose he live from you,i think you have a right to complain to someone higher,if its a nusance to you there must be others that hear it as well.

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by stripee

There has been one going off for a month here, and I have just given in and phoned the owner as I'm fed up with jumping when it goes off every 10 mins.
He grumpily said it was flocks of starlings ravaging the seeds, but I am wondering what effect it is having on birds in the wider area. Do they get used to it and tolerate it or are they all jumping too?

I can sympathise with you on this one as we have a field of Rapeseed oil opposite our house and the farmer has a bird scarer on this to keep the Wood Pigeons off it. Mind you I think it's only going off about every half hour.

As for the effect it's having on birds in the area, not much as far as I can tell. It's pretty loud in my garden when it goes off and the birds at my feeding station seem to totally ignore it.

Don't think it bothers the Pigeons much either because yesterday there was a flock of at least fifty Wood Pigeons that flew up out of the very field the scarer is in. Granted it was the bang from the scarer that made them take flight but how long they had been there without taking flight is anybodies guess.
Roger

[Tormentil]

29 mins ?

[stripee]

Originally Posted by Ollie

Don't think it bothers the Pigeons much either because yesterday there was a flock of at least fifty Wood Pigeons that flew up out of the very field the scarer is in. Granted it was the bang from the scarer that made them take flight but how long they had been there without taking flight is anybodies guess.
Roger

Well the neighbour sounded a bit beside himself about the starlings, so maybe they aren't taking much notice either! There are other people in the small hamlet nearby who are finding it noisy too, so I expect he has had quite alot of complaints already. I would like him to point it towards his own house instead of ours! He has had it on a longer time lapse before for short periods - that's acceptable, but all day long over christmas and new year and now its a month....but I think we've been lucky in the past because noone has had these bird scarers in the area before.
Thank you for other replies too.

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by Tormentil

29 mins ?

Nice one Ben, very quick there hadn't thought of that myself
Roger

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by stripee

Well the neighbour sounded a bit beside himself about the starlings, so maybe they aren't taking much notice either! There are other people in the small hamlet nearby who are finding it noisy too, so I expect he has had quite alot of complaints already. I would like him to point it towards his own house instead of ours! He has had it on a longer time lapse before for short periods - that's acceptable, but all day long over christmas and new year and now its a month....but I think we've been lucky in the past because noone has had these bird scarers in the area before.
Thank you for other replies too.

Well I think if I were in your position an accident may happen to the scarer one dark night so it didn't work. But I didn't say that.
Roger

[stripee]

Originally Posted by Ollie

Well I think if I were in your position an accident may happen to the scarer one dark night so it didn't work. But I didn't say that.
Roger

what a good idea! Although I would be too scared. I did get the stuff from the council about noise complaints, but it is a difficult procedure and I can't be bothered really. I've just been relying on the other neighbours to complain up to now.

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by stripee

what a good idea! Although I would be too scared. I did get the stuff from the council about noise complaints, but it is a difficult procedure and I can't be bothered really. I've just been relying on the other neighbours to complain up to now.

Good luck in rallying the troops to complain. I do realise as I said earlier what a nuisance this can be and I do hope you are successful.

In my opinion there is absolutely no need for these bang type scarers I would think a scarecrow with a few bits of flapping polythene etc would do as much good. There's definitely been enough wind lately to make anything flap about anyway.
Roger

[Meta menardi]

I have used bird-scarers and they become ineffective after about a day or so, due to the birds getting used to them. Many now have a random time feature to try to combat this. I used to use a range of non-sound scarers, and a banger every now and then. To leave it going for a month is a waste of gas! It is important to a farmers profits that birds such as pigeons etc are moved around, they will still feed somewhere else, but they can wipe out large patches of crop. Move them around and the plant growth can compensate for a quick scalping. Serious damage to parts of the crop can give problems with uneven ripening, giving problems at harvesting and spoilage in storage.

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

I have used bird-scarers and they become ineffective after about a day or so, due to the birds getting used to them. Many now have a random time feature to try to combat this. I used to use a range of non-sound scarers, and a banger every now and then. To leave it going for a month is a waste of gas! It is important to a farmers profits that birds such as pigeons etc are moved around, they will still feed somewhere else, but they can wipe out large patches of crop. Move them around and the plant growth can compensate for a quick scalping. Serious damage to parts of the crop can give problems with uneven ripening, giving problems at harvesting and spoilage in storage.

Yep, I can see both sides of this and realise the farmer does need to protect his profits. Obviously you were more considerate to your neighbours than this particular person seems to be.

Good to see both points of view on this as well and you have put the farmers point of view over well.
Roger

[Meta menardi]

Ollie, I have just realised that your avatar is a bird looking left. Until now I saw it as a small rodent looking right.. Try looking again at it.

