Sparrow Wars

A great added bonus of our house here is the pergola on the side of the house. It can be closed off each end with transparent cafe blinds which, when it's warmer, makes it like another room.

However, plans to use it as such were threatened by the arrival of sparrows who built 3 nests in the very top of the pergola. I didn't mind that so much as the detritus they littered all over the place, along with the gallons of droppings.

I thought I didn't have the heart to remove them, bless the little creatures. Actually, it turns out I just didn't have the stepladders to remove them. As soon as I'd bought some ($39 from Bunnings), down they came. Thankfully, they were empty.

The sparrows returned the following day looking most put out and with that urgent look you have when you need a really big poo but can't get to the loo. Sure enough, one laid an egg on the beam where the nest used to be, and this just rolled off and smashed.

I felt a little bit bad about that, so when they returned and began rebuilding their nest, I didn't remove it. In the meantime, Sharon had purchased from Cheap as Chips (like Poundstretcher but with less style - if Bobby Dazzler was a chain store, this'd be it) a pair of large plastic crows. We had heard fake snakes might scare the sparrows off, but the crows looked really menacing.

I was dismayed the next morning to find the sparrows mockingly plopping away on our plastic pals.

Harmony broke out when I took the decision to let them be and simply catch their poo and nesting materials with shade cloth draped over the beams of the pergola, which has done the trick.

Sharon persevered however, moving the plastic crows of death to the outside bathroom and toilet windowsills. This certainly had the effect of scaring the life out of me, faced with a scene from Omen II or The Birds when I go for my morning tinkle. Time will tell, but I haven't seen the loose bottomed sparrows lately, so the crows might just be earning their keep.

In any case, bird muck has ceased enough to allow me to put up a hammock ($20 from Bunnings), with which I'm rather chuffed.