Persistent Birds

Each year a few bird couples who live in the small wood behind our house decide inside our roof is the place to build a nest. I am not great on bird types but they are like the one pictured here, the common starling.

Persistent doesn't even start to describe them. They make much noise setting up the nursery and feeding their young, not to mention the mess they leave. We try to stop them before they start by blocking up areas before they can build the nest, giving them time to go elsewhere. The problem is they are not deterred by obstructions, but set about removing them.

Our defence against birds

The other day they were very noisy and so I went out, jumped and slapped the gutting with my hand to scare them off yet again. The bird was off, but as I retreated back inside I still heard scuffling in the gutter. I turned around repeated the dose for a second offender, but the noise continued. Then suddenly the bird half flopped out of the guttering, clearly caught on something. I assumed the netting to stop them. I got a ladder and went up to investigate. The bird had caught its foot in an upward V cut in the steel the roof is made of.

It flapped frantically seeing me so close, the foot was ruined and blood was spattered around. I got a stick and the leg was then pushed down and off it went. I would say the foot had been lost as anything useful. It wasn't nice to see.

The offending gap in the middle

The good news is that the birds in the area have been less frequent visitors to the roof, that corner in particular has not seen a bird since. They are without doubt clever, although not smart enough to know how to get it's trapped leg out. A flick with a stick and it was done.


We cleaned up the mess for the picture on the left. Hopefully the couple found a suitable place in the woodland for nesting. We can now get a sleep-in instead of hearing them make a racket.