Last spring, Karen had an ongoing battle with Mama Robin who persistently tried and tried to build a nest in the rafters of the roof over our bedroom balcony. Wanting to avoid the mess, Karen would knock down the new nest and the Robin would rebuild - again and again.
I simply couldn't face another confrontation this spring, so I set aside kitchen cabinet doors and drawers for a few hours and built a couple of decoy crows. My plan was to mount the crows near the potential nesting site and hope that Mama Robin would consider building elsewhere. The crow bodies were rough bandsawn, textured with a carving gouge and painted black over a few evenings. I purchased 4 forks at the nearby Salvation Army Thrift store ($.29 ea.) which made perfect "crows feet".
All was well for a couple of days but in the middle picture you can see the beginning of a Robin's nest in the background. This leads me to wonder, are Robins so smart that they can recognize the Crows are fake, or so dumb they haven't noticed a predator 5 feet away? Next year.....Eagles!
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