[TowerTalk] Birds and towers

[w6rgs]

That's where a big hat (sombrero) comes in very handy.Bill
-------- Original message --------From: Doug Ferrell KD4MOJ <lists at kd4moj.org> Date: 1/24/21  16:37  (GMT-08:00) To: towertalk at contesting.com Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Birds and towers Be thankful that you don't have a family of Vultures that made the tower their home. Working a tower around vulture dung is not fun....DOUGKD4MOJOn Sun Jan 24 14:56 , "Lux, Jim"  sent:>On 1/24/21 11:13 AM, Andre VanWyk via TowerTalk wrote:>> I just completed installing two large Luso towers for a client and about to>> start construction on mine so will have the same issue. The problem is>> birds.  I am wondering if there is anything besides decoy owls that might be>> worth trying to keep them from sitting and attempting to nest on these>> towers. These towers are big and has lots of components that are full of>> bird poop. Components are powder coated and it looks pretty bad. Any>> suggestions (besides birdshot!) or thoughts on this subject would be>> appreciated. The decoy owls seemed to have worked for a couple of weeks but>> now seems useless.>>The birds are smart and will quickly learn to ignore anything that >doesn't move.>>You might check with the companies that sell stuff for vineyards and >orchards...>>rotating things driven by the wind seem to work (you see them on top of >billboards - a couple long rods on a pivot).  They might also work >oriented vertically.>>bird spikes (plastic things that make it hard to perch) - these work >great and they're cheap, plastic, and UV tolerant, but kind of ugly (but >probably not an issue on a tower application)>>Rotating pinwheel things driven by the wind, or the vertical rotors.>>The ribbons of shiny mylar sometimes work.>>>They also make owls (and other scarecrows) with a clockwork mechanism >that rotates them periodically (solar powered, even!).>>Netting>>Noise makers - Around here, they play the sound of hawks screeching, to >keep the birds away from corn and veggie crops, I don't know how well >they work, but it screeches about every 1/2 hr to hour, semirandomly.  I >suspect it is highly "species" dependent.>>>>>_______________________________________________>>>>_______________________________________________>TowerTalk mailing list>TowerTalk at contesting.com>http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk______________________________________________________________________________________________TowerTalk mailing listTowerTalk at contesting.comhttp://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk