Birds Nest in Gutters

kdouglas

Having a problem with a birds nest at the edge of my roof/in gutter (not exactly sure where, dont have a ladder to get up and look at the moment)

Anyway, the problem is that the birds are doing their business from the edge of my roof and it is landing on mine, or my partner's car. It's quite bad (as in half the car will be covered) and as far as I know, quite bad for the car's paintwork.

I think sometimes the birds are also sitting on the phone cable that runs from my house to my neighbour's next door, which is directly above our driveway.

Has anyone any suggestions on how to prevent this?

(Don't mind the birds where they are, but dont want our cars getting damaged)

ART6

Birds nests at this time of year? Unlikely, I'd think. More likely they are perching on your phone lines and doin' what birds have to do. Given God knows how many square miles of country birds have available to s**t on but they always do it on cars. One dodge I have heard of but never tried is to loop two unused CDs together on a string and toss them over the phone line. As they spin in the wind they scare the birds away.

aujopimur

Shotgun!

kdouglas

ART6 wrote: »

Birds nests at this time of year? Unlikely, I'd think. More likely they are perching on your phone lines and doin' what birds have to do. Given God knows how many square miles of country birds have available to s**t on but they always do it on cars. One dodge I have heard of but never tried is to loop two unused CDs together on a string and toss them over the phone line. As they spin in the wind they scare the birds away.

Fair point, it's more than likely they are just perching on the wire. Looping the cd's sounds like an interesting idea but I don't really fancy something that looks akin to a pair of Nike hanging over telephone wires in Dublin's suburbs.


Shotgun; not really an option unless I want to take out my neighbours (and possible my) phone line in the process.

ART6

kdouglas wrote: »

Fair point, it's more than likely they are just perching on the wire. Looping the cd's sounds like an interesting idea but I don't really fancy something that looks akin to a pair of Nike hanging over telephone wires in Dublin's suburbs.


Shotgun; not really an option unless I want to take out my neighbours (and possible my) phone line in the process.

If you could get at the ends of the wire, perhaps something like length of fishing line strung a couple of inches above it would stop 'em? They couldn't perch on thin fishing line.

JohnnyCrash

You can get plastic birds of prey specifically made for the job. They come in the forms of owls or hawks.Put one of these in the vicinity and prob should be solved.

kdouglas

JohnnyCrash wrote: »

You can get plastic birds of prey specifically made for the job. They come in the forms of owls or hawks.Put one of these in the vicinity and prob should be solved.

That sounds like a good idea, might drop by the local pet store and see what they have.

ART6: Also a good idea, would have to ask my neighbour about tying it off on his end, we've only moved in recently, but they seem friendly enough and I could ask.
Will try the bird of prey first.

dh0661

kdouglas wrote: »

That sounds like a good idea, might drop by the local pet store and see what they have.

I have never seen them in my local pet store but I have spotted them near the gun section of a local outdoor leisure shop.

kdouglas

dh0661 wrote: »

I have never seen them in my local pet store but I have spotted them near the gun section of a local outdoor leisure shop.

Thanks, I went looking online the other day and found a few on ebay. I also came across a product which is basically a silhouette/cutout of a bird that you hang in place to scare off smaller birds. Preferring to make something myself, I plan on cutting a piece of thin plywood to shape and hanging it off the edge of the roof, but first I have to borrow a ladder to get up to hang it, so that'll be a job for next weekend maybe.

Ironically, since the other day when the bird scarer was suggested, there hasn't been any more evidence of them sitting on the wire... typical

danjo

kdouglas wrote: »

Ironically, since the other day when the bird scarer was suggested, there hasn't been any more evidence of them sitting on the wire... typical

Birds reading boards?

MB Lacey

Birds don't really build nests until end of march/april - but there were some baby robins born in smithfield Fruit markets last february!

So you should check whether it's an old nest - if it is you could probably move it - if it's not and looks new and in use it would be bad karma (and maybe illegal) to move.

You sound like you're caring enough to not want to disturb the birds which is nice to read! but I think if it was me and the nest wasn't in use I'd maybe move it.

link for those feb nesting robins! http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/fp2009/fruitmarketrobins.html

Maybe finding out what type pf birds they are too might be a good idea - maybe certain things scare off certain birds?

suitseir

Since we are approaching nesting time of the year, March April, every year I have a problem with housemartins on either side of my dormer. Any ideas as to how to deter them as I am having the outside of the house painted this year. In actual fact, before the house was painted.....that lasted about a year....there were no nests at all, only when it was painted did they come......It seems to be every second year that they are messy!

Any tips would be appreciated.:D