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.