Bloody birds

[BrendAn]

Being in a WW2 hangar that is storage only except for my xair there are heaps of starlings and probably other culprits as well.

Tonight I put a motion sensing owl up to see if it helps.

Also thinking of hanging reflective hawk shapes as well.

After any tips people may have to deter birds. 

Keep the plane tarped but it would be nice to have a reasonably clean area where the xair sits.

 

[Blueadventures]

Tarp looks the only solution. Maybe make a 'U' frame in 20mm PVC pipe to allow pulling over the wing easier.

[BrendAn]

49 minutes ago, Blueadventures said:

Tarp looks the only solution. Maybe make a 'U' frame in 20mm PVC pipe to allow pulling over the wing easier.

Good idea. I was thinking of some sort of PVC tube frame that I could hang off the rafters or maybe just make a t hangar to sit on the floor .

 

 

[onetrack]

Move to W.A.! - we don't have starlings, and even one sighting of a starling brings out an eradication campaign. They would cost W.A. hundreds of millions in agricultural losses if they ever managed to get established here.

 

Bright flashing lights, loud noises, sharp spikes mounted at nesting or roosting positions, distress calls of the bird species, and the cries of predator birds, are the main things that deter unwanted birds.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/404281383875

 

[BrendAn]

4 hours ago, onetrack said:

Move to W.A.! - we don't have starlings, and even one sighting of a starling brings out an eradication campaign. They would cost W.A. hundreds of millions in agricultural losses if they ever managed to get established here.

 

Bright flashing lights, loud noises, sharp spikes mounted at nesting or roosting positions, distress calls of the bird species, and the cries of predator birds, are the main things that deter unwanted birds.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/404281383875

 

Yes they used to have shooters stationed out on the Nullarbor targeting them. Horrible things

 

 

[IBob]

5 hours ago, onetrack said:

 

Bright flashing lights, loud noises, sharp spikes mounted at nesting or roosting positions, distress calls of the bird species, and the cries of predator birds, are the main things that deter unwanted birds.

 

Unfortunately, birds seem to habituate to any static deterrent if there is food and/or nesting space.
They are a perennial problem in vineyards. Netting of the vines has greatly improved in recent years, but prior to that vintners tried all manner of things: kites, balloons with big fierce eyes, gas guns, hawk cries. And this:
An engineer in Hawkes Bay had a bright idea, persuaded a local vintner to let him try it. They erected posts with pulleys on top round  a vineyard. An endless motor driven cable ran round the pulleys, and the idea was that various scare devices (balloons, kites, flashers and noise devices) could be attached to the cable and would move constantly round the vineyard.
A couple of weeks after all this went in, the vintner called the engineer and said 'We have a problem, you're not going to believe this'. 
The birds, and there were many, had taken to sitting on the wire, and were happily riding round the vineyard, diving down occasionally whenever an especially juicy bunch of grapes hove into view...............
 

[BrendAn]

6 hours ago, onetrack said:

Move to W.A.! - we don't have starlings, and even one sighting of a starling brings out an eradication campaign. They would cost W.A. hundreds of millions in agricultural losses if they ever managed to get established here.

 

Bright flashing lights, loud noises, sharp spikes mounted at nesting or roosting positions, distress calls of the bird species, and the cries of predator birds, are the main things that deter unwanted birds.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/404281383875

 

We moved here from wa.

 

[skippydiesel]

.22 rat shot!😈

Edited December 20, 2025 by skippydiesel

[BrendAn]

5 minutes ago, skippydiesel said:

.22 rat shot!😈

I have been using it.

The building is so high it's hard to get close enough to do any damage.

May have to go to .22 shorts. Have to be careful I don't punch holes in the roof.

You can get 

38 ratshot , that might be worth a try.

 

[T510]

Looks like your X-Air has some interesting hangar mates

[rodgerc]

A carpet snake 

[BrendAn]

7 minutes ago, T510 said:

Looks like your X-Air has some interesting hangar mates

Yes. A bit of a museum in there.

I heard a company in Canada owns all the Grumman trackers. Bought for parts. Wonder what they would be using them for  over there.

 

 

[BrendAn]

Just googled it. They do firefighting 

Conversions on the Grumman's.

[skippydiesel]

There was an anti perch product called Hot Foot (I think) that might be worth exploring. 😈

[Love to fly]

We use party lights purchased on Amazon. They flash through red, green & white and are really effective. USB powered and under $50.  Previously tried just about everything else.  Bought an old parachute and kind of hung over plane. Helped but annoying. Owls did nothing  🤷‍♂️ ultrasonic thingy did nothing. 🤷‍♂️ 

[BrendAn]

I thought of hooking an electric fence up to the steel rails the door rollers run on. Because the birds all sit on them and enter and exit the building there too.

 

Wonder if that's ever been tried.

[Love to fly]

12 minutes ago, BrendAn said:

I thought of hooking an electric fence up to the steel rails the door rollers run on. Because the birds all sit on them and enter and exit the building there too.

 

Wonder if that's ever been tried.

Won't work as they aren't earthed when they are on them. Often used to have birds sitting on ours at the farm. 

[Thruster88]

16 minutes ago, BrendAn said:

I thought of hooking an electric fence up to the steel rails the door rollers run on. Because the birds all sit on them and enter and exit the building there too.

 

Wonder if that's ever been tried.

Birds were roosting on the diagonal bracing cables in my shed roof. I coated them with plenty of wheel bearing grease and them problem was gone.

[facthunter]

Near impossible to keep them out of big farm sheds. They'll nest in the roof insulation.  Peck holes in it.  Nev