Cormorant scarers

[Nicholas123]

I am about to festoon my masthead with spikes made out of old spokes to deter Cormorants & other birds from landing & damaging my masthead light or just fouling the decks & wondered if anyone has come up with a simpler more effective solution?

 

[Woodlouse]

One spike should do it. I fly a burgee from the mast head and nothing can land when the pole is up there.

Are you sure it's not seagulls rather than cormorants though? I don't ever recall seeing one perched on a mast head before.

 

[Nicholas123]

One spike should do it. I fly a burgee from the mast head and nothing can land when the pole is up there.

Are you sure it's not seagulls rather than cormorants though? I don't ever recall seeing one perched on a mast head before.

Definitely Cormorants,you see them sitting around up the top of masts where I am that are unprotected.Infact on the previous boat I had a similar cluster of spikey things because I was fed up with the mess they make (also seagulls).
No mast head light then & there are two boats within 50 yards of me that have their masthead lights dangling I suspect because of the Cormorants.They are weighty birds.
Now I have got a masthead light & an aerial I intend to take no risks.It's going to look like a porcupine

 

[Boathook]

I have fixed some of those plastic spikes used to deter pigeons and this seems to work. I also put bits of wire on the wind vane arm etc. but this have been knocked to one side by the crows / pigeons. I have never seen cormorants / shags on the top of my mast.

I can now see a thread starting or this one being hijacked about shags on the mast ....

 

[Seajet]

Nicholas123,

an array of spikes sounds rather like those static diffusers some people recommend as protection from lightning strikes, so it may have a dual benefit !

A boat near my mooring had her VHF aerial completely knobbled last season, it was thought a Cormorant was the likely culprit.

I wouldn't do anything to harm them, but I can well do without the mess and possible damage.

My boat doesn't seem to get their courtesy visits, she has a windex, light & aerial on the masthead so maybe it's a challenge to land there...

I did get a large crow land on deck a while ago, from my bunk it sounded like a velociraptor striding around, I didn't feel like opening the hatch until it had gone !