I’m at my wit’s end, ready to pull all my hair out! I’m a creature lover in every sense of the word, but I’m at the brink of insanity thanks to a pair of annoying mudlarks.
Unwelcome Squatters
I’m at my wit’s end, ready to pull all my hair out! I’m a creature lover in every sense of the word, but I’m at the brink of insanity thanks to a pair of annoying mudlarks.
These persistent, bold, feathered critters decided years ago our much loved retreat is their fitting ‘happy ever after’ paradise and moved in nesting in surrounding cyprus trees.
Our square home has large, colonial style windows on each side, beautifully catching the natural light. The timber verandah encircling our house perfectly accentuates our home and was the predominant feature we desired as we had our haven built over a decade ago.
Since this time and as our garden matured, various endearing bird life frequently visit, seeming to love our verandah as much as we do, but none more so than these devious mudlarks that are doing my head in.
At first light I hear their distinctive morning calls, warning they have woken and are ready to commence their daily, routine window dance. In fact, our whole household knows the drill.
Our two fluff balls sit up to attention, ears pricked and navigating towards our windows, waiting to hear which pane the pests will decide to attack first, while hubby facetiously shouts from the bathroom “They’re back, get the shotty out!”
Suddenly a flutter, then a forthright tap echoes through the house and all of us know exactly where they are. If I’m home I start running towards the particular window acting like a human scarecrow, shooing them away. This works well for about a minute, but the repetitive energy I use is a waste of time. I’m sure these fiends enjoy screwing with my head as they alternate windows all day long until dusk.
Even my felines have no hope of frightening these wretched birds. Cleverly the mudlarks keep high and just out of reach to tease my pets, who practically ignore them now, accepting they’re part of the furniture.
Our verandah and windows look disgusting, covered in acidic, bird soil and spit, not to mention the progressing timber damage.
Cleaning my windows is a huge, time consuming task without the bird intrusion, but now it’s a ridiculously, thankless job. As I clean one side of the home, the birds are assaulting the opposite end. I can’t win. Two days after window washing, you wouldn’t know I had elbow-greased them. Those feathered trolls seem to want to punish me for my efforts and tend to up the ante until again we can hardly see through the glass. I could seriously cry!
I have researched the behaviour of mudlarks and apparently they attack their own reflection to defend their territory. “Their territory?! Excuse me, it’s ours!” That explains why they audaciously attack other birds in our garden, some double their size.
Over the years, I have attempted every hint I have read, heard of or seen to deter these mudlarks to no avail.
I have applied predictor silhouettes around the verandah, even snakes, which actually never failed to initially surprise and scare me half to death each time I left or arrived home. The birds would rest on the silhouettes’ heads in between bombarding our windows.
I’ve hung many metres of circular party streamers, which dangled from all sides of our verandah roof, twirling and catching the dancing light, while suggesting our hillbilly residence loved to party 24/7. The mudlarks continued to park themselves in between the small spaces of each one. It seemed they too enjoy a celebration!
I have nailed wind chimes here, there and everywhere, which sounded boisterous, loud and out of tune, especially during cyclonic South Gippsland winds. The black and white barbarians completely ignored them!
I’ve wiped our rails with natural scents, such as tea tree and eucalyptus oils in the hope of discouraging the pests, but disappointingly that didn’t do the trick either.
The only suggestion I haven’t done is cover our windows to hide the reflection, and I’m not about to do that! We may as well live in a box.
This has been on going for nearly a decade and has escalated each year, securing the confidence of the mudlarks. They have just recently discovered the tractor windows, much to my husband’s disgust. I’m surprised it took them so long!
I’m at a loss and weary.
Completely defeated …
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