[TowerTalk] Birds n towers

[w5gn at mxg.com]

For what it's worth:

We have feeders we stock with shelled sunflower seeds for scores
of birds and dozens of squirrels.
We switched to the (unfortunately, more expensive) unshelled because
they left nasty piles of those shells under the feeder.

We have eight different groups of different species of birds that come to feed
between 7am and 10am typically.

As best we can tell, because they are shelled, the birds don't linger
at the feeder AND they don't leave their crap under either the tower
nor the cottonwood nor the trees in our adjacent property; we do
see them stage on the local power line behind the property, but even there,
there is very little bird droppings under the power line.
They seem to make 3 to 5 passes from the power line to the open
feeders and back and then each entire group flies off.

So maybe providing the RIGHT food source is an alternative solution?

73

Barry, W5GN


(the unshelled leave a massive pile of shells beneath the feeder)

-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of jcjacobsen at q.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2013 8:19 AM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Birds n towers

I'd go with eliminating the food source, if there is one. You can't scare them away. 
Years ago, where I grew up, there was a problem with starlings roosting in trees on one block. Talk about a racket!! Someone came up with a solution: 

Let's have the Police Dept get a case of bird shot for the 12 ga. shotguns. Then, one evening at the appointed hour, they assembled all the squads AND the fire rigs on the block. The "fired up" all the sirens and the shotguns were fired in the air, but not at the birds, until they were out of ammo. "We'll just scare 'em away with noise" Naturally, the birds all took off. Everyone patted themselves on the back, packed up, and left. If I remember correctly, the last squad had barely rounded the corner and the birds started coming back. 

Now on the other hand, at work we had a tower and a massive LPDA on the roof for HF emergency comms. A hawk decided to use it as a vantage point to look over the surrounding acreage. Never had a problem with other kinds of birds roosting on the antenna. Must have been because the hawk was real and not plastic. <GRIN> 

Don't mess with Mother Nature. 

73 
K9WN Jake 

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