Our Feathered Friends' Droppings

[niel12]

After a while a seabird can be a welcome sight, however, their droppings are not! Their favourate seating high up on the mast offer them some sort of comfort zone knowing they are relatively safe so i thought why not upset this seating so this is what one can do cheap but effectively. Install a bare wire on two small isolators across where the birds normally sit and charge it with a low voltage! Need i say more............

[Don1500]

Originally Posted by niel12

After a while a seabird can be a welcome sight, however, their droppings are not! Their favourate seating high up on the mast offer them some sort of comfort zone knowing they are relatively safe so i thought why not upset this seating so this is what one can do cheap but effectively. Install a bare wire on two small isolators across where the birds normally sit and charge it with a low voltage! Need i say more............

With a wire correctly placed, sized and loosly tensioned, the charge would not be needed. Besides, haven't you seen birds on a wire? Just make it uncomforable for them and they will go to your neighbors boat, no need to be cruel. Also, don't feed them off the sturn of your boat, go over a few docks.

My neighbor around the block has a pigon coop and the pigons were always roosting on my roof. I got rid of them by placing a plastic Owl on the roof. Easy, Cheap, Safe.

[niel12]

Hi Don1500,

Now if ever i heard of a clever one, this is one!.. Great!

[avb3]

Owls are natural enemies of pigeons, a land based bird. As is the owl.

I doubt that a seagull in a tropical area has even seen or heard of an owl, so why would it be frightened off.

[niel12]

Hi and thanks for that input. It's indeed a valid point frankly i haven't seen a owl at sea yet

[Portobello]

There's an owl on a boat in our bay with seagull droppings all over it!!

[Hud3]

I installed eyestraps on the mast about 3" above the spreaders and stretched heavy monofilament along the spreaders to the shrouds. Keeps the little buggers from perching there.

However, ya ain't seen nuttin' until you have pelicans roosting on your pulpit or bimini! Man, those birds can mess up a boat, and the guano dries to the consistency of concrete!

[niel12]

Well well, what do you know .... ones never to old to learn..... Seagulls and pelicans seem to want to make a point and they certainly do! In my initail thread i proposed the use of a low voltage wire which is not really inhumane or cruel as the voltage cannot kill the birds, it only scares them off! I loose wire which create a unsteady footing certainly has possibilities that might work on a bimi but Christmas Tree Oh my!

[four winds]

Originally Posted by Hud3

I installed eyestraps on the mast about 3" above the spreaders and stretched heavy monofilament along the spreaders to the shrouds. Keeps the little buggers from perching there.

However, ya ain't seen nuttin' until you have pelicans roosting on your pulpit or bimini! Man, those birds can mess up a boat, and the guano dries to the consistency of concrete!

You ain't just whistling Dixie Hud3, as they say. Or maybe used to say.

One perched on my boom just above the companionway hatch. Thankfully the hatch was closed. I was sleeping on board unaware of the presence of the bird. It sounded like someone poured a bucket of poo onto the cover. I hesitated to even look, the mess was two feet in diameter.

[tartansail]

We kept our boat in a harbor that was right next to a tern nesting area. In early August, the birds would all leave the nest area and move to the boats for a three week period. Our first year, we came to the boat after being away for two weeks. As we dinghied out we saw a line of terns sitting on the boom, several on the deckhouse and a handful chatting on the foredeck. Bad news. There was about 2" of poop and partially digested bait fish in the cockpit and a complete coating of the entire deck. Our sailing plans turned into two days of very nasty cleanup.

We quickly learned that if you're in a harbor with others, you just need to make your boat a little less desirable than your neighbor. Some used owls. Some had rotating devices on hard tops. We used cheap plastic flags that ran from the bow pulpit over the boom to the pushpit. I don't whether the birds stayed away because the flags' movement scared them, the plastic flapping annoyed them or they had the good taste to not want to be associated with any boat decorated with such a tacky accessory. However, whenever the flags were rigged, we were bird free. If we forgot to put them up during the three weeks the terns were around, they would find us.

[capngeo]

Boatkat?

[niel12]

Yea, it sounds about right cause if frustartion don't kill you the poo might!

[avb3]

A couple of lifetimes ago I used to be in the sign industry, and we constantly had to send maintenance crews out to clean pigeon poop.

Owls really don't work well, as the pigeons get acclimatized to them (they don't move).

Nothing really worked for us until we installed avoidance strips. We also tried the gel, but it did not work as well.

The spikes are not the most attractive, but they did provide at least some mitigation.

[Don1500]

Originally Posted by avb3

Owls are natural enemies of pigeons, a land based bird. As is the owl.

I doubt that a seagull in a tropical area has even seen or heard of an owl, so why would it be frightened off.

Maybe a plastic Falcon or Red Tail Hawk would deter seagulls, seagulls are on their menu. But I don't know of anyone that has tried that. I mentioned owls because they worked for me against pigeons. I have heard of plastic snakes working against pigeons, too. It was a thought, if it isn't tried you'll never know. You may be right and the decoy would not work. I guess it would be too easy if it did.

The monofiliment line on the spreaders sounds good, but you still have the boom for them to perch on. The spiked strips work but have the same drawback. You have to mount them whenever you dock and remove them from the boom when you want to use it.

Pelicans are a different problem altogether. The sweeping vanes work there but they are a pain.

[niel12]

I was wondering if one could not enlist your lady to construct a typo of material mat with spikes worked into it wide enough to cover over the boom. That should deter them and if it works why not extend the knowledge to a type of bimi blanket that can cover the bimi topside. Once one leave a marina or harbour these spike blangkets can be stowed away for later use. So i guess it's trials and turbulations!