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- This topic has 42 replies, 25 voices, and was last updated 6 months ago by scaredypants.
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Bothersome starlings
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highlandmanFree Member
Advice please; we have a flock of maybe 50+ starlings roosting in a high, mixed hedge; they’re creating mess and chasing out the resident various birds who normally nest there.
Posted 6 months ago
I need a non-lethal means of discouraging them, please. Any ideas..?
At the moment I’m throwing handfuls of wee windfall applets at them, which only works briefly. Sometimes..WaderiderFree MemberLovely starlings, don’t see the problem, their population has reduced markedly since the seventies. I suggest appreciating them.
Posted 6 months agomartinhutchFull MemberYou should introduce a scheme where they are transported forcibly to an unpleasant, potentially dangerous hedge in the next town in order to discourage them from roosting near you.
Posted 6 months agolisterFull MemberStarlings are ace. You’re lucky to have them.
Posted 6 months agoIdleJonFull MemberStarlings are ace. You’re lucky to have them.
+1
And the resident birds are tits. 😀
Posted 6 months agokayak23Full MemberI love Starlings.
Seeing a huge murmuration like I did a couple of years ago is truly something of wonder.Lucky you. Stop chucking stuff at them.
Posted 6 months agobeejFull MemberWe’ve had up to 25 younglings in our garden, feasting on the leftover hedgehog food each morning. It’s been interesting seeing them going from needing to be fed by adults, then all the changes in plumage and shape over the past couple of months.
Noisy things though, they do enjoy a squabble.
Posted 6 months agoRivettFull Member“Noisy things though, they do enjoy a squabble.”
A bit like the Singletrack Forum then!
Posted 6 months agoernielynchFree Memberstarlings roosting in a high, mixed hedge; they’re creating mess
What sort of a mess can they cause to a high mixed hedge?
chasing out the resident various birds who normally nest there
Iz it coz dey iz black?
Posted 6 months agojoshvegasFree MemberStarlings are ace embrace them.
My garden is full of starlings, sparrows and jackdaws it a bloody cacophony of sound.
Posted 6 months agohighlandmanFree MemberVery good. There are thousands of the things around here, despite the bird flu decimating the numbers of most other species. They’re carrying the flu about too, distributing it among other groups and species.
Posted 6 months ago
Next, have you seen the amount of guano that they dump into the garden & the hedge..? It’s a big hedge and there should be room for everyone. However, there simply isn’t enough space and the nesting smaller birds are all moving away as they find the squabbling terrors too discouraging.
Starlings are rats with wings. Even the visiting sparrow hawks seem a bit wary of them.IdleJonFull Member
Posted 6 months agoStarlings are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Even if the birds are causing damage to property or other problems such as noise or odour they cannot be killed. Failure to comply with the 1981 Act can result in a fine of £5,000, a custodial sentence of 6 months, or both.
IdleJonFull Member
Posted 6 months agoAll wild birds, their eggs and nests are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; under this Act birds cannot be taken or killed, nor their eggs or nests (when in use or being built) be taken or destroyed except under licence.
An “individual” licence is granted by DEFRA to approved, named individuals, to tackle a specific problem, within a specific period of time, in an agreed manner. DEFRA assess applications on a case by case basis. Without a licence it is illegal to kill starlings.
IdleJonFull MemberI’d suggest that throwing fruit at birds is an attempt to kill them..
Posted 6 months agomartinhutchFull MemberYou should definitely take back control of your hedges, and your borders.
Posted 6 months agowheelsonfire1Full MemberStarlings used to be very common in our garden. Something of a rarity now but lots of goldfinches, tits of various types, house sparrows and dunnocks. And, of course the woodpigeons that in return for clearing up the seeds that the messy finches drop do humongous craps everywhere. Should I start throwing things at them so the starlings come back?
Posted 6 months ago
Starlings are very intelligent and good mimics, perhaps you could teach them a different language or two ready for Rwanda?
Seriously, I think you’re lucky!fasthaggisFull MemberStarlings are ace embrace them.
Aye,we had about 20-30 of them last summer ,they were fun to watch and didn’t stay more than a few weeks.
Posted 6 months agofasthaggisFull MemberYou should definitely take back control of your hedges, and your borders
🤣👍
Posted 6 months agohighlandmanFree MemberIdle, feel free to suggest whatever you like. Meantime I’m more interested in constructive suggestions to help deal with a real problem. Oh wait, this is Singletrack….
Posted 6 months agoWorldClassAccidentFree MemberJust make sure you remove the squirrel trap before lighting the fire
Posted 6 months agohighlandmanFree MemberWCA: good thinking. Take a flamethrower to the hedge, that’ll shift ’em..
