So an Osprey in my marina fell in love with my boat. I read previous topics and posts all over internet, and then asked biologists in my office. The simple answer is - anything may or may not work. rubber snakes and owls, strips of surveyor's tape, strips of tinfoil, tree nets, CDs on a string, etc, etc may or may not work. So far, the best I can tell, it just sits on my mast, it's fish, and destroyes my deck with poop and fish guts. Does anyone have a proven method to get rid of it?
That dang Osprey...
- Thread starter Piotr
- Start date
You mean the air force ones with the Hellfire missiles?
Started using pennant flags. They seem to be going to other boats....for now.
Fortunately, or in your case unfortunately, Ospreys are protected. It a good thing your mast doesn't have a flat top because if the bird starts to build a nest, you would have to keep it there. Too bad the boat cannot be covered with a big net....
Scary Bird Eyes
Go to Amazon and and shop scary bird eyes and send them up your mast
on your halyard near the top of mast.
I have 2 on my topping lift one at the top and another half way up and no more poop on my boat and half my canal has them on their boats and half PG must use them.
They are blow up balls with scary eyes on them and you hook them to your halyard and add another line to bottom of halyard to tie off on your deck and I
send mine up my topping lift and than tie off on the back of my arch and so the
line is sort of on a angle and not hitting my mast and some boats have one at top and I have 2 and no more poop for over year now.
Nick
Go to Amazon and and shop scary bird eyes and send them up your mast
on your halyard near the top of mast.
I have 2 on my topping lift one at the top and another half way up and no more poop on my boat and half my canal has them on their boats and half PG must use them.
They are blow up balls with scary eyes on them and you hook them to your halyard and add another line to bottom of halyard to tie off on your deck and I
send mine up my topping lift and than tie off on the back of my arch and so the
line is sort of on a angle and not hitting my mast and some boats have one at top and I have 2 and no more poop for over year now.
Nick
I am also having a bird problem, but they seem to like my spreaders not my masthead. All of my lines that run aft are getting dung bombed every week. This stuff is hard to get off the deck even with boat soap and a deck brush. It is even harder to get off of the lines. Seems to soak in and then harden.
I am also having an Iguana problem. they like to sun on the foredeck. Does anyone know if rat guards on my lines would keep the iguanas off the boat. I don't know if they are climbing the lines to get aboard, or just jumping off the dock. When I go aboard, they just jump off the boat into the water, swim across the canal, and climb out on someone else's dock?
While we're on the subject of Birds... Not only am I having issues with Ospreys (I'm going to look into Big Eyes on Google) on the mast they seem to have invited their duck friends to swim in my pool! I actually have a swan decoy floating in the pool, but they finally figured out it does nothing! Uggggg or should I say... Quaaaaaaaaak
Osprey advice
Are you sure it's an Osprey? I'm only asking because I have the same problem, but haven't actually seen one of the local ospreys on my boat. The guy at West Marine told me that Ospreys bring their catch back to the nest, but the CORMORANTS are the ones that make a mess out of our boats. Maybe he's wrong. I don't know for sure. All I know is that whatever is perching on my closed bimini is making a friggin' mess and I have tried a couple of things. See photos.
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There are electronic bird repellents that work very well on most sorts of birds. They were developed for airports and are not cons, but they can be expensive. I'd go online and see if they will repel Ospreys and go from there. The one a guy in Charleston City Marina had would even keep the crows away.
We have a huge osprey population where I keep my boat. They love to land on your windex and break it. The windex with a bird spike on it works well to keep them off of the mast. The deck is another story. I have heard that owls, rubber snakes, and things like that work.
Sail your boat more. Seriously, the boats that Ospreys like are the dock queens. And forget the flag on the mast stuff, I watched an Osprey repeatedly land next to a flag and all manner of mylar tape to continue building her nest. The boat had sat unmoved for weeks. Bad plan.
What you could do is go up the stick and tear off the nest. We are at the end of egg laying season, so you must have a lonely yearling bachelor(ette) looking to attract a mate.
Scary bird Eyes
Before I added the scary eyes I would come back to the boat and find new poop every day and since added scary eye no poop at all and all the other
boats in my canal added the scary eyes and no more poop.
WM has them for $9.00 and amazon 3 pack or 2 pack or 1 scary eye.
so cheap and it works.
Yes a real PIA to clean the poop off after sitting in the hot sun.
Nick
Before I added the scary eyes I would come back to the boat and find new poop every day and since added scary eye no poop at all and all the other
boats in my canal added the scary eyes and no more poop.
WM has them for $9.00 and amazon 3 pack or 2 pack or 1 scary eye.
so cheap and it works.
Yes a real PIA to clean the poop off after sitting in the hot sun.
Nick
I have the scare eyes and they do work except for the black birds. The dang black birds could care less. I have a neighbor who recently put a flag pole with a flag flying on top of his mast. It seems to be doing the job for him. I am in the process of making a flag pole for the top of my mast right now.
Bad, bad, bad, BAD idea. These birds and their nests are protected under the Migratory Species Act. This includes their nest. Keeping them from building a nest in the first place is the best idea. Honestly, I'm not an expert on keeping them away, but I do know you don't destroy nests.
This was just in our paper, as we get alot of ospreys around the Chesapeake Bay- including the top of every marker. You CAN destroy a nest(in hopes they will nest elswhere), but not if there are eggs in it.