Unleash the hounds!
Actually, hopefully not.
Here is the much anticipated Birthday Falcon still in its protective cello wrap with best-seller badge and restrainedly celebratory gift ribbon. I just retrieved it home after a visit with Kate, who presented it to me. It has “good feathery detail,” although it’s something of a chimera, with the head of a bald eagle, the large staring eyes of a kite, the breast and feet of a peregrine falcon, and (not pictured) the bricky red tail of a Red-tailed hawk. The theory, I guess, is to cover all possible bases of scaring: Finches flinch at everything, and doves are too dumb to decoy, but if you’ve got trout, cicadas, swallows, and any good-sized ground dweller like rabbits or snakes plaguing your land, this guy has got all your pest-scaring problems in hand.
So the Birthday Falcon now resides next to a plastic snowy owl (that known ferocious non-scourge of all desert birds) on a low block wall between our herb garden and the patio section of the All-You-Can-Eat Fink Bar, an unruly tangle of sunflowers beloved by Lesser Goldfinch (the authentic locals) and also Rosy-faced Lovebird tourists, purely for asthetic and entertainment value. At least, that’s the hope. Kate has reported her version of this winged terror to be actually terrifying to her yard birds which, of course, we agree is totally unacceptable.
So tomorrow we’ll watch: if there’s any disturbance in the furious fressing of finches at the flowerheads, we’ll have to relocate the feathery menace to a less effective location, and enjoy it there. Possibly the living room.
How’s it going with the plastiraptor? Did you take it out of the plastic?
Plastiraptor is still under wraps! I don’t know why, except that his #1 badge and ribbon chest make me smile.
[…] please note the previously discussed effectiveness of plastic birds of prey as seed-snatcher deterrents in the garden […]