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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Birds nest in bush

50 replies

Mama05 · 18/05/2020 21:12

Posting here for traffic and it doesn’t quite fit in the pets section

So a couple of little birdies have set up home in my front garden bush (lol)

I didn’t mind at first. But over the last few days as they’ve been swooping in to land home they’ve been shitting all over my car.

Ok, not so bad, it could use a wash anyway.

I’m laid in bed now and they are calling their mate to come home or maybe tweeting to shit more on my car, but they are tweeting and have been for the last 20-30 mins!

What can I do? I’m not about to go poking around in said bush with a stick! Do I call pest control? Will they move on on their own accord? I’m at a loss! I can’t take much more tweet tweeting!!

I had a little nosy earlier and one little birdie jumped up and sat on the windowsill. Very cute I thought. Then I looked under the windowsill at the mountain of bird shit. Then to the right where my electricity meter is and the box is coated in white shit also! Not so cute.

Any advice?

OP posts:

Original poster

Mama05 · 18/05/2020 23:35

How dare they! They don’t even pay bills and they get to dictate to us bill payers! The cheek!

OP posts:

Nottherealslimshady · 18/05/2020 23:35

It's illegal to move, damage or disturb bird nests. You'll just have to live near one of the other billions and billions of animal species to also inhabit this planet for a while. It's likely to be a starling, they're pretty ballsy.

Original poster

Mama05 · 18/05/2020 23:37

Yes it seems that way! Might starting scaling the back fence to gain entry to my home as to avoid confrontation with these yobs!

OP posts:

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 18/05/2020 23:41

How dare they! They don’t even pay bills and they get to dictate to us bill payers! The cheek!

😂😂 Count yourself lucky you don't have magpies👀 Cunning bastards. They are taking over

CurlyhairedAssassin · 18/05/2020 23:46

Oh, yes, magpies are nasty. The heavy mob. The Mafia of the bird world with their thuggish ways and attacking other birds nests. I have to protect the wood pigeons nesting in our conifer every year from the fucking yackering magpies who nest over the road. I was made up when a gang of crows tried to take over the magpie tree one year, I actually said out loud “ha, see how YOU like it!” But the bastard magpies won.

The noises they make are evil

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 18/05/2020 23:50

Bird gang wars

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 18/05/2020 23:51

Only thing my magpies are missing is some North Face gear and ketwig🙄

ilovecardigans · 19/05/2020 00:21

OP A word of advice - never, ever move anywhere near the coast...

AuroraBore · 19/05/2020 01:51

The Mafia of the bird world with their thuggish ways and attacking other birds nests.

Blackbirds also take the young and eggs of smaller bird species. Nature can seem cruel.

EnidSugden · 19/05/2020 01:57

Well obviously you have to call the female Clarice 😁

Wheresthebiffer2 · 19/05/2020 02:03

we had swallows (or possibly house martins) in our garage last year - what a mess!! But you have to just let them be, they do move on eventually.

antipodalpizza · 19/05/2020 02:35

We have squirrel, magpie, sparrow, bluetit, robin, blackbird and wood pigeon nests in our garden. It's a regular sex fest out there.

PhilCornwall1 · 19/05/2020 03:04

We have starlings in our hedge in the front garden, it's like a sodding commune. There are loads of them and a few have a regular punch up on the lawn. They're noisy but I like having them here.

The seagulls just seem to be having regular sex at 5am on the neighbours roof. I bloody hate seagulls, noisy gits!!

Original poster

Mama05 · 19/05/2020 07:52

Jesus, I usually salute the magpies! Must be where they get their cockiness from!

They are vicious, I remember once being in the garden having a cigarette admiring the scenery and a cat was lurking below a tree which had the magpies chicks in and the mummy Maggie flew down and started hammering her beak off the ground to scare away the cat! The noise was chilling!

OP posts:

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 19/05/2020 08:02

Our bushes are full of nests. Everywhere except the nesting boxes DD built...

In one of our previous houses they nested in the porch of the front door. We couldn't use it in weeks- and had to tape it off to stop other people using it. The amount of droppings was unreal. However the chdren lived seeing the chicks grow.

ErrolTheDragon · 19/05/2020 08:38

In the future, if you want to avoid birds nesting in certain places you need to take preventive action before they start to build a nest. I have to remember to trim the thick-growing ivy in February or early March, and there's a rear bedroom window which we hang a plastic bag out of when we first see housemartins each year, after seeing one investigating a window corner right over the back door and where a nest would have prevented the window opening which would have been intolerable for DH. We were lucky to be able to intervene before they could start work; they found a much better spot in the roof apex over the side alley so all was well.

Maybe you could prune the bush to open it up a bit so it doesn't offer dense cover if you don't want them there next year ... although if you spend time watching them you may yet learn to love them!

Original poster

Mama05 · 19/05/2020 10:03

I think I am in love with them. I’ve named them the feathers family!

Tempted to get some bird seed from the supermarket next time I go, but I don’t think I can put up with them getting too comfortable so I’ll give that one a miss!

OP posts:

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 19/05/2020 10:11

I often just stand in a kitchen watching sparrow younglings ruining my garden. It's very mixed feelings between "awww so cute" and "ffs. That's my raspberry gone, innit"

ErrolTheDragon · 19/05/2020 10:57

I think I'd avoid feeding starlings tbh. Once they know there's food, their pals will be along. You might get dozens, they're very gregarious birds. Left to their own devices they'll help rid your garden of pests such as leatherjackets.

You probably wouldn't get a whole flock, fortunately ... search out some videos of 'starling murmurations' to see a true wonder of nature!

Potionqueen · 19/05/2020 11:50

We have loads of birds nesting just to the front of our front garden. We have a bird feeder out with bird seed and suet balls. Yes they are shitting on the cars etc but a good wash takes care of that.
Birdsong is lovely. We’ve got sparrows, wrens, blue tits, great tits, goldfinch, Siskin, robins. Been extremely lucky.
Treasure the little creatures.

Ellmau · 19/05/2020 11:57

I know someone who had a nest built on top of …

their security camera.

Housemartins I think.

zscaler · 19/05/2020 12:00

I love starlings but they’re noisy wee things!

If they’re interrupting your sleep I highly recommend silicone ear plugs - they’re really comfortable to wear and do a great job of blocking sound.

CHIRIBAYA · 19/05/2020 12:40

Are they eagles? You seem to be describing rather a lot of birdshit and the possibility of being attacked. Do you seriously think pest control would come out for birds? Birds are in steep decine globally and need our support! They will be gone soon, they don't nest for long. I would love a bird's nest in my hedge that I could watch with the children.

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 19/05/2020 12:43

Are they eagles? You seem to be describing rather a lot of birdshit and the possibility of being attacked

Angry starling certainly looks and sounds like it thinks it's an eagle. 😂

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 19/05/2020 14:30

Oh god! Turf war going on. Crows arrived! Fuck me, I certainly would want to get into middle of that!

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