Crow/Tree Problem - Who to Approach?

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funnymunny

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Hi,

Just looking for some advice/information.

We live in a rural estate, and happily, our back garden, backs onto a small wooded footpath, running along the back of the estate. The garden boundary is separated with a fence (ours) and behind that a dyke.

My current problem is that there is a very tall tall tree (50ft high or more), which overhangs in our garden. The tree is home to a rookery which is home to a lot of crows. They are nesting at the moment and a lot of debris is being dropped into the garden. The debris consists of twigs, many of them quite large and even stones. The issue is that the debris is being dropped from quite a height and for me is mildly painful when dropped on me, but would be quite painful and sometimes dangerous if it fell on my 3 or 1 year old who love to be out in the garden at every opportunity (even weather no permitting!). I have been bombed but so far the children have escaped. The crows appear to use the dog for target practice as she is often spotted with crow pooh.

Anyway, I digress. The wood is not privately owned and I have seen what appear to be council workers or perhaps a CE scheme, maintaining the wood. My husband initially suggested contacting the council to have the tree cut down but I am very opposed to that as it is beautiful and has been there long long before we arrived. He then suggested that maybe the branches overhanging the garden be cut back. So my question is, would it be the council and if so do they have a woodland/tree surgeon dept.? And is it a reasonable request?

Oh and we have had several unsavory suggestions with regard to getting rid of the crows, none of which are pleasant and some of which I would imagine are highly illegal, so that's not really an option, unless someone knows a way to get them to move to the trees a few meters down the wood that don't hang over any houses?

Many thanks.
 
You are going to have to leave it until after the nesting season is over before you do anything.

How big is the space? Is there any possibility of erecting netting for the few months of the year where this will be a nuisance? The benefit of the rookery must be worth trying to retain.

Or a temporary fence to keep your kids out of range for the few months?
 
Thank you Brendan, the netting is an excellent suggestion and one I had not even considered. It is quite a large space, but the main problem is towards the back of the garden, which is of course, despite my best efforts, where the children insist on being. So we could put netting up from one wall to another (quite high walls), to half way up the garden.

I don't know how long they nest for but I would have a house built by now and they do seem to do a lot of titivating and home improvement. Strange though it might sound, we are quite fond of 'our' crows.

Thanks for the reply.
 
You could perhaps roof a section of the back where the children like to play with polycarbonate sheeting? That would block all the droppings also, giving the kids (and the poor dog) some respite.
 
funnymunny said:
. Strange though it might sound, we are quite fond of 'our' crows.
Click to expand...

Not remotely strange.

Wildlife is fascinating. It would be well worth reading up on crow behaviour so that you could watch them and understand what they are doing. YOu would get a lot more out of them then.

Brendan
 
Thank you for the suggestion Leo, but the garden is quite wide, so it would be cost prohibitive to put a roof over the width of it and if we roofed off one section, I can guarantee that is exactly where the children wouldn't play. The lawn was a quagmire, so we recently removed it and replaced it with concrete, but against my better judgement left two flower beds. So now, big and all as the garden is, with a big expanse of un-mucky concrete, every time I turn my back the dog is digging in the flower bed, the baby is eating clumps of clay and the toddler is up to his elbows in it!!

Brendan, it is something I have been trying to find the time to do. My children love looking out the window at them and their antics. They are also surprisingly considerate with my washing given their numbers and that the washing line is directly under their flight path.

Thanks again for the replies.
 
Hi,

Have you considered getting some form of crow scarer, such as those which release sonic noises or possibly water (in a high powered jet), to scare off the birds ?

There are various products available to purchase on the internet, search "bird scarer" or "crow scarer" for some ideas.

Suffice to say, they won't do the birds any injuries but might help get them to move away a little.

Regards

Mr. Earl.
 
funnymunny said:
Thank you for the suggestion Leo, but the garden is quite wide, so it would be cost prohibitive to put a roof over the width of it
Click to expand...

A 10mm twin-wall roofing sheet, 2.1m x 4m will cost about €200, you'd just need a simple wooden supporting structure. So it might not be as expensive as you might think if you or someone you know is handy at DIY.


funnymunny said:
So now, big and all as the garden is, with a big expanse of un-mucky concrete, every time I turn my back the dog is digging in the flower bed, the baby is eating clumps of clay and the toddler is up to his elbows in it!!
.
Click to expand...

Yeah, concrete isn't fun for dogs or children. A sand pit in the covered area might be simple and fun for the kids. Dogs just like to dig!
 
If you wanted to move the crows on, I'd suggest waiting 'til the autumn and knock the nests off the trees. If you bought cheap, or rented, a chimney sweep set, you could poke the nests out of the trees.

Or someother lightweight extendible tool. Or a cherry picker.

It would take a while and you'd become very aware of your neck muscles, but if the nests were gone the crows may move down the way.

What type crows, by the way? I assume it's either jackdaws or rooks (edible!).
 
Just wondering if anyone has tried this. We've had to keep our hens in quite a bit recently because of the hawks. My husband wants to put up a platform feeder and some crow decoys in hopes that crows will hang out in our yard and keep the hawks away. I'm not totally against it, but I do have some concerns about the crows possibly uprooting newly planted seeds, and I'm not sure if their presence would have any effect on the chickens.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this idea?
 
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