Dale Hooper wrote:
Relating this all back to amateur astronomy <g>...and speaking of birds... I am having a difficult time with starlings and my observatory. They keep p**ping all over everything and no matter what I do they can't seem to get it into their skulls that this is a bad place for a nest. I can't shoot them - I'm in city limits (although admittedly at this point - I would like to). Any ideas of how to keep them away? I've already tried a fake owl - which worked for a couple days. I've screened off a lot of things - which has helped. But, they keep trying to make nests along the rail - which I destroy on a daily basis - but they just keep coming back. HELP!!
Clear skies, Dale.
Every year I have a similar situation with my observatory and am always reminded of the story of the starlings that were ripping off a car wash ( http://www.nwf.org/kidzone/kzPage.cfm?siteId=3&departmentId=79&articleId=177 ). Their intelligence makes me wonder if maybe there is something to reincarnation and this is the plight of human thieves after they die... But back to your situation, starlings are persistent (even stubborn) but they do learn. It usually takes a week or so but after removing the nesting material enough times and, more importantly plugging up their access holes, they always give up and move on. Happily, once they move on they don't seem to come back. So by late spring I can reopen the the holes and the birds do not come back (at least not until the following spring). Patrick