an attempt at outsmarting the birds

This tale contains a little bit of irony.

Sparrows have taken a liking to roosting right above our front door and above our driveway to sit, look around and poop.

Their droppings land not only on our front door step but also on top of our cars.

Not pleasant.

In an effort to keep the birds from roosting we fashioned little spike belts out of tin flashing and roofing nails poking at all angles up from the flashing. The spiky flashing is affixed to the top of a drain pipe where the little beggars would roost.

This seemed to ward them off....we had outsmarted them!

Not so fast.

A few weeks later we noticed white droppings at our front door step again. They must have figured out a safe place to land beside one of the spikes.  Bummer.  Back to stepping around the droppings while we come up with another plan.

This morning, though, we got a good laugh when we spotted the little beggars building a nest at the end of the flashing. The spikes must have created an opportune place to grasp onto the nest structure for them. Rather ironic.

Back to the drawing board to find a way to keep these guys from roosting above our front door!