[andyww2013]

Hi,

So, it’s that time of year where my mature cherry tree is just coming into bloom.  Now the battle starts to stop the pesky pigeons stripping it bare.

Over the years I tried numerous methods to try and prevent the decimation of the cherry crop, all have failed:

 - Netting - they just sat of the branches and ate through the net, tree is too big to get a net over all of it
 - Reflective strips - no effect
 - Fishing line between the branches - no effect as they tend to attack the tree on the outside rather than go into the centre of the tree
 - Plastic bird of prey - they just messed on it

So this year I'm going to try the last idea I can think of which is to hoist a cheap Bluetooth speaker into the tree and then have it play some random bird of prey song.
Don’t suppose anybody else has tried this?  If so, what bird is likely to scare the living daylights out of pigeons?
Found a useful website which give some suitable sounds:
https://us.napster.com/artist/wildtones-bird-calls-and-songs/album/birds-of-prey-raptor-bird-calls-and-sounds

[Hampshire Hog]

Good luck with this project. I have a cherry tree but it’s only the birds that have had any fruit. If going for sounds what about the sound of a cat?? Do post if anything works! HH

[Ema]

I feel your frustration!

Do you live in quite an urban area? If not I would consider getting someone to humanely shoot the pests

[andyww2013]

So a quick update on this.  Got my speaker working, it connects via Bluetooth to an old phone I had.

On the phone there is a small app which plays hawk sound effects every so often. 

After observing the behaviour of the pigeons noticed they weren't too fussed about it.  Bummer.

Not one to give up I read some further literature and it seems that pigeons only worry about sound that comes from above them so a piece of rope later my speaker is now hoisted to the very top of the tree.

Currently (and I know I'm tempting fate here) they have hardly ventured anywhere near the tree and I have almost all the cherries in tact.

There might be a multitude of reasons for this, however so far so good.

Hope this helps others with similar issues.