shadesofmauve: (garden)
shadesofmauve ([personal profile] shadesofmauve) wrote2011-02-16 12:35 pm
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Cat Deterent: I'm doin' it wrong.

One of my yard plans is to surround the bird feeder with thicket-y, prickly plants to create a bird-safe zone, thick and point enough to deter the cats.

To that end, last weekend I bought and planted a native rose. My supervisor takes her duties very seriously:

"Yes, I AM in charge of this hole. What do you want?"

After over-seeing the diggings, she double-checked for proper plant placement (by the way, get a load of those spines):


And then she showed what she thought of my 'thorny bushes deter cats' idea:


The spines add a nice bite to the flavor. Piquant!

Om nom nom.

[identity profile] t-c-da.livejournal.com 2011-02-17 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
I have a bird table made from an old 3litre juice bottle suspended from an overhead clothes lines at about 5 feet above ground level. The birds took a while to find it, but it's safely out of reach of vagrant puddy tats, including our own 17 yr old Ginger Tom, who used to routinely jump through windows 5 feet up - he's slowed down a little in the last few months, and notably can't reach the swinging feeder.

I'll try to get a picture of it up for you to see... (I don't have my microSD to USB adapter at work with me today)

[identity profile] t-c-da.livejournal.com 2011-02-17 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Here is the photo I intended to post here, but my html-fu failed to embed the image correctly, so I deleted the faulty post.

This photo is taken from living room looking down on the feeder.

[identity profile] t-c-da.livejournal.com 2011-02-18 12:18 am (UTC)(link)
What's not clear from the photo is the use of steel wire to hold the flaps out - it both stops them flapping shut and supports them so they don't collapse under the weight of any small birds that alight on them.

I'm not sure it'll hold a bigger bird, like this thrush that keeps hanging around and tormenting the cat by nicking it's dry tack...

[identity profile] t-c-da.livejournal.com 2011-02-24 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I drilled 4 small holes in the bottom of the bottle, one in each corner, and ran a piece of wire from one corner of the flap through 2 of the holes to the corresponding corner of the other flap. Ditto for the other side. The holes also serve as drains for the rain that gets into the bottle.

I'll try for a detail photo over the weekend, although I seem to be pretty busy for some obscure reason...

[identity profile] t-c-da.livejournal.com 2011-02-19 12:51 am (UTC)(link)
$WIFE assures me the LBJ is a sparrow of the sort found all over the planet...

[identity profile] nuin.livejournal.com 2011-02-17 02:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Kitties love rose bushes... So tasty to chew on, and enjoyable to rub against.

Good luck!