13th July: Bird Scarer!

I left the mast lowered for a couple of days while I bought a new block to replace the broken jib halyard one. The new Barton blocks have ball races and are neater than the previous range so I purchased a Barton size 3 which was a similar physical size as the previous block (size 2?) and has specs: sheave diameter= 45mm, S.W.L= 385kg, B.L= 770kg, max rope= 10mm.

Up until recently the birds had, miraculously, tended to stay away from Seatern. However recently I’ve noticed that the local crows have adopted the mast top instruments as a perch and the deck has suffered from their droppings. I therefore decided to try to put them off by attaching some bristles cut from a yard broom to the wind indicator and the NASA anemometer wind vane.

For the wind indicator I drill holes through from the bottom and coated the hollow inside with clear CT- adhesive. For the wind vane I used some white duct tape to hold the bristles in place while the CT-1 set.

After a few days I have not seen the crows using the mast top as a perch so I’m hoping that it has worked. Time will tell… I can imagine the crows working out how to land up there, pecking through the bristles, and adding them to their nest!