No more grackles

[mariane]

It’s only been a day of putting out my decoy dead crow, my floating alligator, and my reflection tape, but what a difference. Went from a constant attack to 3 scattered hits. Last night I upped the count and put out crow number 2. We’ll see what today brings. I don’t want to jinx it but if this works this thread will have been the reason. So thank you to all of you for your advice.

Great to hear it's working. @My wife's pool boy

Hopefully they’ve moved on for the year with some help from our crows and next year I’ll be ready!

As I understand it, they hang around cleaning out the poop until the babies have flown the nest. Then the poop will stop completely.
Here's to continued success.

 

[TKpoolOH]

The dead crow is working like a charm. I still get a few stray grackles but they hang out in the grass and no new droppings on the pool last 3 days. It’s day 10 since I’ve had it out.

 

[discreet_mayor]

+1 on the dead crow trick! Grackles would bomb the pool / put droppings on the side of the pool, as well as near my patio. A couple "dead crows" has made the problem vanish overnight.

Huge props to the OP for this easy fix!

 

[mariane]

+1 on the dead crow trick! Grackles would bomb the pool / put droppings on the side of the pool, as well as near my patio.

It's amazing how they're able to mess up the vertical surfaces of my AGP.

Huge props to the OP for this easy fix!

We are so thrilled @My wife's pool boy

 

[My wife's pool boy]

Interesting first morning results for me. I put the crow out last night and went out this morning. It was eerily quiet. Birds are usually on the power lines, my fence, and or hopping around the yard. Not this morning, they where everywhere else anywhere else but around my yard and it was quiet.

That's awesome news! I'm so glad to hear it's working for you too!

 

[My wife's pool boy]

This is the best grackle war news to hear.
And in your case, not to "hear" anything.
Mine's working too.
Thanks @My wife's pool boy

Yay, I'm so glad - that's awesome!!

 

[My wife's pool boy]

None of the birds I've found were babies. They looked full grown to me. I will move the dead crow regularly. What is interesting now that I think about it, I'm seeing a lot fewer pigeons lately. I wonder if the grackles are a deterrent to pigeons.

What I've noticed in our yard is that the grackles seem to scare the doves away... when I put out the fake dead crow and the grackles went away, the doves seemed to come back and now have nests throughout the yard... which I don't mind too much - they're kind of sweet birds... not sure if the same is true for pigeons.

 

[My wife's pool boy]

It’s only been a day of putting out my decoy dead crow, my floating alligator, and my reflection tape, but what a difference. Went from a constant attack to 3 scattered hits. Last night I upped the count and put out crow number 2. We’ll see what today brings. I don’t want to jinx it but if this works this thread will have been the reason. So thank you to all of you for your advice.

This is my first full summer with a pool (finished install last year in July), so I had no ideas what a grackle was until they ruined the past month for us). Hopefully they’ve moved on for the year with some help from our crows and next year I’ll be ready!

That is really awesome! So glad to hear this good news - I hope it continues to improve for you!

 

[My wife's pool boy]

+1 on the dead crow trick! Grackles would bomb the pool / put droppings on the side of the pool, as well as near my patio. A couple "dead crows" has made the problem vanish overnight.

Huge props to the OP for this easy fix!

Yay, that's so awesome!! I'm really glad it's working for you too - I hope it continues to improve!

 

[My wife's pool boy]

I'm so excited to read everyone else's stories on how well this is also working for them!! I hope this continues to help others as well!
I'm laughing to myself imagining the sellers at Amazon scratching their heads like "dude, what's with the sudden rush on fake dead crows all over the country - we're nowhere close to Halloween... what's going on?!"
Anyhow, keep it going and best of luck!

 

[TKpoolOH]

What I've noticed in our yard is that the grackles seem to scare the doves away...

Funny, the grackles have no affect on our doves. We have one couple of doves that nests on our patio awning and they have 3 pairs of hatchlings every year. First set just flew the coup. It doesn’t matter how many grackles are around.

 

[cubsguy81]

Also in the Cleveland area, the grackles started attacking my hot tub cover, outdoor fountain and deck! I found that an owl decoy made a big difference, but what really ended the problem was playing a continuous loop of "birds of prey and red-tailed hawk sounds" over my deck and patio speakers from sun up to sundown for a couple weeks in May. Never saw them again, and definitely scared off everything else too!

 

[revitup]

Also in the Cleveland area, the grackles started attacking my hot tub cover, outdoor fountain and deck! I found that an owl decoy made a big difference, but what really ended the problem was playing a continuous loop of "birds of prey and red-tailed hawk sounds" over my deck and patio speakers from sun up to sundown for a couple weeks in May. Never saw them again, and definitely scared off everything else too!

Your neighbors must love you!

 

[cubsguy81]

Your neighbors must love you!

Actually, with how many other birds there are singing during the day it just kind of blends in. I should clarify I wasn't blasting it at ridiculously high levels. Was it a little loud in my yard? Perhaps but it really blended in with all the background noise of all the other birds beyond my property. It immediately stopped the problem and after a couple of weeks no longer needed it.

 

[mariane]

Also in the Cleveland area, the grackles started attacking my hot tub cover, outdoor fountain and deck! I found that an owl decoy made a big difference, but what really ended the problem was playing a continuous loop of "birds of prey and red-tailed hawk sounds" over my deck and patio speakers from sun up to sundown for a couple weeks in May. Never saw them again, and definitely scared off everything else too!

I'm tagging this for next year.

 

[W.J.Christy]

Well, revibing this one to say they wosed up to the crow. Pool looks like target practice. I hate grackles. Even worse, the neighbors pool is clean. I really hate grackles.