I have an 8 ft stream I designed for birds. It's shallow and has many little rapids. It really does work as a bird attraction, but now the birds have abused it. Leaving messes everyware, they destroyed the first peach on a new peach tree. They try to pirch inside an electronic rain gauge I have in the garden and when they take off they flip out a screen that's suppost to keep debris out of the rain gauge, and in return thay leave messes inside. And several plants in the pond have been attacked. This bird project has turned into a nightmare. Now I want the birds gone. Any suggestions. The messes make garden maintenence a challenge.
I guess this a good example of "be careful what you wish for". :'( Are you still wanting to keep the stream? If so, you may have to do some more work to protect the various items from the birds even more. What kind of birds are causing the most mess? Do you have cats or dogs? Sometimes they can chase away some birds. And I've heard of using a fake owls or snakes to scare them off too.
Grackles? I stopped putting out regular bird seed and black sunflower seeds to discourage them hanging around and it worked. I only put out Safflower seeds now, they don't like those but there are plenty of other birds that do.
Thank you guys. I do have 3 cats and 1 dog. It's too hot outside to keep them out. The dog barks alot so he can be a nusence. The cats to work well at going after the birds but then again, don't want them out in the heat too. I don't mind most birds. Like Toni said, Grackles, Crows, and other black birds even Mockingbirds are pests. these are the ones that trash the pond and are territorial. We have gotten Cardinals, Blue Jays, Sparrows, chickidees, and other good birds. But for every good bird it seems there's 10 bad birds. How do you ward off the bad birds without scaring off the good birds?
Boy if one could figure out how to keep the bad out and the good birds around. You would have a money maker on your hands.
