Spring is springing... Let loose the Avians of War!

The Robin depicted in this image is not the Robin in question, he is merely an unpaid actor. Any resemblance to the actual Robin, or relatives to the Robin is purely coincidental.

For the past few days Sarah and I have been noticing a Robin taking quite an interest in our pergola. He's been showing up with all sorts of grass, twigs, twine, you name it, to make a nest. The first few days I would just go out and remove what little of the nest he had made. Unfortunately, this did little to deter this Robin. We have some prime real estate in the world of birds. It's covered from the rain, close to the house so it will stay warmer during the cold nights and cooler during day.

I had to up the ante, just removing his debris was not enough, so I stuffed a loosely rolled piece of foil in the corner. I naively thought that this would be enough to keep the Robin away. But this is no ordinary Robin, he wasn't going to be put off so easily. I later found the foil ball in yard when I was mowing... fail. Time for another strategy, I still thought foil was a good way to go, so I wrapped the support beam with foil, and splayed it up the wall and in the corner. This didn't help at all, in fact I think it made it easier for the Robin to build his nest. When I pulled the foil down he was stuffing the debris into the foil, tricky bird.

This morning when I woke up there was debris in the corner again, but there was also a sparrow and a dove casing the place to try and steal this Robins spot. I wasn't going to let ANY bird have this spot. I'm sure his mate is pissed at him. "Why isn't my nest done yet? I have eggs to lay. Mabel is in her nest! I should have mated with Erwin, he's got a two story nest!" In a way, I feel for the guy, but he's not nesting right above our back door.

Finally, Sarah suggested putting up some ribbon to dance in the wind. It's not the actual bird deterrent foil, it's Christmas ribbon. So far it seems to be doing the trick, we'll keep you updated. Here are some pictures of the adventure.