The Vent and Rant Thread

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

So give me the straight poop, folks; what can I do to keep the birds out of that tree?

Cut it down .....

[Javed]

Why not cover the tree with a net? (As done to some fruit trees to stop birds eating the fruit)

[GeoffC]

Get a model raptor and place on the end of a long stiff wire.
Attach this wire to the highest branch where it can wave around in the breeze.

[kennyc]

Hire an out of work Swainson's Hawk?

Of course you'd have to provide health-care coverage.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by nomesque

In the meantime, another coworker almost bought the farm...

Bad health, accident at work, or sheer stupidity (leading to someone else to (almost) do the deed and off 'em)?

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

So give me the straight poop, folks; what can I do to keep the birds out of that tree?

Cover the car? Won't keep the birds out of the tree, but means you won't have to wash the car...

Or put up a bird table nearby, but not too near, and lure them onto that with with bird feed.

(At least they're songbirds - they have peacocks where the yeti works, and they really make a mess!)

[yvanleterrible]

Some birds must defecate, by instinct, in water pools. A shiny car, especially blue of brown, will confuse a bird enough to use it as target. An immobile, horizontal piece of mirror is the most likely to be soiled.

The reason is to foil predators on the position of prey. Some species' chicks defecate in a sort of wrapping, the parent pick it up and carry it elsewhere far from the nest as not to attract attention to the positon of the chick.

Different birds have different habits. You must first find the culprit, learn about it and act.

Owl mockups do not work since most birds dive bomb at speed.

The most important is to pretreat your car with good quality thick waxes. Scavenging bird feces like those of a gull have highly acidic content that attack paints.

As soon as you see it, flush it before it dries. The waxes make for a quick job.

[happy_terd]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Some birds must defecate, by instinct, in water pools. A shiny car, especially blue of brown, will confuse a bird enough to use it as target. An immobile, horizontal piece of mirror is the most likely to be soiled.

The reason is to foil predators on the position of prey. Some species' chicks defecate in a sort of wrapping, the parent pick it up and carry it elsewhere far from the nest as not to attract attention to the positon of the chick.

Different birds have different habits. You must first find the culprit, learn about it and act.

Owl mockups do not work since most birds dive bomb at speed.

The most important is to pretreat your car with good quality thick waxes. Scavenging bird feces like those of a gull have highly acidic content that attack paints.

As soon as you see it, flush it before it dries. The waxes make for a quick job.

Dont need to know any of this if one knows how to load a BB gun and shoot it.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

Dont need to know any of this if one knows how to load a BB gun and shoot it.

You'd have to spend a lot of time in ambush because some birds would only pass over target several times a day. All you'd do is decimate the wrong crowd and still be stuck with the problem.

I would have thought the army to teach you to "know yor ennemy first".

[happy_terd]

Army taught me don't ever fire your weapon or a democrat will put you in prison.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

There’s a tree where we park our car, and those gol-dang feathered varmints won’t cut our poor car any slack! I’ve tried pairs of pie-plates, wind-chimes, and rubber snakes, and it only inspires the birds to call all their friends to show off the way I decorated the tree! They think it’s Christmas!

Any suggestions for keeping the birds out of that tree?

The only thing I can come up with at this point is to admit defeat and paint the car white.

I've seen some people put rubber snakes in their trees. my Uncle used to have problems with crows in his cherry trees. he would shoot one every year and hang it from a tree which very effectively kept crows out of the cherries

[happy_terd]

LOL

Does he make a little noose for it?

[kindlekitten]

yep. hangs it by the neck from low branches

[DMcCunney]

An update to this post: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...postcount=7319

This weekend I was an attendee and program participant at Lunacon, the annual New York metro area SF convention. Michael had been involved in Lunacon, off and on over the years, and his wife Naomi had for years been "Staff Den Goddess", making sure people working on the con got fed.

Naomi decided she wanted to attend Lunacon, and shared a room with Kat and I.

One of the events that takes place at Lunacon and similar conventions is a blood drive. SF grand master Robert A. Heinlein coined the phrase, "Don't pay back, pay forward", and had encouraged blood collection efforts, because he had been a recipient when undergoing quadruple bypass surgery. Michael had required transfusions while hospitalized.

The chap coordinating Lunacon's blood drive decided to make it the Mike Moslow Memorial Blood Drive, and printed fliers for the con promoting the effort. Naomi manned the blood drive table and helped get out the vote.

The Red Cross experience for blood drives in the area where the con was held was 20 - 25 pints collected. They expected perhaps 30 from Lunacon. They got 46, with 10 deferred appointments. They were very pleased.

I was touched, and I think Michael would have been delighted with the results. He was a major Heinlein fan, and took "Don't pay back, pay forward" seriously. Naomi was very pleased as well, and Kat and I were personally delighted that she was far enough along in dealing with Michael's death to want to attend the convention and even enjoy herself while there.

I count it a successful weekend indeed.
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by nomesque

I have a sneaking suspicion that AutoUpdate (where they go to a remote server, see if there are any updates, download them, update themselves) causes a lot of problems for many people. I know I'm old-fashioned, but I do NOT like my software acting independently, dammit!!! It's possible to turn autoupdate off, but in Thunderbird you have to go to the Advanced Advanced text settings to do it...

It's in Advanced/Update. where else would you have them put it?

Auto-updates aren't a problem here. I keep it turned on, mostly for the benefit of updates to extensions, and don't have problems. (I have a 10mbps/sec broadband connection. If I weren't on broadband, I might have a different strategy.)
______
Dennis