We just put up bird netting on the bronzes on the Memorial arch at Grand
Army Plaza, in scenic Brooklyn.  Why are you specing stainless steel?  The
contractor, (Birdmaster, which whom I've worked on a couple of projects)
suggested only the black poly knotted mesh as it had to stretch and lay all
over the contours of the figural groups (maybe yours doesn't).  I was pretty
unconvinced at first that this was going to be a good idea but he offered to
put it up on one for approval before we committed to it and frankly it looks
fine.  It is completely invisible on the flat areas on the spandrels and
above the figures.  The mesh on the groups is visible at some angles but not
as badly as I thought it would and certainly it's less of a mess than the
pigeon droppings it replaces.

As to your question, there are sparrows all over the city and they do nest
in the same kinds of places as the flying dirt bags.  I have been watching
them on the same monument.  They stay away from the flying rats but will
apparently replace them if they are dispersed.  I tried to get peregrine
falcons nesting there instead of the bird proofing but according to the
natural resource folks the site wasn't high enough.  Still, I did had the
pleasure of watching a red tailed kite swoop down and eat one of the grey
disease rags.

When I lived in Soho in the 70's there was an immense metal air vent running
through our loft from the bathroom to the air shaft we called the outside.
This was in the pre-designer days.  Pigeons had gotten into it and were
living inside the shaft, their nasty claws skittering across the sheet metal
and their incessant cooing driving me and my bohemian roommates mad.  I used
to shut them up by periodically heaving a shoe or anything else at hand at
the shaft. halting the noise and releasing a fine shower of pigeon filth
onto our jury-rigged kitchen.  One day. having had more than we could stand,
my brother and I ripped the whole thing down, scattering fossilized pigeon
crap and bones all over the place.  It was during the final game of the '78
(I think) series, the one where Reggie Jackson hit 3 consecutive homers.  We
were able to hold off until he hit the last one before we began puking our
guts out for the next 2 days.  It wasn't until years later that I learned
that histoplasmosis, an illness caused by the germs in bird crap, typically
causes blindness and death.

Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: Ralph Walter <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, January 04, 2000 4:14 PM
Subject: Re: Boids, Doity, Filthy, Disgusting, Boids


>Hello, Boys and Girls!
>
>Sharpshooter has convinced me to tell it to the Pinheads, so here goes:
>
>I have a project under construction  (the New York Athletic Club) in
>Manhattan that includes installation of birdproofing netting.  I spec'd
3/4"
>stainless steel mesh (to be installed horizontally in a couple of
instances),
>having been told [after extensive research a couple years back, which I now
>cannot recreate] that 2" was going to let sparrows and other little shitty
>birds through, while it kept big shitty flying rats (pigeons, to the bird
>fanciers among us) the hell out.
>
>The Contractor bid the 3/4" mesh, and now tells me that the 3/4" mesh is
only
>available woven (rather than welded; he claims that such a small mesh is
too
>small for the welding machine they use to weld the 2" stuff), so it will be
>difficult to keep intact; will weigh (and deflect) much more than the 2"
>mesh; and lastly, the only real problem (bird-wise, that is) we have here
in
>the Center of the Universe is pigeons, and there aint no damn sparrows
>anyway.  And, furthermore, if any sparrows show up, he'll dismantle (or
>powerwash) their nests away, which evidently has a deterrent effect on the
>little bastards.
>
>So, does anybody know (other than Sharpshooter, who claims not to know, but
>may be playing possum like he did in the subway those many months ago)
>whether our avian problems are indeed limited to pigeons; whether there's a
>source for welded small-mesh stainless steel that'll keep all these fuckers
>out; whether if I can get what I want, I will have created the world's
>nicest, cleanest, tightly-gridded toilet for the pigeons to s(h)it on and
>through, where they might be unable to s(h)it comfortably on 2" mesh and
>therefore take their business elsewhere; or what the hell I should do?
>
>Your assistance will be much appreciated.
>
>Ralph
>