Spiteful Birds

[Wayne LaBanca]

I noticed a lot of bird poop on the edge and in the pool over the past few weeks and last night I discovered why. It seems the Grackels think the pool is a great place to dispose of their babie's poop. I was skimming last night and a Grackel landed on the edge of the pool with a nice little poop package in it's beak. It looked at me, leaned over the edge, and dropped it right in LOL. I guess they are still upset that I removed the cover and they lost their giant bird bath.
I like having birds around so I will just have to deal with it.

Wayne

[matt4x4]

plastic owls help.
solar covers also help.

[ShelleyAnn]

Oh my gosh Wayne, I feeeeeeeeeeeel your pain. I didn't think anyone would believe me that our pool was the direct target of the poop drop. Like clockwork they would fly over and direct hit every time. The babies fledged a few days ago, but I'm still trying to get the water back to normal chemical wise. Do you know if they reuse the same nest in the same summer?

Shelley

[SLS]

I kept finding dog food in my pool and could figure out how it was getting there. It didn't look like the type I feed my dogs. I was about to blame the neighbors kids of throwing it in there when one day I was outside and heard something drop into the pool and saw it was dog food. I looked up to see a bird flying overhead. Apparently they are loosing it on the way back to their nest after stealing it from my neighbors dog food bowl. I have to say I prefer the dog food....ha

[Wayne LaBanca]

Well I guess we all have our battles with our feathered friends!

ShellyAnn, I do believe they will reuse the nest. Most of the common birds here have two broods in a season.

I won't use deterents because I do like having them around and they don't really mess up the balance, it's just a bit on the gross side.

Wayne

[davebva]

We had the exact same thing happen to our last pool a few years ago, but they were droping it on the cover.

Someone told me that it's instint, that birds will spread there poop all over the place, especially in wet areas to facilitate habitat. Their little instinctive brains know they have undigested seeds in their poop and they spread it around.... Go figure...

[matt4x4]

Birdbrains......guess they're starlings or common grackles - PIA birds!
I currently have a ton too, (Poop that is) and am finding bloated dog food in the pool, my dog's PO'd too because he certainly didn't ask to be put on this crash diet, poor guy spends half his day chasing the birds away from his precious food and water, the other half looking for rodents to supplement his skimpy diet.
He doesn't even want to come in at night anymore, just wants to sit near his dog dish, on guard.....poor guy, this is going to give him a breakdown before the end of the summer.....

[geordie]

Grackles. What a joy. We didn't have much trouble the first couple of years in town. Then word got out that we had a water source and we've been bombarded with poop packages. It is an instinct. They intentionally clean their nests and dispose of the packages into or next to a water source. Mostly it doesn't affect chemistry other than the need to shock more frequently when they are nesting. Keep your eyes open though, because if they have babies die in the nest, they will clean that too and deposit it into the pool. That definitely gets me to shock the water.

Last year we had three nestings because of a long spring. sigh...