I live on an island and share my home with an assortment of wild creatures. Some have more manners than others. There is a small garden in my back yard that I tend to fill with tomatoes and onions and strawberries each year. Of course that means I must share my treasures with my two and four legged neighbors.
After a few seasons of creating nets and fences to keep the deer, rabbits and the occasional bear from feasting on my garden I discovered the ScareCrow. This is a motion activated device that attaches to a garden hose and when anyone or anything passes the motion sensor it squirts a jet of water. It’s harmless but the surprise scares off most animals.
Then again, there was Fred. My backyard is about 300 feet from the ocean which means there are plenty of seagulls around. They are always eager for a hand out. Most of them prefer the beach, but Fred decided he liked my backyard as well, especially when the strawberries were ripe.
I wasn’t sure how Fred would react to the ScareCrow. Seagulls have no problem with water. Considering the amount of boat traffic offshore, sudden noises didn’t really warrant any more than a passing glance either. Did the ScareCrow scare off the two legged marauder from “his” backyard? Not exactly.
Part of the ScareCrow’s “fright factor” is that it has two bright yellow circles that look like eyes and two other strips of yellow that look deceptively like a beak. It does rather look like a spastic parrot. I guess to Fred it just looked very out of place.
The first thing Fred did when he came by for his morning visit was check out the garden. He took one look at the ScareCrow, held out his wings as if to fly off, then gave it a good talking to that I am sure included some choice seagullese swear words. What was this intruder doing in HIS garden?
Fred wasn’t close enough to trigger the water squirt, so he stood on the fence and started a staring contest with the ScareCrow. Of course Fred wasn’t going to win that one. That yellow eye on the intruder just was not going to blink. It was time for beak to beak combat.
Gliding down from the fence, Fred landed square in front of the ScareCrow and right in the target zone. It was a direct hit. Fred jumped up like he was on springs and flew back to the fence, thoroughly insulted. He decided more seagullese swearing was in order and kept up a non stop volley of squawks and wing flaps. My kingdom for a bird dictionary!
Finding the intruder silent and unmoving, Fred again flew down in front of his rival and got zapped between the eyes with another squirt of water. Then it was back to the fence for more verbal abuse. This continued on for a good part of the morning. Then Fred flew back down to the beach.
The next morning Fred came back. The intruder was still there, so he started up with the verbal insults but didn’t try to fly down in front of the Scarecrow. Instead he just hopped down from the fence. The ScareCrow went off but Fred wasn’t close enough to get hit. He took another step and the ScareCrow went off again and this time the smallest amount of water got one of his outstretched wings. Fred went back to the top of the fence and started squawking again. Tired of the game, he flew back to the beach.
On the third day, Fred flew back to his spot on the fence. His rival was still there, yellow eyes and open beak just looking at him. Fred started up with his seagullese ranting. Then he hopped down to the garden, but on the sidewalk that was behind the ScareCrow. He slowly crept up on his rival, one step at a time, wings outstretched so he could take off if he was attacked.
The water went off a couple of times, but it was pointed away from Fred. You could almost see the light bulb burning bright above his yellow beaked head. He crept all the way to the back of the ScareCrow and then just sat there for a bit. Nothing was happening.
All of a sudden Fred started squawking. He was flapping his wings and making a horrible racket. Maybe Fred thought he was going to scare the ScareCrow. In all his excitement he jumped out of his safe zone and got a beak full of water at close range. He jumped straight up and then flew up to the fence. Sitting with his wings spread and his yellow mouth open he just stared at the ScareCrow. Pretty soon he flew back to the beach.
I kept the ScareCrow up all during the growing season. Almost every day Fred came by to sit on the fence and stare at the intruder and throw out a few choice insults. The first morning after I put the ScareCrow away for the winter, Fred flew back and sat on his fence. He looked around and then jumped down to the very spot that I had set up the ScareCrow.
Still cautious, he settled down on the edge of the garden, still looking around. All of a sudden he stood very tall, wings outstretched, yellow beak open and pointing to the sky. A string of what I am sure was not at all polite seagullese came out of that throat, accompanied by several wing flaps for emphasis. Fred was once again king of the garden.
Note: ScareCrow is trademark name of Contech, sold as Contech ScareCrow Automatic Outdoor Animal Deterrent.
