A little advice if possible please. I have been feeding birds in my garden for years, this year we have had a group of starlings visit, not a problem to me, but my neighbour as now threatened that if I don't stop feeding the birds, he'll 'take the matter further' as they are 'sh*tting all down his fence', as he so eloquently puts it.
Personally I'd ignore him and carry on feeding as I'd sooner have the birds as friends than the petty neighbour, but my wife has spoken and to keep the peace she has told me to stop putting food out for them, trouble is, it breaks my heart watching them look for food that is no longer there.
My question therefore, if I carried on feeding, what course of action can this miserable git take and where do I stand in regard to the feeding of birds in my own back garden?
Thanks in anticipation.
Hi bjanottm,
sorry to hear you're having such trouble, some people just beggar belief!
Perhaps you could ask your local authority's advice on the matter. But then again, soap and water would get the poo off then fence!
Hi bjanottm, I am sorry you are having problems with your neighbours. I have tried to find anything that may help and have found two cases ,where people have been warned to stop feeding birds in their gardens.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1043350/A-nature-loving-couple-face-legal-threat-local-council-feeding-noisy-garden-birds.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3234886/Woman-80-warned-she-faces-prosecution-for-feeding-birds-in-her-garden.html
I would speak to your local RSPB for advice.
What a (insert derogatory name here)!!!! You stopping feeding the birds isn't going to stop them "sh*tting all down his fence" one little bit, and yeah, like somebody else said - has he never heard of soap, water, and scrubbing brushes?? Honestly, some people make me see red >:(
I don't know what he can do to make you stop, although I am aware of councils coming down quite harshly on people who feed birds if it is seen to be "causing a nuisance" or whatever - although how it could ever be seen as such is utterly beyond me, I despair at the human race sometimes.
Let us know of any developments though, and don't let the miserable b*****d get to you.
Sorry to hear about your nasty neighbours and their poo.We have loads of starlings and other birds that visit our garden to feed and I can honestly say there is never a problem with poo on any of our fences,but having said that the couple who live two doors down have eight domestic pigeons and the mess on our cars our next door neighbours cars and patio table and chairs and the neighbouring house roofs is pretty rough.
Our next door neighbour does a war dance pratically every day while the pigeons do their love dance round their dove cote lol.Our neighbour has put up loads of those plastic spikes but it still does no good as they just sit in another place on the roof where spikes can't be put.
Our neighbour has contacted the local enviromental health department at the council and they have said that nothing at all can be done so our neighbours have decided to move from the village{if they can sell the house that is}
I myself can't see that starlings poo would be that large to cause any problems with fence panels but pigeons, seagulls and geese poo would.
Keep feeding the birds and let him get on with his sad life.One suggestion might be to move the feeders from the back garden to the front garden for a time to see if that helps with the problem.
Being Happy doesn't mean everythings perfect........
It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfections.....
Hi bjanottm
Sadly I have a similar problem with my neighbours. Mine have positioned a bird scarer pointing directly into my garden.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/forums/p/15160/104311.aspx#104311
At least the fence where I mostly feed the birds is my fence, so they can't complain about poo on the fence. They would have done if it had been their fence though.
Does any of the fence in your garden belong to your property? If so, can't you move some of the feeders that your starlings like over to your fence? In order to distract the starlings and wood pigeons from the hanging feeders on my pole, I have put up a small feeding tray on the fence. I only fill it once a day in the morning. So as far as the starlings are concerned, once it's gone it's gone.
They try to get in the feeder Guardians that I have for the tits, nuthatches and robin, but they have never succeeded.
I hope that this load of ASBO youngsters will disappear soon and hopefully not come back. The trouble is, although lot's of other neighbours feed the birds, my bird bath is the only source of water. So that attracts them all anyway.
Perhaps you just need to take some sort of action while the starlings are bothersome, then hopefully things will settle down again.
Best wishes Chris
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Nothing miserable about this. I’m actually on the tail end of this issue now. What you don’t realise, clearly, is that the birds sit on the fence and face YOUR garden because of their food but their butts are on their neighbours side. Don’t matter if it’s your fence or not. I painted my neighbours fence a month ago. Even went as far and to match their poor choice of colour. For some reason, they moved their feeder from one side to the fence next to me this morning. It’s been one day. No sorry, it’s been one afternoon and the fence is speckled with pigeon poo, starling poo, how sparrow poo… you name it. It’s there. It’s awful. Maybe have a little humanity and try and see things from another perspective.
BestGardenerEver? I'm interested in how you attained that 'rating'.
You could look at it another way. Your neighbour is going to be your neighbour for a long time. The Starlings won't be around for very long as they will all soon move off to pastures new and start gathering in bigger flocks. If you stopped feeding for a week the Starlings would just move on early. Your other garden birds wouldn't suffer as they will busy finding fresh food for their young. Once the Starlings have moved on then you could start feeding again, your regular garden birds that live there all year round will return and your neighbour will be more agreeable. Nothing will starve within the week.
Yes I believe your neighbour is being an ass, but you and your wife have to put up with him for who knows how long but it is fair to say that a host of Starlings are noisy and abrasive to those people that aren't bird lovershere as to us they are entertainment.
Try and stay on topic, dear.
I only have your explanation of your problem. Just trying to see things from another perspective.