Hi,
Noticing that it was raining (according to my Davis VP) when it
obviously was not, a quick check showed that bird cr*p had caused an
almost total blockage. It is obvious, now, that it is used as a perch
by a flock of house sparrows.

I did think to construct something akin to the 'spikes' used in cities
to deter pigeons perching, but wondered if anyone could suggest a
quicker fix.
--
Chris

Chris wrote:
Hi,
Noticing that it was raining (according to my Davis VP) when it
obviously was not, a quick check showed that bird cr*p had caused an
almost total blockage. It is obvious, now, that it is used as a perch
by a flock of house sparrows.

I did think to construct something akin to the 'spikes' used in cities
to deter pigeons perching, but wondered if anyone could suggest a
quicker fix.

A cat??? House sparrows have become quite rare so perhaps a non - lethal
deterrent might be a better idea. What about a stick - on hawk on the
house window??



Les

--
Les Crossan,
Wallsend, Tyne & Wear
54.95N 1.5W
Home of the Wallsend StormCam and the Backup USW FAQ -
www.uksevereweather.org.uk

In message , Les Crossan
writes
I did think to construct something akin to the 'spikes' used in
cities to deter pigeons perching, but wondered if anyone could
suggest a quicker fix.

A cat??? House sparrows have become quite rare so perhaps a non -
lethal deterrent might be a better idea. What about a stick - on hawk
on the house window??

Cat - not on. Too many birds around the feeders (which are located well
away from the gauge). I even have a 'tame' female sparrowhawk who drops
by twice a day (pretty regularly too, 9am and 3.30pm), but they are all
back within 30 seconds of her moving on.

--
Chris

.... Because we live in the 'standard' suburban garden, with youngsters
next door who play football, for some years I have used the arrangement
that you can see in the photographs on my home page ....

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/booty.weather/

These are actually the inner tubes from 'WetFax' rolls for those that
remember them, but anything similarly robust (to weather) will suffice.
They are there of course to deflect a football (won't stop them totally,
but might / have avoided damaging the gauges and grass minimum
thermometer), but they also serve to either discourage birds altogether
from perching on the gauge (and incidentally ground-feeding birds &
larger mammals are discouraged from blundering into the grass min.
overnight etc.), or alternatively the small to medium sized birds perch
on the top of the tubes, ignoring the gauge. (Larger birds can't perch
on them, and because they are 'proud' of the gauge, they feel inhibited
from alighting on the gauge itself.)

It's worked for the past 7 years & I am pretty sure that the diameter of
the tubes is too small to affect the rain 'catch'. Might fit the bill in
your case?

Martin.


--
FAQ & Glossary for uk.sci.weather at:-
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/booty.weather/uswfaqfr.htm
and
http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/metindex.htm


"Chris" wrote in message
...
In message , Les
Crossan writes
I did think to construct something akin to the 'spikes' used in
cities to deter pigeons perching, but wondered if anyone could
suggest a quicker fix.

A cat??? House sparrows have become quite rare so perhaps a non -
lethal deterrent might be a better idea. What about a stick - on hawk
on the house window??

Cat - not on. Too many birds around the feeders (which are located
well away from the gauge). I even have a 'tame' female sparrowhawk
who drops by twice a day (pretty regularly too, 9am and 3.30pm), but
they are all back within 30 seconds of her moving on.

--
Chris

On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 09:57:53 GMT, "Martin Rowley"
m wrote:

...

Along similar lines, a related suggestion is to secure - eg with
insulating tape - a ring of toothpicks or similar around the
circumference of the top of the gauge and obviously projecting above
it. The theory has it that you don't need too many toothpicks or
whatever because birds don't routinely care to land in spaces too
narrow for them to spread their wings and take off in a hurry. I'm not
enough of an ornithologist (actually I'm not one at all!) to know
whether or not this might be true but it sounds plausible and
reportedly does work.

John Dann
www.weatherstations.co.uk

John Dann wrote:

Along similar lines, a related suggestion is to secure - eg with
insulating tape - a ring of toothpicks or similar around the
circumference of the top of the gauge and obviously projecting above
it.

Any suggestions on how to stop spiders from tying down the tipping
bucket with web?

At least it's only happened once -- same goes for the crow that
collided with the anemometer (which I happened to see). I bet they'd
pinch tooth picks though.

--
John H

In message , John Dann
writes
Along similar lines, a related suggestion is to secure - eg with
insulating tape - a ring of toothpicks or similar around the
circumference of the top of the gauge and obviously projecting above
it. The theory has it that you don't need too many toothpicks or
whatever because birds don't routinely care to land in spaces too
narrow for them to spread their wings and take off in a hurry. I'm not
enough of an ornithologist (actually I'm not one at all!) to know
whether or not this might be true but it sounds plausible and
reportedly does work.


Thanks John. I adopted your idea using an odd length of 'P' shaped
rubber draught excluder with toothpicks inserted every 3cm or so as can
be seen he

http://www.thehendre.com/images/images.htm

I'll let you know how successful it proves!

And I have no idea how to stop spiders tying up the buckets!


--
Chris