Bird attack on boats: reality or urban myth?

oldharry

oldharry

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I have always enjoyed in a minor and rather uninformed way the activities of our feathered friends. However in recent years that friendship has been more than a little strained as the local Sanderling population has taken to roosting on moored boats in my remote end of Chichester harbour. Lats year they selected my boat as their preferred roost, and after just a week the decks were literally covered in guano Not only unpleasant and evil smelling but dangerously slippery. I had to allow half an hour or more cleaning it up enough to make it safe to work on deck before going out. This of course has damaged the deck paint, which is lifted off if the stuff dries out in hot sun.

Thankfully this year they have attached themselves to another boat, but towards the end of the season a flock of Crows arrived in the area, and started using the masthead and spreaders of the moored boats as perches. Not quite as disasterous. However about a month ago I found two cups had been broken off the anemometer. Clearly some stoopid burd had tride to land on it...

I mentioned this to one of the local fishermen. He told me that he had quite often seen crows actually attacking anemometers. Clearly the whirling cups are perceived as some sort of threat to Corvidae who attack them quite vigorously.

Anyone else come across this, is is it just another fishermans tale? If true can anything be done, as its a mast down job at my time of life?
 
I lost the fin of my wind transducer some while ago, so maybe it was crows. I shall send a complaint and bill to their parliament. I also harbour some considerable resentment against pigeons and gulls who mess up my boat, but I think that I could endure such charmers as sanderlings.
 
johnalison said:
I lost the fin of my wind transducer some while ago, so maybe it was crows. I shall send a complaint and bill to their parliament. I also harbour some considerable resentment against pigeons and gulls who mess up my boat, but I think that I could endure such charmers as sanderlings.
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I think you'll find you are complaining to their murder, The owls parliament will not care!

Only attack we've nearly had is skuas in the Minch.
 
ctva said:
I think you'll find you are complaining to their murder, The owls parliament will not care!

Only attack we've nearly had is skuas in the Minch.
Click to expand...

I checked before writing! Crows are apparently also sometimes parliamentary and I have yet to see our local barn owl on my masthead.
 
The year I was an early bird and 1st boat moored in the anchorage I found my decks covered in multicoloured incredibly sticky bird shit. I cleared it all off twice before finding the culprits - one evening, having just cleaned the muck off the decks I noticed a flock of 20 or 30 birds wheeling around the anchorage. As I wondered what they were, they turned in unison and headed straight at my boat and only turned away when I waved my arms and shouted. They tried several times again and eventually landed on another later arriving boat. According to my bird book they were turnstones which roost at night and high water and are faithful, having once found one, to that roost.
Moral is don't be first! (or last)
 
I've watched a gull pecking away at an anemometer. The cups were turning quite slowly and perhaps it perceived them as prey, or a threat.

I don't think there is a long-term answer for deterring birds, but hanging-up old CDs on a length of line seems to work as well as anything. It's FOC too. Oxalic acid works well at cleaning off the crap, but scrub first with normal cleaning fluid and use the acid only on the stained areas.
 
Major_Clanger said:
I've watched a gull pecking away at an anemometer. The cups were turning quite slowly and perhaps it perceived them as prey, or a threat.

I don't think there is a long-term answer for deterring birds, but hanging-up old CDs on a length of line seems to work as well as anything. It's FOC too. Oxalic acid works well at cleaning off the crap, but scrub first with normal cleaning fluid and use the acid only on the stained areas.
Click to expand...

The preferred method locally, and it did seem to work to some degree this year, is decorate the boat with old plastic shopping bags of the type that used to be given away by the million byt the big supermarkets. Looks terrible, but I had far less problems this year, - until the crows destroyed my anemometer cups! The big minus is of course they shred after a while in strong winds dropping hundreds of plastic shreds into the sea and upsetting David Attenborough (rightly I might add!)

Curiously its only been a problem in the last 3 - 4 years or so. I have had this mooring for over 15 years now, and its never been a serious issue until recently. Climate change changing birds habits? Sanderlings are cute, but very very messy! I used to be quite amused how they would just shuffle round the other side of the boat as I approached, and give me a Paddington type stare. even after boarding some of the braver ones would stay put to see if I would go away again, usually in a huddle at the far end of the boat!
 
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oldmanofthehills said:
I believe its usually a parliament of rooks and a murder of crows - at least in Somerset. Owls never gather in large enough numbers to constitute a parliament, though whether that is wisdom or the opposite Im not sure
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I'm sure that properly that should be so, but the whole business seems a bit messy. I needed a parliament of crows to make my attempt at a joke work, and googlifying 'parliament of crows' comes up with enough positives for me to have felt justified in using it. I offer my apologies to any strigiforms that might be offended.
 
oldharry said:
I
Thankfully this year they have attached themselves to another boat, but towards the end of the season a flock of Crows arrived in the area, and started using the masthead and spreaders of the moored boats as perches. Not quite as disasterous. However about a month ago I found two cups had been broken off the anemometer. Clearly some stoopid burd had tride to land on it...

I mentioned this to one of the local fishermen. He told me that he had quite often seen crows actually attacking anemometers. Clearly the whirling cups are perceived as some sort of threat to Corvidae who attack them quite vigorously.

Anyone else come across this, is is it just another fishermans tale? If true can anything be done, as its a mast down job at my time of life?
Click to expand...
Some years ago in Poole Harbour we watched a bunch of crows taking turns to land on the windex of a nearby yacht. The game was obviously to see how for many revolutions they could hang on before falling off. A sort of crow windex rodeo.
I guess anemometer cups would be a tad small for an adult crow, but perhaps they use them to train youngsters?:confused:
 
An old school burgee flown from the masthead does a fine job keeping the crows away. The only known defence against starlings is to moor next door to a boat with a taller mast than yours.
 
ctva said:
I think you'll find you are complaining to their murder, The owls parliament will not care!

Only attack we've nearly had is skuas in the Minch.
Click to expand...

I can top that - I've been attacked by skuas in both Arctic and Antarctic! I like birds, in general, but I'll make an exception for skuas. Nasty pieces of work that'll attack anything that goes anywhere near their nest. Carrion eaters that aren't too fussy about waiting till their prey is dead!
 
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