We moved to this quaint little village for peace and quiet. Living out our retirement lives the way we want. Alas, Mother Nature is punishing us for some bizarre reason.
Yes, the Head-Banging Robin is back. Despite hubby’s valiant efforts of covering the patio doors and living room corner window with streamers, netting and then blue tarp our Robin returned but was now head-banging against the other corner living room window, and the main front living room window. At least the blue tarp was working but his insistance on head-banging is now causing high blood pressure, killing instincts and total, utter frustration for hubby. Each and every morning, while I’m still in bed, our bloody little friend turns up to welcome Nat to a new day by banging on his new found windows. Getting tired of banging several times, he’ll fly around the corner and try and bang his way into the house by hitting the front transom window.
I will confess to getting totally frustrated myself, I began to do further research online. Trying every different combination of search words, I soon discovered a little video from the Texas Conservation Authority that a lady had discovered as she was having the exact same problem as us, only with Bluebirds.
I’m begging you not to laugh, but it involved Windex, a Cloth and a Highlighter (the ones you use to highlight writings on a page, etc.) Believe it or not the instructions were to use the Windex and Cloth to thoroughly clean the window(s), take the Highlighter and make a grid pattern on the inside of the window. You make stripes up and down the complete surface of the window, vertically, and then horizontally, about 2 inches apart. Apparently one of the ingredients in the Highlighter emits or shows something only birds can see and will deter them from hitting windows. It was too easy, but the video showed the evidence. This woman’s bluebirds were almost instantly deterred as she demonstrated with one window being “highlighted” and the next window had nothing. The proof was there – the buebirds were now hitting the untreated window. I kind of laughed, it was too simple, too easy and surely would mark up our window.
The next day while Nat was at his golf game, I naturally grabbed a Highlighter, some Windex, a cloth and step stool (I’m short, ok!!!). After washing the window, I began to draw stripes up, down and across the window. I was surprised as suddenly the Highlighter seemed to be fading, but I persevered. I then sat back, grabbed my iPad to relax and wait for the peace and quiet to befall our little home.
Hubby returned home after a half-decent game. I sat him down, so when he falls to the floor laughing he wouldn’t have far to go, and explained what I did. Thinking he was now going to have me committed, I really was taken aback when he did nothing. He just stared at the window and asked “So, where’s this grid you made?”. My reply, “See, it’s that good you can’t tell.” He just stood there staring. I then sat back and said it was done out of desperation, and nothing ventured, everything to be gained.
DAMN, within an hour Crazy Bird was back hitting the window again. He started by banging up against the top left-hand side for quite some time, as if I had missed a spot. So I reinforced that corner with a bit more Highlighter, but to no avail. He continued for a bit and when he got tired he flew around to the front window and was hitting at the lower right-hand side of the transom window. We sat there in complete wonderment, confusion, frustration and total curiosity, as to what this wacky bird was doing and why doesn’t he get any kind of hint??? I’m now thinking I was totally taken in by the video using Highlighter. At least I didn’t lose money.
The next day was endured by going to WalMart to walk around for peace and quiet and pick up a few needed items. After lunch we tried our damnedest to endure the shenanigans of our Head-Banger and somehow made it through the day, but that killer look was written all over hubby’s face.
When I awoke this morning, no “good morning”, no “how’d you sleep?”, just “Well, was he back?” Nat’s look on his face answered my question. “With a vengeance”, he answered. He remarked he would have to cover this window too, and maybe the hang-over portion of the tarp from the other window would cover a portion of this window. He put the ladder up and left it standing in front of the window while he gathered his supplies. For a few minutes the ladder seemed to deter the bloody little red-breasted harrasser. Hoping maybe this would work we then waited for an hour or so to see what would happen.
It didn’t take the little bugger long, but he was now sitting atop the ladder. You could see it in his eyes, that this big deterrent was a little too close to the window, but what the hell he’d give it a try. Damned if he didn’t find a corner he could still make an attempt at. Even though the ladder had slowed him down, Hubby and I decided to go along witih his plans to deter this bird permanently. The other tarp-covered window was working perfectly.
The extra tarp was going to cover only half way, so I went downstairs and grabbed a couple of strips of Bubble Wrap to cover the other half. With some tape to hold the tarp and bubble wrap together and onto the siding, the window was now covered in its entirety. So far, as of 1:00 pm today, we have our peace and quiet back. Our home-wrecker has tried the front transom window once, but has suddenly disappeared. Hubby has been out gathering brush, etc. to take to the dump …. HMMMM!!!!