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Hi all
My disagreeable next door neighbour has placed a bird scarer on the outside of their bedroom window nearest to my garden, and it is angled directly into my garden, towards the place where all of the nesting tits, robins and nuthatches feed inside their Guardian cages, and where the great spotted woodpecker feeds on the peanut feeder.
It covers a range of 1500 square feet, which is quite a large part of my garden.
This is what it looks like: http://www.pitchcare.com/shop/repellents/model-mp1-silent-bird-scarer.html
I believe that it's the kind of bird scarer that farmers use on their crops to scare birds away from seeded areas. Although I can't hear any high pitched noise, it clicks constantly and it's loud enough that I can hear it from the other side of my garden.
Is there anything I can do about this? I can't see why she should be allowed to scare birds from my garden. If she had placed it flat on the window, then presumably it would scare birds from her garden. That would be up to her, but to deliberately angle it so that it points directly at my garden seems a bit rich.
She has an excessively high and very dense conifer hedge ( approximately 18 feet high) that attracts lots of birds in the area, as they are really tall trees that they can easily nest in. There are robins, chaffinches, tits, starlings, blackbirds and wood pigeons all nesting in her conifers at the moment. By scaring them she may disrupt their breeding. I'm sure she isn't allowed to do that.
There is no discussing anything nicely to this person. She is a crank, and her opinion is the only one that counts. So I'm not sure where to start to even look for help.
Best wishes Chris
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When I 1st read this I was thinking that this sounded like Anti social behaviour, but I see you have received excellent advice from other posters.
Hope it all works out for you soon.!
Hi Chris
Sorry to hear about your woodpecker. Hope that he/she turns up soon.
Along with Lyndseypops, I have found some more interesting information about the use of bird scarers
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http://noiseactionweek.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/bird-scarer-is-it-just-birds-they-scare-away/
http://www.westlancs.gov.uk/environment/environmental_protection/bird_scarers.aspx
It is stated that you have to register Bird scarers, Bird scarers code of practice, and the other future reportable problems to your local council
A worthy read without blinding you with lots of information - I hope
Regards
Kathy and Dave
Hi Chris,
I'm so sorry about this. What an unpleasant person she is. I do hope you manage to get it sorted somehow. I would certainly do something and not let it rest. Please let us know how you get on, and whether it is upsetting your birds.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Hi Sparrow
Thanks for your comment.
All councils apparently have different rules re bird scarers, and although they aren't illegal in my residential area, the noise nuisance can be dealt with by environmental health.
I tried putting a really nice note through the door, asking her to reposition it so that it only points into her garden, but it hasn't worked, so I have had to make a report to our environmental health department at our local Council. It's a shame really because everyone thought they were moving, and we were all hoping that it was sooner rather than later, but it seems we might all be disappointed. Now I have lodged a complaint with our Council, it will always show up as a neighbour dispute against them whenever a search is done by a prospective vendor, so it might put people off buying the house.
I have also spoken to a very nice man at the RSPB who surprised me when he said that if I can't hear it then birds can't hear it as they have the same range of hearing sounds that we do.
After I started the thread, I could hear it yesterday, it made my ears ring, and that's why I put the note through.
One of the sad things about this neighbour is that she tries different things as small battles that she thinks she can win. For example she cut off all of her overhanging tree branches so I couldn't hang any feeders on them. I just bought a large tree and 2 poles to mount feeders on, which was no great hassle and much better than trying to be careful with her branches.
One of us might decide to take up basketball and we might choose to mount a basketball backboard next to the fence. The fact that it will also serve as a 'blocker' for the bird scarer will be an added bonus if you know what I mean :-) *wink*
Another alternative might be to plant a butterfly bush or a stand of bamboo.
I'm afraid that if it is a question of going down the noise pollution route, you will have problems. Believe me, we were experts on this having had a dog boarding kennels for 20 years. The complainant has to prove the decibels are of an unacceptable level, and this is so difficult. In fact on one occasion when the Environmental Health people set up a machine in a neighbour's garden without our knowledge, the results showed the levels of noise from the dogs couldn't be measured outdoors because of the noise from birds!!!!!
Anyway, if it's the only legal route you have, then you must follow it, and I wish you luck. It is always possible that a visit from the council might just worry her into removing it without going into the realms of noise measurement.
Thanks for your reply. I understand exactly what you mean, but if it's the only thing that Environmental Health can look at, then I might as well tell them and see what happens.
She has fitted a structure to the side of it today that serves to direct the sound specifically only into our garden, and not register in their garden.
It's a shame when people behave unacceptably like this and think that they will get away with it.
I haven't lost the battle yet, and I'm sure I won't lose the war :-)
I've checked out with our local Council and I can have a basketball backboard in front of my fence. They go up to 11 feet high. That will block the bird scarer.
I hope the basketball backboard works. You can always grow something up it and turn it into a tree of some sort, then you will have somewhere else to put hangers!
It is very unacceptable behaviour from your neighbour, and she shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. I am confident you won't ley her get away with it! Keep us informed.
Shame its waterproof, otherwise a well aimed hose pipe when they're out would have been my suggestion... even maybe to dislodge it!
Hope the boards are successful! Don't think these types of 'scarers' should be allowed in residential areas at all!
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
My photos on Flickr
Hi MarJus
Did it say it was waterproof in the Ad? If so I didn't notice.
They do occasionally go on holiday of course.......
Must admit that I didn't notice on ad either! I was going on the assumption that being outside, it had to be! Rather a shame they don't go on a permanent holiday... What are the other neighbours like? Do they feed birds? Could they complain as well? Or else start feeding as well so that this pesky person is surrounded by feathery creatures!!! :-) :-) :-)