Thanks Ted for an excellent and informative answer!As always!
The deer have already claimed a couple of our newly planted shrubs, shame there isn't a deer re-education programme really. I'll tell my husband to put his hopes of wild Venison away.
Thanks again
Claire

Ted
When will the bird scarers be withdrawn from use this year/usually. As the mornings and evenings are getting warmer it would be nice to have some windows open!
Again not a complaint, I understand why you need to use them, although from my observations the deer seem to be eating more of the crop and aren't at all bothered by the scarers!! Are they just free roaming deer or do they 'belong' to anyone?
Thankyou for your reply
Best wishes

Hello all
Just wondering whether anyone could give me a bit of info about the auditory bird scarer's around my house in Brent Pelham!
I understand the need for them whilst the winter sown crops start to grow, but are they a permenant feature or only there for a few weeks?
I would be grateful if anyone could give me the low down. Not a complaint you understand, just an enquiry!
Happy New year to you all!
Thanks
Claire

Bird scarers are normally in use from after autumn drilling until spring time to keep pidgeons of the crops. In Brent Pelham this will be on fields growing oil seed rape which pidgeons find especially palatable and which is very prone to severe or terminal damage by them. This crop is rotated around the farm and at present will not be grown on the same field no more than one year in three. This could change to one in two if fuel shortages increase as rape seed can be used as an alternative to diesel. This, however, depends on the chancelor lowering the tax threshold on biofuels which he seems reluctant to do! Therefore much of it is exported to Germany for biofuel production. The Germans are a step ahead of us in finding alternatives to fossil fuel, partly for historical reasons which I will not dwell on.
The bird scarers fire on a gas system at pre set intervals. They have a device which automatically switches them off during the hours of darkness, but this system has been known to fail which 1.Annoys people and 2.Is a complete waste of gas as pidgeons don`t feed at night. Therefore it is nice to be told if they keep on firing at night.(Tel. 777254).
Occasionally you may hear (during daylight) a louder, deeper boom.If the bird scarers prove ineffective we sometimes fire a report rocket over the heads of large flocks to disperse them. These sound a bit like a hand grenade but are as harmless as jost fireworks.
Bird scarers are a better system than the old one of bird starving which consisted of children paid to run around fields rattling tin cans half filled with stones . Although this was cheaper it had the disadvantage that children couldn`t go to school as bird starving was considered more important. There are recorded incidents of children freezing to death whilst carrying out this task. This practice was discouraged in Brent Pelham.

I would guess that we will stop using bird scarers within the next couple of weeks as the rape is starting to grow fast. We will move them about to the already damaged areas where the birds tend to concentrate. The errant scarer near Borley Green has gone to be re-educated.
As regards the deer these are free ranging, jostly fallow deer and too many muntjack. They belong to whowevers land they are on at the time. They do quite a lot of damage to crops but it is difficult to quantify as they keep moving. The jost obvious damage they do is to young trees . Muntjack seem to specialise in garden shrubs and roses. They also have a great fondness for wild orchids. Muntjack are said to have originally escaped from Woburn during World War 2 and the Fallow when trees fell through assorted park walls during the great gale of 1918. Very occassionaly Red deer are seen having moved from Thetford Chase? There are also Roe deer not far away but they dont seem to mix with the Fallow.
You are correct that they ignore bangs unless the bang comes from a high powered rifle. Such rifles need considerable care to use safely in this part of the world and I do not advise getting one for garden protection purposes.