Must be the poor light levels at this time of year.

[Dan Salter]

And first i was going to be a little protective over the farmer...but then i read more and i think this is in a residential back garden?...im not sure what the laws would be on using bird scarers in urban gardens? maybe there are none but it sounds a bit strange....if you decide to live in the rural country and the local farmer is using one...then tough!...but in an urban street?...thats a bit off and a bit excessive? when you say his "seeds"? is it just like his veg patch ? or does he grow some kind of commercial crop?

not that it helps....but as kids we used to shove potatoes down the canons and watch them fly hundreds of feet accross the fields ha ha !

[Dan Salter]

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

Ollie, I have just realised that your avatar is a bird looking left. Until now I saw it as a small rodent looking right.. Try looking again at it.

Must be the poor light levels at this time of year.

Sorry but no matter how hard i try with a broad imagination i cant make it into a rodent ? ...i can kind of make it into a bright yellow guinnie pig type thing at a push??

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

Ollie, I have just realised that your avatar is a bird looking left. Until now I saw it as a small rodent looking right.. Try looking again at it.

Must be the poor light levels at this time of year.

Can see what you mean about the avatar. Maybe a change is on the cards
Roger

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

Sorry but no matter how hard i try with a broad imagination i cant make it into a rodent ? ...i can kind of make it into a bright yellow guinnie pig type thing at a push??

Me a pig you cheeky so and so Dan.

Seriously can see where you are both coming from.

Definitely time for a change I think.
Roger

[Kayleigh]

It looks like a cute yellow hammer to me

[stripee]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

And first i was going to be a little protective over the farmer...but then i read more and i think this is in a residential back garden?...im not sure what the laws would be on using bird scarers in urban gardens? maybe there are none but it sounds a bit strange....if you decide to live in the rural country and the local farmer is using one...then tough!...but in an urban street?...thats a bit off and a bit excessive? when you say his "seeds"? is it just like his veg patch ? or does he grow some kind of commercial crop?

not that it helps....but as kids we used to shove potatoes down the canons and watch them fly hundreds of feet accross the fields ha ha !

No Dan this is in the countryside ....although some of the neighbours have small gardens. The neighbour has had the scarer on before, he's owned it for about a couple of years. But a normal amount and length of time, a few days usually.He's got it on a commercial crop. But it's going off in the same place and not moved around! And it goes off less than every 10 mins with variable retorts so its hard to get used to if you are a human! But he has never done this before. He seems to have gone mad...maybe the starlings are doing it to him although I haven't seen any. And yes, I'm sure it's a waste of gas if Meta is right about the scarer needing moving around. I was wondering about the effects on other wildlife.

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

It looks like a cute yellow hammer to me

It was Kayleigh thank you, It's now a cute Dunnock.
Roger

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by Ollie

It was Kayleigh thank you, It's now a cute Dunnock.
Roger

I am so sorry. I shall never make personal remarks again.

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

I am so sorry. I shall never make personal remarks again.

Please don't worry about it, I aren't offended at all. Would take more than a remark like that to bother me.
Roger

[witham]

Another problem we have in our area is fireworks, we are in an area that has many trees and there's a large country house type hotel which at weekends cater for weddings, assorted parties etc which now can't seem to be complete without a mahusive firework display quite late into the evening, I often wonder what the birds think as they must be at roost. I went to a garden plant display/sale one there Sunday morning and overheard some people, who were guests at the hotel following just such a party, moaning about the dawn chorus waking them up and I couldn't resist saying 'it's their payback time, they (the birds) were woken up by the noise last night so they're just returning the favour', and I quickly moved on

[stripee]

Ha. I least we don't get many fireworks. But the bird scarer is still banging away, and at night he has got machinery on that sounds like a helicopter! But they are extending themselves right over the opposite hill as a family, a new house has just been put up in a field, and the hedges have all been taken out long ago. There are 3 or 4 farms in this area that think they own the place, and this is one of them, so there is little to be done However, I looked at the NFU code of practice for audible bird scarers and this farmer isn't following any of them. 1. It shouldn't be fired more than 4 times an hour, his is still every 10 mins and before that about every 5/7 mins. 2. Not on Sundays, ha ha all over Christmas, New Year and every single day! 3. Liaise with neighbours - no. I just wonder why it needs to be on for so long, and the birds will want to nest soon. But I don't really want to be the one to go down the Council Environmental noise route, rather someone else did it.

[witham]

A farmer near us puts an old van or car at the side of one of his fields which he moves about every so often, I don't know if it does any good, perhaps making the birds think there must be a nasty human about who might shoot them, he's done it for a few years now so it must be a bit of a deterrent.