Bloody starlings!

[Fourbees]

Every autumn my boat is splattered with starling sh*t, and last weekend I installed a Hum Line to deter the little b*stards. It's a line you tie from shroud to backstay and round to the other shroud, and it makes an annoying noise in the wind - but returning to the boat today I found it had been splattered anyway. I saw the starlings coming in to roost in the marina tonight and if was quite a sight, seeing them line up at acute angles on people's shrouds... Has anyone tried a plastic owl, or has anyone any effective ideas of any kind?

 

[sarabande]

small hand held laser torch just as they are coming in. It helps if you bang saucepans together at the same time, so they become conditioned to noise plus light.

Or a powerful water gun - sooper dooper blaster, sort of thing.
You need to break their roosting pattern, and they will then go away.

Distress calls played as they start to accumulate are legal:-
http://www.treehelp.info/tree-damage-alerts/167-tda-no145-starlings

Calls here:_
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/European_Starling/sounds

 

[Tidewaiter2]

They do like their 'sundowner' chinwag and social cr2P

Every autumn my boat is splattered with starling sh*t, and last weekend I installed a Hum Line to deter the little b*stards. It's a line you tie from shroud to backstay and round to the other shroud, and it makes an annoying noise in the wind - but returning to the boat today I found it had been splattered anyway. I saw the starlings coming in to roost in the marina tonight and if was quite a sight, seeing them line up at acute angles on people's shrouds... Has anyone tried a plastic owl, or has anyone any effective ideas of any kind?

A plastic owl just gets perched on- the revolving eye ones do slightly better.
Searush swears by toy snakes hoisted aloft.

Tried the hum line on deck and up the mast, tried cds, tried a line bow to stern with cds and filaments over the boom, tried a dummy raptor(from all good gunsmiths), only thing that works is to popup from below and twang the shrouds- if they see a human on deck, they don't park- I'll try a shop dummy next.
They still dump on leaving anyway- our prev boat was on a mooring off a blackberry area up Nore Barn Rythe- we used to board after dark, so we couldn't see the state of it in September.

Only solution is to liveaboard for blackberry season and be on deck between say 16.45-18.30 or so, even then....

if you've got a white boat with a tall mast, in a spot which catches the last of the evening sun, you're it, it seems.

At the end, just get hold of a small handy pressure washer when soft fruit season over, or go West up the Solent last Friday- hardly a stain left on and fwd of the sprayhood by Cowes E entrance

 

[Fourbees]

A plastic owl just gets perched on- the revolving eye ones do slightly better.
Searush swears by toy snakes hoisted aloft.

Tried the hum line on deck and up the mast, tried cds, tried a line bow to stern with cds and filaments over the boom, tried a dummy raptor(from all good gunsmiths), only thing that works is to popup from below and twang the shrouds- if they see a human on deck, they don't park- I'll try a shop dummy next.
They still dump on leaving anyway- our prev boat was on a mooring off a blackberry area up Nore Barn Rythe- we used to board after dark, so we couldn't see the state of it in September.

Only solution is to liveaboard for blackberry season and be on deck between say 16.45-18.30 or so, even then....

if you've got a white boat with a tall mast, in a spot which catches the last of the evening sun, you're it, it seems.

At the end, just get hold of a small handy pressure washer when soft fruit season over, or go West up the Solent last Friday- hardly a stain left on and fwd of the sprayhood by Cowes E entrance

So there's no way of keeping them away if you're not on board, then? This evening I just clapped my hands and they flew away, but they've obviously done quite a lot of roosting up my mast in the last week...

 

[Tidewaiter2]

So there's no way of keeping them away if you're not on board, then? This evening I just clapped my hands and they flew away, but they've obviously done quite a lot of roosting up my mast in the last week...

Well, I'm trying to find a realistic toy snake to hoist up the rigging like Searush, but i'm not optimistic, just servicing the pressure washer and deck brush

 

[dylanwinter]

aha

A plastic owl just gets perched on- the revolving eye ones do slightly better.


if you've got a white boat with a tall mast, in a spot which catches the last of the evening sun, you're it, it seems.

that accounts for why I never have problems with them. Never had the tallest mast in the moorings or the boat yard

I do feel warmly towards them because of revenue from filming them

earned enough to pay for a slug replacement

so.... be gentle on them lads

they are easily the cleverest birds we commonly come across

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcRfBU59LhM

so outsmarting them is not easy

they do look great in flight though

Dylan

 

[Blue5]

Seem to recall they had a guy with a bird of prey in Gosport a couple of years ago but the starlings just seem to fly to the other end of the marina...............

I think the starlings outnumbered him and gave him the runaround

 

[haydude]

Since I have had some Biology background when younger I thought the following:

Starlings come from warmer Southern Europe and North Africa climates. In those places snakes are predators, so I believe that Starlings must know snakes and they must know that they must stay clear when they see one.

So I have purchased a toy snake in a toy shop, I have purchased one quite large and with colours similar to Vipers/Adders, very common in Southern Europe, and a nice open and hissing mouth. I have tied the snake to a sheet and I have hoisted it to the top of the mast using the topping lift.

Neighbours' boats are full of roosting Starlings, after a few days mine was free. Safe the odd one getting on the cross trees. What surprised me was that for the last three weeks I haven't bothered to hoist the snake again, and my boat is still free from roosting Starlings and clean!

They must have a memory.

 

[pugwash94]

You guys think you've got problems. Friend of mine was in Ouistreham two weeks ago - he had popped off the boat for a quiet ciggy and took refuge under a tree.

He notice the starlings returning for the evening and then felt spots of rain. Then he noticed the spots of rain were red. Then the entire flock in the tree above took a synchronised dump. It appears they had all been eating red berries of some sort.

His wife couldn't stop stop laughing when she told me about it - apparently he really was dyed pink - took half an hour in the shower and three cycles of the washing machine.

 

[Downsman]

I am honoured..being berthed in a rural area I get squadrons of starlings which have been feeding solely on Blackberries..and I think possibly Vindaloo...and more Blackberries..

 

[TeamSpirit]

Did the snake thing for the last couple of winters and worked a treat... until it went missing presume a bird of prey might have had it away.
Im snake sitting a burnese python whilst my sons on his 6mth 'hols' in Afgan and its a pretty scary beasty at times only been bitten twice in four months ! So can relate to why it works on starlings. I dont think it likes me !

 

[Tidewaiter2]

You guys think you've got problems. Friend of mine was in Ouistreham two weeks ago - he had popped off the boat for a quiet ciggy and took refuge under a tree.

He notice the starlings returning for the evening and then felt spots of rain. Then he noticed the spots of rain were red. Then the entire flock in the tree above took a synchronised dump. It appears they had all been eating red berries of some sort.

His wife couldn't stop stop laughing when she told me about it - apparently he really was dyed pink - took half an hour in the shower and three cycles of the washing machine.

Yeh, I always tweak the backstay, furthest from the 'runway'