1. Flatland

    Flatland Member

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    I have a real problem with birds in my 3 sided shed. When they first came in I thought "Oh they are pretty" which they are. Swallows. Only problem is they poo everywhere. I know this makes me sound like some tidyness freak, which I am not. Obviously I will not give them their eviction notices until they have raised their young this year but after that I am going to tell them they survived quite well out in the scrub until i built my shed last year so they can go back out there.
    So My thought is i will hang bird scarers across the open side of the shed. i can't enclose the shed. Has anyone got an info on really good bird scarers? I will probably also need bird scarers when my fruit trees start producing. That will most likely be corellas, of which there are many in Milang. A corella for those that don't know are a member of the parrot family
    Please don't both to tell me how wonderful swallows are. I know that and if they were "shed broken" they would be very welcome. Even partially "shed broken" would be OK but when I am thinking of taking out a guano mining licence as a way of topping up my super they have to go
     
  2. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    I tried hanging old music CDs from string in front of the chicken coop to keep the English sparrows out ... worked for maybe two days, then they were back. Swallows might be a bit less brave.
     
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  3. Flatland

    Flatland Member

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    That wasn't what I wanted to hear. CD's were on my list of ideas.
    Has anyone tried the kite hawks that you can buy?
     
  4. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    no, we have some spots birds will try to nest. once they have
    an idea about a place they can be pretty stubborn. i put some
    pieces of wood up so they can't use the space but now i have
    a bat (at least one) up there. with winter coming on i was
    hoping it would leave so i could take the wood down again...
    not yet.

    you may need to put some netting across the opening once
    they have left. in the meantime perhaps you can string an
    old sheet up overhead to catch the droppings?
     
  5. Flatland

    Flatland Member

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    The problem with trying to block where they nest is the shed is made with "C" section steel beams so unless I totally line the under roof area there will always be somewhere to nest. I have put sheets over the worst of the poo areas. I just wish the little "B" had stayed where they were before I built my shed
     
  6. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Senior Member

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    A friend had swallows nests all around his house,he put little wooden shelves under the nests to catch the free manure
     
  7. Bryant RedHawk

    Bryant RedHawk Junior Member

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    you might have success with rubber snakes, the ones that look real.
     
  8. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    if they don't move (rubber snakes, owls, etc) they tend to become
    bird perches or just another thing to trip over. not ever had much
    luck here with that sort of deterrent.

    i took the wood chunks down some time ago and found the bat in
    there. was sad to disturb their resting/place. it was fun each
    evening to see them fly off the window sill (my futon faces the
    patio door so i could catch them out of the corner of my eye when
    they fell off to go flying). i'm not sure it survived being disturbed.
    :(
     
  9. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    I dont use any sort of bird scarers, unless you count windfall fruit lobbed at particularly annoying birds.
    At the moment, I feel that they have more right to be here than I do and consider what they steal from me to be penance.
    Just grow more... and more different types.
     
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  10. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    good point mischief! :)
     
  11. allyann

    allyann Member

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    I would be interested if you find a good method. We had a flock of Galahs (more than 100) descend on our front lawn, proceed to rip out the grass and eat the root, totally destroying the lawn. They have moved on for now, but I know they will be back.
     
  12. Mirrabooka

    Mirrabooka Junior Member

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    Permaculture galahs! They obviously want to grow a food forest!
     
  13. allyann

    allyann Member

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    haha! We tried everything, including Scat, a plastic Owl and sending our Kelpie/Collie out to scare them off. We came out and they were still eating the grass and sitting on the plastic Owl's head!!!
     
  14. jdaley

    jdaley Junior Member

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    I have to say I am amused to read of people complaining about swallows etc in sheds.
    We live in their environment , surely its better to work out a way to work / live with them.
    I love tem nesting, and poo etc can be captured anyway with a bit on planning.
    I guess in an ideal world there would be none, but would that actually be ideal?
     
  15. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Start rehabbing raptors a few will always hang around
    They will certainly fix your too many of the one sort bird problem.
     
  16. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    we would sure love a few more around that like to eat grackles.

    a good design would make some allowances for where to encourage
    the various birds to nest. unfortunately, some structures are built
    without such understandings and then later have to be adjusted (like
    right now i need to screen off an area above my patio door before the
    birds build another nest up there...).

    in the realm of grackle control we didn't have much of an issue with
    them before because most of the trees were not that tall, but once
    the trees got to a certain height they rapidly took advantage of those
    new nesting sites. we currently make some efforts to reduce their
    population (removing nests) but that is getting to be a dangerous
    activity. i'm not liking the loss of light in some areas so eventually i
    will remove some of those trees. a deer elevator would be nice...
     
  17. Brian D Smith

    Brian D Smith New Member

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    Music CD's are too mellow. Use old computer software CD's, especially from Mocrosoft. :)

    Kidding aside, I used CD's and they work well for most birds. They (mostly) keep the birds off my fig trees.
    The morning and evening flashing makes a big difference around my trees.
    But sparrows are VERY aggressive. Not much works on them.
     
  18. allyann

    allyann Member

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    our galahs are not just happy with the grass, they like to eat the wood around our windows, and have attacked the neighbours solar panels :(
     
  19. Brian D Smith

    Brian D Smith New Member

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    Have you tried drastic measures - like hanging a dead bird from a pole like a scarecrow?
     

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