GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

Roger Tonkin[_2_] · 21-06-2018, 11:52 AM posted to uk.d-i-y,uk.rec.gardening

In article ,
says...

On a recent trip to rural Shropshire I was shown the traditional method
of deterring crows from crops. A dead crow is staked to the ground.

At home I have some bird feeders on a pole with both seeds and fat balls
which are visited by a fairly large number of small birds, especially
when they are feeding young. The downside is that these small birds tend
to be messy feeders and drop food to the ground. This attracts Pigeons
which wait on my, and neighbours, roofs waiting for the food to be
dropped. One or two pigeons is not too much of a problem but over the
past year the flock is now 30 which deposit shit on the roofs which not
only discolour the tiles but also fertilise moss etc. I have tried
various methods to try and discourage them including a plastic owl which
worked for all of an hour before they were feeding within a couple of
feet away.

A couple of days ago one of the pigeons was killed by a cat or fox and
left on the lawn. On the first day afterwards no feeding pigeons were
seen and the number waiting on the roof was down to around half a dozen.
I covered the corpse overnight to prevent its removal by the prowling
wild-life and today the uncovered dead pigeon seems to have prevented
any pigeons returning to my roof or garden. The smaller birds are
feeding as normal.

It seems that traditional methods not only work with crows!

I used to hang a large dish below the feeders to catch the
discards, which other birds would then eat. Not many pigeons
around then, I was in the country and apart from the odd
collared dove the only pigeons we saw were in town1 Mind you we
did have our sparrow hawk, who kept th smaller birds on their
toes.

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com