The damn Robins have won this round

Shadowfax

Shadowfax

Active member
Joined
May 8, 2013
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Location
Bucks County PA
Seems like every year, the Robins want to build nests on top of my outdoor speakers under my covered patio. These tenacious little buggers take at least a weeks worth of nest daily or hourly nest destruction before giving up and moving on. This year they came back after 3 or so weeks and I beat them off in another 5 day marathon of nest removal and thought I was done for the season.

Last Saturday morning, they started again just before I was going out for the day. I am also leaving for vacation tomorrow for a week so I decided to take the speakers down until I get back.

During Round 2, I filled a 5 gallon bucket with nesting materials I knocked down over several days. Next year I need to make up some sort of Spike Plates I can secure to the speaker brackets that won't vibrate much.

The rake scared them a bit in the beginning, but they learned to ignore it pretty fast. The 3rd picture was about 2 hours worth of work.

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I finally got around to putting my outdoor speakers up again now that the Robins are done mating and nesting.

What a gorgeous weekend we had here and I spent many hours outside listening to music once again.
 
You could always put up a bird house. Or do what I did get a Bengal cat he can jump that high, twice as high as my normal domestic cat. It is not as much hunting more like catch and crunch .
 
I feel your pain. We have always atleast two nests going around our house each year. I have found that when they start building in one of the hanging baskets on the back porch where we eat breakfast during the summer, just wait till they are about done, then put a big old rock in their nest. Sends them on to somewhere else! And a lot less aggravation on your part.
 
I had a plan to make a thin Nail Board but at the last minute the other day I decided to try something cheap and easy. I took some heavy duty aluminum foil and folded it several times to make 8 inch squares and folded the edges to make them stiffer. I popped a hole in the center and put them between the knob and bracket that holds the speakers, so there is about a 2 inch diameter clamping surface. I crinkled it all up a bit and got the speakers up over the weekend.

I am pretty sure the foil messes with their eyes and might also be too slippery to get a nest to stick. Fingers crossed this works.
 
Shadowfax said:
I had a plan to make a thin Nail Board but at the last minute the other day I decided to try something cheap and easy. I took some heavy duty aluminum foil and folded it several times to make 8 inch squares and folded the edges to make them stiffer. I popped a hole in the center and put them between the knob and bracket that holds the speakers, so there is about a 2 inch diameter clamping surface. I crinkled it all up a bit and got the speakers up over the weekend.

I am pretty sure the foil messes with their eyes and might also be too slippery to get a nest to stick. Fingers crossed this works.
Click to expand...

FYI: a cheap rubber real life looking snake does wonders as well.
 
I had a long many year battle with Swallows. How could they move that much mud in a day ?!?

Anyway a pest control guy had a caulk filled with some sort of ceyene pepper. a few globs here and there and the birds didn't like the smell and moved on...
 
jfrech said:
I had a long many year battle with Swallows. How could they move that much mud in a day ?!?

Anyway a pest control guy had a caulk filled with some sort of ceyene pepper. a few globs here and there and the birds didn't like the smell and moved on...
Click to expand...

I filled a 5 gallon bucket with debris from 2 days of knocking the stuff down every few hours. They don't give up easily.
 
Can be a real PIA. We have Blue Birds down here in Hilton Head and finally put up three houses and they decided to pick one and leave the house alone. Don't know about the robbins tho.
 
So the folded foil sheets did not have the effect I was hoping. After a few weeks, the fool started building. I tried to fold the corners up but he would flatten it out each time and start building.

So chatting with my wife, I told her of the Snake suggestions as well as putting a rock in the finished nest. I can't put rocks up there because they will fall off on people. So my wife says, if not a rock, how about a big ball of the foil.

So I folded up the corners again too create a cup like structure and then dropped a 6" ball of the foil into the spot.

He flew in and looked once and has not been back since.

Looks like Problem Solved by using a ball of foil. I'll get a picture of it.
 
Ha...you outsmarted a bird :-) ! Trust me...I'm not laughing at you...I've had to battle Swallows over my entry door...
 
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