My Black ND seems irresistible to two robins in our garden. Unfortunately they love to sit on the doors and look in the mirrors, Their narcissistic habits result in bird ■■■■ on the door handles, doors and mirrors that attacks the polish. Has anyone else suffered from this? I have temporarily put plastic bags over the mirrors which helps but looks unsightly and may have to make some tailored ones from black vinyl.
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Years ago my mother had some mirror tiles as part of a trompe l’oeil arch behind a trellis in the garden, and that always had robins performing on the trellis, obviously reacting to the image in the mirror, and occasionally a blackbird was also seen reacting to its own image.
However at certain times of year the local pair of wood-pigeons used to carefully preen each other in front of it checking the results as they went. She said they were ‘adjusting their makeup’.
After a few years of thinking how cute all these birds were, she then saw a program on TV saying this is a bad thing for us to do; because those smaller birds, especially the robins (who sometimes even react to a scrap of red cloth) were stressed out and saw the reflection as a rival challenging it to a duel!
I’ve no idea if this is true or not, but having seen robins and blackbirds fighting viciously, almost to the death, I think it might be possible.
And she did take down the mirror tiles.
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Try using a pair of black socks, any colour works for me, Spring time is the favourite
for Blue, Great & Coal tits, I think it is the male birds that attack their reflections,
all part of their mating behaviour.
My Focus lives on the drive (the mx-5 gets the benefit of a pampered garage life) and I regularly have dunnocks and robins settling on the cars window seals looking at their reflections in the window glass. Quite amusing to watch. The car gets pooped on by numerous birds and the bees also leave little orange, waxy deposits. Living near the sea, it’s the seagulls that cause the most mess though. I try not to let any ■■■■ stay on the car too long and always give it a good soak with water to soften it before removal.
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I have this screen frost protector from Halfords.
It comes with a pair of mirror covers.
Cheap enough solution at £9.19 with club discount.
That sounds a nightmare. Not to mention the claws scratching the paint.
I wouldn’t worry about covers on the wing mirrors looking unsightly, it’s a lot better than bird poo marring and scratches. Marring ‘might’ not happen as easy as in warmer weather though. Spare a thought, I dread mid-late April as by me BOTH of my neighbours get starlings in their roofs (one of them won’t put in soffit vents, as they think the nesting is ‘cute’. The other neighbour’s starlings just get in some gap). But I’m then basically housebound for 3 weeks as all the cars on the drive get pounded all day with the irritating things s**t. I’d say 500! over 3 weeks. I detest birds with a passion. Totally over rated irritating things.
My 5 is riddled with scratches from the damn magpies. Short of getting a car cover, I’ve given up trying to figure out how to deal with them. Well, that’s not entirely true, but I’ll probably end up with the 5-0 at the door if I continue with ‘my idea’ here !
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What happens if you just fold the mirrors in?
Cable ties pointing upwards on the door handles?