My night in shining owl

Last bit of my morning routine where I have to just confirm my front door is locked. I pull on the handle tight and turn it to see if it opens just one last time. Good habits also die hard. I than arched my back to use my butt to push the screen door far enough away so I can turn and head out to my car. As it slams shut, I took that first step in the direction of my car and instantly blurt out…“Dammit those snakes are just not working”. “The neighborhoods are awake now”, I muttered to myself looking in the direction of my feet as I walked with shameful shoulders and shaking my head in frustration.

A deep sigh excepted too… I found myself staring for a moment at my car before I had to carefully unlock my door. Trying to avoid the multitude of droppings splatted all along the driver side of my white Honda van. “Not only is this gross but embarrassing too, darn birds”, I again muttered but a kind of a little loudly. “We need to do something else about this” stating to myself as I looked up at the plastic snakes my neighbor put in his tree just last week.

Mind you, I have had to endure these mornings for about 4 years now and finally my neighbor has attempted to make an effort to stop this from occurring without cutting down the tree. What I mean by occurring, is that in the first part of every spring season, around the last week of March to about the middle of April, this darn tree owned by my neighbors but hanging over my driveway, is the home to over 200 black birds. Luckily the tree is more like their vacation home as they soon move to the tall longleaf pines across the street. But theses few weeks, year after year, now going on 4 for me, my car is what I call ‘the birds target practice’ because each and every single evening they aim their poop right at my car. I mean they aim because my driveway only endures a few missed shots. It’s fascinating and yet a pain in my ass because I suffer no matter what, either I walk further to my home by parking in the street or I wake to this display of shit; literally. Oh well….I finally get into my car and as I’m backing up, I see my neighbor shrug in his window, and I swear I see a few birds swoop down to the lower branches to laugh as I drive away…”dame birds”, I mutter once again.

After a long day of work I arrive home and out of habit pull into the drive and park my car. As I get out of my drive door, I look down at the few droppings that did miss my car last night and have a momentarily flash back to this morning. It reminded me I need to approach my neighbor once again about the concerning bird droppings in my driveway.

At work I had decided it was time to just take matters into my own hands and see what would really stop those darn birds and possible prevent them from returning year all while keeping the tree in healthy condition; the tree is not at fault here. I read a lot of articles and DYI blogs that mention placing a ceramic owl as high as possible in the tree to scare off any pesky creatures. Had actually heard this one other time from a friend I had spoken to about this topic before. So now it was time to ask permitting to do just that. I casually walked up to my neighbor’s door and knocked in the hopes he would answer quickly, I just got home and wanted this off my shoulders before I greeted my family. I was surprising greeted quick but very defensively with a “I don’t think that will do any better than the snakes”. “Let’s see if it improves on the number of birds this year and then maybe I’ll see about another option” clearly stated by my neighbor to close the conversation. I said my thanks and wished him a good evening.

Feeling like I was walking the path of shame…I knew the snakes will make no difference in the number of birds in that tree, but I have to except my neighbor’s actions because it is his tree. “Why would he not try something new now, oh ya, it was not happening to him, so why make any extra effort”, I thought as I started at the concrete path up to my porch steps. I will just move my car later and endure the extra walk for the next few weeks. Just not worth upsetting the neighborliness of my family’s home…”darn birds”, I yelled loudly with a smidge of hope that it might scary a few birds away, hope is all I had at this point.

My eyes open to a new day and quickly my face frowned as I instantly realized I never moved my car. “It is going to be covered again, darn me and darn those birds”. I complete my normal morning routine and as I double check that handle what I hear behind me is a stronger than usual rustling of tree branches. “Strange” I thought as I push the screen away. Just one step is all it took for me notice and feel that things were not as normal as they should be this morning. There was no new dropping on my car. So I instantly turned my head to the tree in a kind of repenting manor to give thanks to the snakes when I see this squinty eyed huge barn owl staring me down from the top of the neighbor’s tree. Pretty sure he was telling me, “This is my house now”. My heart dropped and my smile grew, I turned my head up even higher and sent me 'thank you’s' to the one that deserved it the most.

Guess what…still to this day, 4 years later, I continue thank the owl and the sky each morning for no more darn birds. An amazing natural reminder that life just provides you with what you need when we have done our best to work things through on our own. We are all blessed in our own many difference ways…

Renee Autumn Rose - 1.25.22/ACW