erie_guy
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2007
- Messages
- 269
Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?
Astuckey,
For several years local sea gulls and purple martins used my boat for their perch/resting sites - and when leaving usually made a mess of my Bimini and front deck areas. Over the last two years I have experimented with several approaches to cure this problem using owls, snakes and spikes - and have finally discovered the solution is monofiliment fishing line !!
For the last two years I have been crap free (for the most part) and my neighboring boats have probably seen an increase in bird droppings. All one has to do is make landing a difficult task and the birds will go next door almost every time. I use a combination of supported line above the bow rails and an "umbrella like" configuration of four lines from two flycasting reels to the radio antenna to discourage the gulls.
The system takes only a few dollars to set up and is easily lowered and reinstalled when the antenna is lowered to go under bridges. The reels were purchased used for $5 - $10 on ebay and the bow stand offs were made from clamps from West Marine and white plastic board. I can post a sketch of the setup if you are tired of cleaning bird droppings.
erie_guy
Port Clinton, OH
Astuckey,
For several years local sea gulls and purple martins used my boat for their perch/resting sites - and when leaving usually made a mess of my Bimini and front deck areas. Over the last two years I have experimented with several approaches to cure this problem using owls, snakes and spikes - and have finally discovered the solution is monofiliment fishing line !!
For the last two years I have been crap free (for the most part) and my neighboring boats have probably seen an increase in bird droppings. All one has to do is make landing a difficult task and the birds will go next door almost every time. I use a combination of supported line above the bow rails and an "umbrella like" configuration of four lines from two flycasting reels to the radio antenna to discourage the gulls.
The system takes only a few dollars to set up and is easily lowered and reinstalled when the antenna is lowered to go under bridges. The reels were purchased used for $5 - $10 on ebay and the bow stand offs were made from clamps from West Marine and white plastic board. I can post a sketch of the setup if you are tired of cleaning bird droppings.
erie_guy
Port Clinton, OH