I do quite like the idea though of exporting the problem. Maybe Idle would like to come and trap those that have no visas and arrange special flights to shunt the problem away onto someone else at huge expense..?
Posted 6 months agojoshvegasFree MemberMeantime I’m more interested in constructive suggestions to help deal with a real problem
MAybe if you come up with a real problem you’ll get helpful replies?
Posted 6 months agowheelsonfire1Full MemberIf you collect the droppings and bag them they’ll be worth a lot of money for fertiliser with the price of oil as it is.
Posted 6 months ago
There, a constructive answer!towzerFull MemberStarlings are NOT ace 😕
Everything else is ok on the feeders, even the acrobatic magpie and the flaming squirrel(who ate the squirrel proof feeder) but the starlings are like MPs at the expenses trough, all in there, fighting, squabbling, food getting kicked and thrown everywhere and in a few seconds everything is gone.
So far I have the bits, remote control, linear actuator, battery and solar panel with controller, once the workmen are out of the garden it’s automatic feeder time. That’ll show them.
My previous squirter (remote control, battery, car windscreen washer kit) did work but kept running out of water and battery.
Posted 6 months agohighlandmanFree MemberJosh, if you’d seen the starlings ripping apart newly hatched nestlings of tits, sparrows and chaffinches, you’d maybe take a different view. Starlings are classic omnivores and opportunists, they’ll find ways to consume most things smaller than they are.
Posted 6 months agojimfrandiscoFree MemberCan i swop your starlings for the magpies that nest outside my bedroom window…just along from the pigeons. Yes, they’re a pain at 4am, that’s why I bought some good ear plugs.
Discourage them and something else will move in. As for chasing out resident birds – afraid that’s an avian problem, not yours.
The sparrow gang in our garden have seen off the previous blue tit residents, but hey ho, you’ll find dominate species will often rotate/move on.See it as good fortune and you’ll stop worrying about it.
Posted 6 months agorobolaFull MemberSounds like nature taking its course. The answer is to protect and encourage their natural predators, something that this country fails dismally at.
Posted 6 months agodissonanceFull MemberStarlings are classic omnivores and opportunists, they’ll find ways to consume most things smaller than they are.
And yet they have managed to live side by side for centuries.
Posted 6 months agoWorldClassAccidentFree MemberSounds like nature taking its course. The answer is to protect and encourage their natural predators, something that this country fails dismally at.
Yes. We are the natural predators but are prevented from leaving a few cans of petrol at the base of the tree and firing flaming arrows at roosting time***, by
Starlings are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Even if the birds are causing damage to property or other problems such as noise or odour they cannot be killed. Failure to comply with the 1981 Act can result in a fine of £5,000, a custodial sentence of 6 months, or both
***This is not my real opinion and only posted here for trolling effect
Posted 6 months agohighlandmanFree MemberWCA: Like.
Posted 6 months agoBruceFull MemberMay I suggest that wca and the op get jobs on a dodgy sporting estate, where the owners will let them slaughter wildlife to suit their twisted perspective.
Posted 6 months agozilog6128Full MemberBizarre thread. They’re native, wild birds. Leave them alone.
This is not my real opinion and only posted here for trolling effect
you’re fooling no one 😬
Posted 6 months agoTwodogsFull MemberIs this another parody thread like the famous “my neighbour is encroaching on my allotment” one. It must be, surely.
Posted 6 months agotjagainFull MemberIllegal and horrible to disturb them
Leave them alo e please. Their numbers are in steep decline
Posted 6 months agomartinhutchFull MemberLeave them alo e please
Yes, they may only be annoying because of itchy skin.
Posted 6 months agohimupstairsFull MemberGreat pic Kayak, looks like a kestrel. OP, get a pet one. It’d probably keep them away.
Posted 6 months agowheelsonfire1Full Member@tjagain – you’ve dropped an “n” somewhere, better go back for it!
Posted 6 months agohighlandmanFree Member@Bruce, did you not notice the “non-lethal” in the original post..?
Posted 6 months ago
Anyway, never let the truth of a situation get in the way of a good trolling exercise and some quality self-righteous indignity.BruceFull MemberI like wildlife and suggest you just leave nature to take its course. I have never noticed the starlings in our garden being aggressive to other birds.
Posted 6 months ago
Just write them a note send them round to us. All wildlife can just get on with being what they are. We don’t get to choose what creatures are acceptable and what isn’t.submarinedFree MemberThink yourself lucky they’re not bloody Jackdaws ugh
Posted 6 months ago
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