Started around the end of March. At first thought it would go away as we’ve had this happen in other years but the culprits soon got the hint and took off.
I’m talking about a Robin. A big red breasted Robin without a brain in its head. When he began he would perch atop the fence between our house and our neighbours. He would sit there for a minute looking at a corner living room window, then all of a sudden he would take flight right towards the window and BANG. With that, he flies back to his perch on the fence. Within minutes, he would repeat this whole process not giving much thought to what in hell was happening. BANG (a couple minutes pass) BANG (a few more minutes pass) BANG. You get the drift. Believe it or not, this would go on for almost 10 minutes. Finally he gets the hint and flies off, but to another window. The patio doors onto the patio hitting the lower portion. Not as long, however, as he would return to the fence, as if something had magically changed the window so he could try it again.
Once in awhile he would return later in the evening. I guess he took a lunch and supper break before resuming his routine. What in hell was he up to? What was his stupid little brain thinking and wasn’t his head bloody sore by now??
Hubby and I endured this little game for a day or two, thinking he has to give up sooner or later. BUT NO, the little bugger has to continue day in and day out for close to a week. Now starting to go mad ourselves, we did a little research and discovered he could see the trees reflecting in that corner window and assumed he had found another flight path or he would think he was looking at another bird or rival during the mating season. Idiot! Couldn’t get the drift after 4 or 5 BANGS that hindered his way?? Yes, there were other reasons this robin had to do this, so in order to deter him, we took the advice found online.
On some chores, I picked up a package of colourful streamers to hang up. A little tricky to get to this corner window, but hubby managed to get the streamers hung up. Whew!! We thought, this would soon be over. Naturally, we thought wrong. Within a couple of hours, the “head banger” was back, only this time flying in between and around the streamers. SERIOUSLY??? I could see hubby’s blood pressure rising. We would have to continue to find other ways of determent.
When I awoke the next day I could see the killer instinct in hubby’s eyes. Apparently this Robin was up early with the rest of the birds, only back at the window banging constantly for a couple of hours. I was about to watch my husband’s head blow up in spades. Red faced, crinkled brow and smoke coming from his ears!!! I’m now thinking if he had a gun ……!!
Thinking for a minute or two, he soon left the house, went to the shed and brought out the netting for our patio cover. He was convinced this would do it, as the reflection in the window would be blocked but still allow some light into the room. Grabbing the ladder and a couple of small nails, he got the netting hung to cover the entire window, but soon realized you could still see enough reflection of the trees behind. We decided to at least give the netting enough time to see if it would deter our head-banger. Not even half a day went by when the Robin discovered we were the idiots.
Another day dawns and hubby realizes he has to get serious. He now grabs for a blue plastic sheet from the shed and hangs it over the entire window with tape for a good fit. For good measure he covered the patio doors with another sheet of this blue plastic sheeting and parked the deck snow blower in front for good measure. Waiting patiently we sat in our beloved recliners doing our puzzles and could not believe it. At last, peace and quiet.
For the time being, at least, the blue sheeting seems to be working, but today we could have sworn our mad Robin was back and tried once or twice just to let us know he was still around.
We will also admit that this nut case has also tried the main living room window that has no reflection whatsoever, except perhaps for the house across the street. He’s flown unto the transom part of the window just below the roof, and has also taken flight from the little garden just below to bang into the bottom right corner, the bottom left corner and even dead centre. Is he that pissed or just that stupid???
We truly are beside ourselves as to how long this will last. For all his Banging he doesn’t even look to have a dented beak or swollen head. Talk about a hard-headed bird. What if he never goes away, what if he returns next Spring??? We’re doomed. God forbid!!! We’ll then HAVE to call the SPCA to see if they can do anything. We will promise you this, however, if this Robin is bound, set and determined to carry on his high-jinx all year, the SPCA won’t have to be called. We’ll settle this entire matter on our terms!!!!!!!!
Will keep this updated – GOD FORBID!!!!