I need to frighten some birds....

[Ewan Murray]

You didn't tell me there was bird crap involved when you asked for a hand...

haha

[ecolojim]

Gas gun. Preferably Propane one. I've set up Propane + Oxy-acetylene mix ones out in farmers fields and on one of the big local estates but it would be way too loud for residential use (Parked old 110 next to it and blew out all windows).

read the original post! Not asking for daft ideas of what to use to scare the birds, asking for methods of affixing what the church already has

 

 

Im liking the concept a lot Tommy, it's got a lot of mileage in it, depending on what birds it is that theyve purchased for the ends of the rods, obviously want to be fairly high up the food chain in order to achieve the desired effect... could try one of the larger common birds of prey, buzzard perhaps, though this can go both ways, either keeping away the likes of rooks, or causing them to mob.

 

often rooks and crows will mob a little owl decoy. theres a lot of mileage in getting the high positioning

Edited March 22, 2011 by ecolojim

[Dean Lofthouse]

Decoys don't work

 

I had a similar problem with starlings and looked into electronic scarers which emit a high pitched sound only just audible to the human ear.

 

In the end I just topped half a mile of conifers which cured the problem as roosting birds like to have over head cover to evade predators.

 

Some 15,000 starlings relocated literally over night

[easy-lift guy]

You could try Bottle rockets if the locals have no objections.

[Scottish]

As to fixing a decoy up there, something along the lines of a couple of improvised strops? A piece of rope with a couple of barrel knots on the pole might work? Then you'd just need to stop it falling out them. Lots of tape on the pole? Shrink wrap something one?

Go a step further, get cobra style bracing gear and put eyes round it. Maybe you could put tie a knot in the end of some of that bracing stuff, put the pole inside it, so the bracing stuff is length ways, covering a section of the pole. Then loop two strops through the bracing stuff and tie them on.

 

Or just stand there waving it yourself.

[Billy]

Get a bar on the end to go along the branch then ratchet straps

[zeroluke]

If you've time to be there, why not buy a remote controlled bird? I think now they have direction control and the lot. Fly it around the tree

[zeroluke]

Or try cat wispering.

[Paulfreebury]

What I would do is this, firstly look for a plastic loop on your decoy most have them, if not pierce a hole in both sides, next you need to fix a line up between 2 trees with enough slack so that it droops in the middle, then get a separate piece of string and thread on the decoys, next cut the middle section between the trees and join in the piece with the decoys on, all that's left to do is to untie one end and pull it tight raising the decoys, if using decoys with wings like a peregrine or similar it spins and twists in the wind giving a much better effect.

Kind regards

Paul

[Tommy_B]

Thanks for all the replies lads:thumbup1:

 

Crow-scarers or Remote control birds aren't really an option. As the original post, the chap that contacted me is from a local church and I get the feeling that money won't be featuring highly on the list of priorities. Not really that fussed, should be a nice interesting job, nice climb that I could do for the photos one Saturday and will go down as my good deed for the year. Hence why I was asking if there were any cheap options that only involve my showing up, climbing and looking cool....

 

Cheers.