you think starlings are troublesome?

[andyball]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1806462,00.html - sadly no pictures that were in the printed edition.


btw - At our marina - some owners want the marina to dig up all the blackberry bushes, on the basis that it's this that causes purple crap all over their boats ( & mine - but ?)

Question is - how far does a flock of starlings travel for food? Does anyone have starling trouble in a marina that's well away from blackberry bushes ?

I can't help but think that they'll fly more than just a few hundred yards to find food - & like the marina more for it's handy masts & stays than the local fruit - of which there must be plenty available outside the small area that the marina could clear.

 

[PIGLETSDREAM]

Only having a 27ft long boat that is used just about every weekend it is not a problem, gives the crew something to do whilst under way, however, I do think the mix of purple and green goes well on the boats that only ever seem to move once a year??!!

 

[Sans Bateau]

It would seem that the starlings tend to favour taller masts. We have a 41 ft yacht next to our 35 ft, the 41 ft having a tall rig it does attract starlings.

We get the evidence on our deck, and I've seen them, as they leave the taller rig, to take flight they tend to 'lighten the load', so we get caught on the flight path.

Bird scarers, harris hawks etc do no good, as the birds take flight they lighten the load en-mass, only to return when the coast is clear.

To dig up the blackberry bushes will be a waste of time, maybe a token by the marina in an effeort to appear to be doing something. Those who promote this are overlooking the fact the starlings can fly a long way!

No there is only one way to go, the string of old CD's, a black bin bag and one of those very life like owls ( I think they are just soooo convincing)!

 

[Robin]

Size doesn\'t matter

Nor how often you use it! We were away nearly 6 weeks, came back and in 48hrs were plastered and it doesn't come off easily either, certainly not with normal scrubbing. We were in Lymington over the weekend and looked at the little busteds on the boats ashore at Berthon (Berrython??) there were 20 or 30 hanging off the cap shrouds of every boat - must be the discomfort of hanging on so tight to near vertical stays that makes them incontinent? Strangely back home we have been left alone for nearly 2 weeks and didn't see any about either. Do they migrate or just run out of blackberries?

 

[aran01]

Andy and others,
I see that your URL you posted is not working. A handy tip when posting long url's is to visit http://www.tinyurl.com, paste the "long" url in there and you will get back a much shorter one that will not line wrap etc.
e.g. your url can also be expressed as http://tinyurl.com/bztxk.
Hope this helps someone....
Micheal

 

[andyball]

URL working now

here

markup's easier than tinyurl

 

[Guest]

At Hayling .... I had to spend a few hours scrubbing the decks / coachroof before the weekend jaunt ....

A hand brush and fairy-liquid - strong solution - did the trick, but I'm lucky that I don't have a monstrous boat to clean ...

After the weekend jaunt - sadly we didn't make Cherbourg .... but thats another story - it only took a couple of days for decks to start getting covered again.

As to mast height .... the number of starlings at Hayling - mast height is no concern - they use short, medium and tall ones just as much as each other .... some have CD's, bin-bags, supermarket bags etc. etc. Starlings ignore most of 'em ....

Funny bit - this is first year that I have been really affected by them. I used to have a Cormorant sit on my masthead when at Langstone Hbr .... that was a real pain - as Cormorant s...t makes Starling stuff look like childs-play !!