Birds Build Nests from Anti-Bird Spikes
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
The Optum RX mail-order pharmacy has caps where both sides can be the "bottom" and screw onto the bottle, but one side is childproof and the other is just a normal screw attachment. Since they come with the childproof side of the cap engaged, this does present the bootstrapping problem of getting the bottle open to begin with, but thereafter you can just use the other side of the cap.
But again, it's like the other OP said: The childproof side is the one that they put on first which could present an issue for older people. I'd imagine you could ask them not to do that, though. I never really thought about it.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Walgreen...
Previous discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36689463
It's hard to forget that hair.
Around this time I noticed that a vent hole in the side of the shed was uncovered, and likely had been for some time, which I fixed.
A few months later I was doing a good spring cleaning, and I found in the eaves of the shed a nest made mostly of long pine needles (from outside the shed), but with a substantial spattering of through-hole components too!
A bird had found the broken vent, and made a home in the shed using whatever ‘sticks’ were handy to build its nest. Unfortunately I probably blocked it off from its home when I repaired the vent. I’m glad to say no eggs or dead baby chicks were in it when I found it…
Unfortunately it was above head height, and I had it half dismantled (‘What are all these pine needles doing up here?! And - wait - capacitors?!’) before I realized what it was.
It does mention that Antwerp magpies have a special use where spikes are outward pointing, effectively helping to create a bunker keeping predators away. It also says something frustratingly vague about spikes being bent "inward" and vaguely referencing structural support, which evokes an image of the pokey from Matilda.
But, this article creates the feeling that you can only get from the internet, a feeling like you're in a room with a thousand people but also with nobody. Because the obvious question, well, if you pressed your hand down on such a nest, would it be spiky? If so, is the life of a bird relying on these for a nest a torturous life of constantly choosing its steps carefully in a nest that's a blend of spikes and ordinary debris? Is there some creative design that they have resorted to that mitigates this? Are they just light enough that they can do some bird equivalent of the human laying on a bed of spikes trick? Maybe the statistical average of all the different angles of the spikes, when arranged into a meshy nest, is such that the "bed" has an average consistency that's bearable to the birds?
It's like all of the normal questions I would want to ask, but the only specific comments in the article are about things that appear to be unusual special cases.
It’s a NYT article, how exactly is reading it online different from reading it in a newspaper?
They do this by being vertical, parallel, and too close together for a bird to get a good sideways grip on any one spike. They don't prick the birds.
This means they're effectively a forest of highly uniform metal twigs.
Ordinary nest building with removed spikes would create a surface as comfortable as any other nest. It's not like twigs aren't pokey.
A bird flying in for a landing can certainly impale itself if it doesn't realize the spikes are there. All about speed and momentum.
They just not particularly sharp from the perspective of a feather-covered animal moving gently through a nest so as to not damage the eggs. They aren't needles.
> Rows of these sharp metal pins have become a common feature of the urban environment, installed on rooftops and ledges to discourage birds from perching or nesting on buildings.
Who installs these things and why? Maybe I'm not urban enough, but I don't understand why you'd even install these things. What's wrong with birds perching on a building?
The problem is when birds hang around someplace, they quickly cover the ledges, walls and ground with shit.
That and I don’t want baby birds screaming at 4am a few meters from where I sleep.
https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/pigeon.pag...
If you think birds don't poop a lot remember there are entire islands made of bird poop.
It's not a problem here in the winter when it rains enough that the poop washes away but we can go weeks or months in the summer and the accumulation of poop can smell bad.
Some bird spikes on the top of each pole has mostly solved the problem.
Generally birds have plenty of other places to rest where they won't be inconvenient to humans. I've never seen anyone cover an entire rooftop with spikes.
https://www.hetnatuurhistorisch.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/doc...
For example, some sloped areas have spikes to prevent folks from reclining or laying down, but it would be possible to build a chair/bed that's held in place by those very spikes.
It's also cheaper, looks better and protect a much larger area.
He’s from Europe and use his own experience but apparently this site may help for US residents
https://explorer.audubon.org/explore/species/1387/great-blue...
You could always tell who the freshers were on sight, they were the only people who didn't know you don't eat outside without suitable cover.
I'm sure this would be a very interesting project for any student!
These researchers say they're rooting for the birds after all.
Humans have a long history of solving small problems by introducing bigger problems re: introducing non native species.
I'm rooting for the birds too, but I'd also like humans to stop putting metal spikes on stuff.
Lots of raptors, especially falcons, are essentially specialised sprint predators and won't pick a fight with another bird any more than a cheetah would try to fight a hyena.
"javascript:window.open('://archive.is/'+window.location.href.replace(window.location.search,''))"
(Put "https" before the "://" - I couldn't work out how to prevent it being turned into a URL otherwise.)