Birds scares

[zefender]

Fed up with spending my weekends washing off the inevitable result of weekday occupation by our feathered friends, I was wondering if anyone had any smart ideas for keeping birds off the mast/crosstrees/boom etc. At Lymington yesterday, I noticed that they have a speaker system which sends out (presumably) birds in distress noises, but I've no idea whether it works. I've seen bertholders tie plastic bags on the halyards, that rattle away in the wind (irritatingly), to very limited effect.

Is there a neighbour friendly version of Lymington's idea for individual boats? Does the plastic owl/hawk on the boom do anything?Apart from aethetics, does guano do any damage to the windex and/or the top of the mast? Would sending a small current aloft create problems elsewhere? Is an air-rifle the only solution?!

As this is the first year owning a boat (I've just discovered an advantage of chartering!), comments from more experienced deck swabbers would be welcome!

 

[Twister_Ken]

As a Lymington floatee, I've no idea whether the distress calls work scientifically, but practically, I have very little fouling to deal with. Maybe other boats in the marina are more attractive to avians, though.

 

[jfm]

Re: Birds scares -they work

Sorry I do not know if there's a system that will work locally on your boat, but I'm berthed at Lymington (berthon) where they have the speakers and I can confirm categorically that the system works. I virtually never get bird muck on the boat, praps 2 or 3 splodges the whole season (probly when Berthon were changing the batteries!).

JFM

 

[RobertMartin]

Re: Birds scares -they work

Get an old tape with music that sucks on it ( kidding ). Pull out the tape and tie it from your pullpit to the mast, then pushpit to the mast. It need to be quite tight. The noise it makes when the wind blows is terrible and scares all birds, feather and normal away.. Don't try to sleep with it above you.. they sell this stuff in Ozz as a bird scarey thing and its sold as tape for $10, but an old tapes does the same thing. Old Rod Steward should do it...

Bobby aka Seawolf..
Sail as if your free

 

[vyv_cox]

Re: Birds scares -they work

CDs strung on a string received good reports on these forums a few weeks ago.

 

[andrewg]

Use trip wires. A thin string lying about an inch above the seagulls favourite landing place gets there feet tangled when landing and they fly away.
It worked beautifully on my boat. Much better than plastic bags.

 

[Robin]

We just bought a new boat from Lymington which was covered in guano in just a few days ashore at Berthon, so maybe their bird scarer does have flat batteries. She is now in Poole and the little b....rs have followed us there, seems to be starlings not gulls and they favour sitting on the windex arm.

 

[ccscott49]

Re: Birds scares -they work

Boating out of Dartmouth gives you lots of anti flying rat knowledge, CD's are the best thing I ever saw, not one scrap of guano on my boat in two years, I'd say that was pretty effective!

 

[zefender]

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. Perhaps I should to badger Port Solent into getting a sound system. Meantime, the CDs seem like a good try. I'm not sure about noisy tapes though - not very neighbourly in a marina!

Thanks again