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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Spike deterent in trees (1 Viewer)

My sister in law lives practically around the corner from here. There are certainly no shortage of trees in the area, not least in the nearby Leigh Woods nature reserve. I doubt the birds will be inconvenienced, and people will keep their vehicles undamaged. Non-story.
 
Strontium Dog said:
I doubt the birds will be inconvenienced, and people will keep their vehicles undamaged. Non-story.
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I think you are wrong: this is of a piece with the urban nutters who move to the countryside and complain about roosters crowing in the early morning and the smell of cow dung on the wind near farms.

If you park your car under a tree it will get "pigeon detritus" (Jezzer Vine trying to avoid normal English usage) on it. The correct reaction is not - repeat not - to move the wildlife on. We've had the whole of human history doing that for human convenience, and all it has got us is declining populations of common stuff, elimination of predators and crowding the rest into ever-smaller fragmented bits.

The car owners need to wash their cars more frequently, put covers on them or park them not under trees - and not by cutting down the trees, either.

John
 
Farnboro John said:
I think you are wrong: this is of a piece with the urban nutters who move to the countryside and complain about roosters crowing in the early morning and the smell of cow dung on the wind near farms.

If you park your car under a tree it will get "pigeon detritus" (Jezzer Vine trying to avoid normal English usage) on it. The correct reaction is not - repeat not - to move the wildlife on. We've had the whole of human history doing that for human convenience, and all it has got us is declining populations of common stuff, elimination of predators and crowding the rest into ever-smaller fragmented bits.

The car owners need to wash their cars more frequently, put covers on them or park them not under trees - and not by cutting down the trees, either.

John
Click to expand...

Spot on John, the same kind of people who never actually post anything themselves but continually criticise those that do.
 
Strontium dog,how can you say this is a non story.This is just another nail in the coffin of our native wildlife.How many more moronic idiots will do this when their precious cars get soiled on.People like this could'nt give a toss about wildlife,as long as they have the latest high tech tv hanging on their living room wall,they could'nt care less.Actions like this have to stop NOW before they become an accepted part of life.
Our wildlife is suffering terribly with more natural habitat being removed for urban expansion,the last thing it needs is trees been taken away from them too......there can NEVER be enough trees in an area,they are an eco system on their own.
I hate people like this with a passion,totally oblivious to our environment and how important it is to our wildlife,all they are interested in is themselves and how many material goods they can accumulate.
I'm quite surprised at your attitude too,i would have thought that anyone who really cared about wildlife would have totally condemed these actions......perhaps you are on the wrong forum.
 
Neil G.;365630 1. Strontium dog said:
[/B]This is just another nail in the coffin of our native wildlife.How many more moronic idiots will do this when their precious cars get soiled on.People like this could'nt give a toss about wildlife,as long as they have the latest high tech tv hanging on their living room wall,they could'nt care less.Actions like this have to stop NOW before they become an accepted part of life.
Our wildlife is suffering terribly with more natural habitat being removed for urban expansion,the last thing it needs is trees been taken away from them too......there can NEVER be enough trees in an area,they are an eco system on their own.
I hate people like this with a passion,totally oblivious to our environment and how important it is to our wildlife,all they are interested in is themselves and how many material goods they can accumulate.
2. I'm quite surprised at your attitude too,i would have thought that anyone who really cared about wildlife would have totally condemed these actions......perhaps you are on the wrong forum.
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1.Neil, don't worry,
he has a personal grievance with me, he does this on every post I make. I have to stay away from Ruffled Feathers due to this character, he tries to rile me so I'll get a ban, guess I'm away from here now too.

2. I've made this point before, precious few nature posts in his portfolio.

Be careful though, he's much clever than you, he'll tell you so.


A
 
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andyadcock said:
Neil, don't worry,
he has a personal grievance with me, he does this on every post I make, I have to stay away from Ruffled Feathers due to this character, guess I'm away from here now too.


A
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Dont let him get to you bud.......you post wherever you like,i should imagine your input is much more appreciated than his.As for him being cleverer than me,let him bring it on.
 
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I quite frequently get asked to remove branches from trees or the trees themselves because of this - I simply refuse to quote for the work.
 
Your words "frequently get asked" are quite worrying and just show how many people really don't care about their natural environment.I take my hat off to you for turning down work on principle.
 
I noticed a couple of years ago that the authorities have started spiking posts in harbors along the Oregon coast, presumably to prevent the gulls and pelicans from soiling the boats and woodwork (and doubtless also for reasons of “health”). Damn their eyes! What’s a fishing port without a gull on every mooring?
 
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I wonder who owns the trees? If they are not owned by the individuals placing the spikes would it possible for e.g. The council to prosecute for trespass?

Cheers
Mike
 
Hi Mike,the property is owned by a private firm i believe,the residents complain and they get what they want........money talks!
 
Oh I see.

Still, it could be worse - this year in Hong Kong a Govt department cut trees in an active egretry, killing many birds, because of complaints about bird droppings.

Despite there being long established laws against disturbance of eggs and nests in HK, no-one was prosecuted.
 
I usually feel incensed by this sort of thing but this story less so - it pales into insignificance when you look at what is happening elsewhere in the current war on wildlife. A few spikes will move the birds elsewhere without (AFAIK) harming them. Not saying it's right, just (as Neil hints at above) that this is the world we live in and we might have to accept this whilst concentrating on the really bad stuff - raptor persecution & hare culling on grouse moors, illegal badger culls and authorities turning a blind eye to (and even trying to bring back) fox hunting. And an increasing trend in licenses being issued to kill any animal that threatens your stock, including otters, cormorants & goosander at fisheries; in fact there has been calls to cull everything from red kites to gulls. In the last few years we seem to have gone back to the nineteenth century in terms of how we view wildlife. I hope voters on here remember this at the next general election!
 
At risk of sounding old (well, I am over 60 now...) I can remember a massive starling roost when I was a child in Newcastle on Tyne city centre. Great efforts were made to discourage the starlings, I believe using spikes, netting and other deterrents. In those days starlings were seen as a bit of a pest, long before Red listing and before watching murmurations became cool.

While I can at least understand some efforts to deter some birds from buildings (while not condoning them, especially for example in relation to the urban kittiwakes on the Quayside), putting spikes on trees seems to be taking this to a whole new and disturbing level. The reason this has gained traction as a story is not because the loss of roost sites on a couple of trees where alternatives exist, but what it says about our relationship with nature. Lots of effort has been made over the years to open people's eyes to the value of urban wildlife, lots of people gain great pleasure from observing nature on their doorstep, while others chop down healthy trees (c.f. Sheffield), put astroturf on their garden 'lawns', and seek to sterlize their environment. Thin end of the wedge - totally worthy of outrage because of the principle, not the scale or likely effect of this example.
 
How pretty ... like lots of upside-down icicles.


And how wrong, yes, for the reasons given above. Although preferable to the trees being cut down, and if not renewed in time may get forgotten and the complainants pass on.

Probably really bad for the environment in other ways, but are there eg waxes/coatings which would protect the car paintwork in specific cases. Teflon?
 
Farnboro John said:
I think you are wrong: this is of a piece with the urban nutters who move to the countryside and complain about roosters crowing in the early morning and the smell of cow dung on the wind near farms.
Click to expand...

Yes. Apart from the fact it's not the countryside, and it is a city, and town pigeons are vermin.

So other than being 0% accurate, spot on :t:
 
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