WXforum.net
Weather Station Hardware => Ambient Weather and Ecowitt and other Fine Offset clones => Topic started by: galfert on October 10, 2018, 09:53:08 PM
-
Purpose: To discuss the methods in dealing with birds for WS-2902A and WS-2000 owners
Don't forget to vote on the poll above ^^^
I made the poll so that you can change your vote should your situation change.
It is possible that this is a non-issue. Maybe birds don't like the WS-2xxx series stations. We can still discuss how we feel about it, or if we did anything preemptively. Please share if you have made modifications.
Other model station owners: Feel free to share your thoughts and recommendations for WS-2xxx owners.
Please include pictures if you've done any modifications to your WS-2xxx.
-
Before I ordered my WS-2902A I was worried about bird issues. I was for sure determined to preemptively add some bird spikes somehow (and maybe even scare tape).
Here I am a few months later and I never did it. But I've never seen a bird on my WS-2902A. I haven't done a maintenance yet though, so I may find evidence of bird droppings. Then I'll for sure need to do something.
Besides bird spikes I learned about bird scare tape. This stuff looks neat and I saw a few videos. The tape is always hanging when I've seen it demonstrated. The tape is reflective and looks like shards of pointy metal but it really is just visual. I was wondering if it would still work if it was just put on around the rim as in taped down but not hanging. It would still reflect and look like sharp edges I think. This was another consideration instead of spikes. Or maybe both.
I'm still concerned and this weighs in the back of my mind whether I should do something. Is it possibile that birds just don't care for our WS-2xxx sensor arrays? Have you seen a bird on your WS-2xxx?
If you were to add spikes how would you do it? I've thought about it and seen solutions from somehow attaching metal pins to using zip ties taped down and pointing up.
Please share your thoughts and ideas and experiences. Is this even a concern for some of you?
-
Funny that the actual outdoor sensor is called an Osprey. :-P
-
I’ve only had mine up since Sunday, but no bird issues so far. And we have a lot of birds on our property, from hummingbirds to the occasional heron. Maybe they don’t like the spinning anemometer? We had severe bird issues in parking garage at my office for a bit. Management company put up a fake owl. It worked. Might work for a PWS as well.
-
The fake owl is a good idea that I've seen other houses around me do to keep birds away. The problem with the fake owl is that my wife and kids love nature and animals. They have a garden with bird feeders and bird bath and they don't want to scare the birds. We have all kinds of birds, from eagles, hawks, real owls, cardinals, bluejays, hummingbirds, and a bunch others little ones that I just couldn't name. I'm not into the birds.
When I brought up the scare tape to my family they freaked. I thought maybe if the scare tape was just wrapped around the rain guage it would work and not scare them away from the rest of the garden.
It is funny how our outdoor unit is called the Osprey. Thanks Sir_MAK for pointing that out.
I need a solution that would work just for the senor array and not the entire yard. At least maybe I think I need a solution. Maybe we are jumping the gun and birds just don't care for our sensor arrays. That is why I posted the poll above, to see if other people have a bird problem with this sensor array or not.
In a way I don't want to make the modification unless I really need it. So I'm kinda waiting for the first bird to then do something about it. Otherwise we won't know if it was necessary or not. Again I think if everyone participates in the poll we get a better idea. It might be sufficient for me to do something if someone with the same type of bird that I have around tells us a given bird is making a mess in their rain guage. Post some pictures of birds on your sensor array so we can identify the bird if this happens.
The idea about aluminum foil strip sounds a lot like the scare tape. It is just a DIY variation I suppose.
-
No modifications here. I’ve had bird droppings (everywhere, not just the rain gauge), but I’ve never seen any birds hanging out near the station, but then again it’s only 5-6 feet off of the ground.
Spiders, however, love setting up shop inside the rain gauge. Their webs are strong enough to hold the tipper in place, it won’t budge even if it’s full of water during the heaviest of rains. I experienced this last month during a strong thunderstorm, and while trying to clean out the webs during a brief lull I got to witness ball lightning, the strangest weather phenomenon I’ve ever seen, but that’s another story.
-
Interesting about the spiders. I noticed yesterday that there were bits of spider web on the underside of my rain gauge, and it had only been up three days. Will have to keep an eye out for spiders getting inside.
-
I had never heard of ball lighting before. Looked it up. Neat!
The most incredible thing just happened. One of the hawks around us came to visit. I've seen this guy around before and he/she has been on my chimney and roof gutters before. But I've never seen him/her land on the bird feeder pole before. I'm glad my weather station as you can see in the picture was not the first choice to land on. Makes me wonder though if my weather station could be next for this fella. Once I get rid of this temporary pole and set the flag pole up my sensor array will be much higher up and may become even more inviting. Now that is a lot of bird!
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
-
nice hawk photo!
so far, no birds have even come close to mine, in the foothills of Phoenix mountains, and, I have the pole mounted near my barbque station not far from myhouse...tons of all sorts of birds here, but so far, so good
-
I found a thread in the "other hardware" sub forum discussing this issue with an Ecowitt station, which is a clone of our Ambient stations. We'll rather I should be saying Ecowitt and Ambient are both Fine Offset clones.
Check out the photos of the spike mod. Very nice.
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=34971.0
-
Relevant link to other post with DIY bird spike solution. Thanks to Buford T. Justice. I'm sure when he was building this solution he was thinking about the birds and saying, "What we are dealing with here is total lack of respect..."
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=35387.0
-
Relevant link to other post with DIY bird spike solution. Thanks to Buford T. Justice. I'm sure when he was building this solution he was thinking about the birds and saying, "What we are dealing with here is total lack of respect..."
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=35387.0
=D>
-
Buford T. Justice,
So according to the last poll change you selected that you made this modification preemptively and you hadn't experienced yet any real bird issues.
I'm holding out till I find the first evidence of bird doings before I take action, as I want to know if the solution is warranted. But your solution seems pretty good to me and one that I would follow.
-
My new weather station has only been up since the 20th. My old one, an Ambient Weather WS2905, did get bird crap in it a few times during the year. I was replacing the sensor batteries every 3-4 weeks so I would check it and clean it as needed. I figured since the new one is mostly solar-powered with the lithium Energizers lasting up to 2 years, I would be on the roof less often so I took the initiative to keep the birds away. $4 for the zip ties and free peace of mind.
-
When no rain is expected (that never happens here....), my 8" Rainwise is bird proofed by a large stove pot cover put on upside down and I throw a big rock on top as an anchor. If it's uncovered and I see an unwelcome perch, 1 pump from the Daisy 880S discourages further visits.
-
The use of bird spikes around the perimeter of any rail collector seems to me to "violate" the CWOP standards for rain collectors. The guidelines want anything that could cause interference or splatter to be a distance from the rim of the collector that is at least half the height of the object. Bird spikes have a distance away of zero. (Poles that rise above the top of the rain collector rim would also be an issue, in my thinking.)
The weather station I am involved with is a Onset HOBO. Their rain collector has a removable metal top section with an inch or so vertical inside and then the taper of the funnel starts. It is literally so sharp on the top of the rim that you have to be careful handling it. I think that's to keep birds from wanting to perch on it. Wouldn't a sharp edge work on other designs? On plastic, it should be easy to use a hobby knife sideways at a high angle to scrape down the top of the inside edge to make the rim sharper.
The survey seems to be showing most people don't have a bird issue, so they would have to do anything.
Rich K.
-
The use of bird spikes around the perimeter of any rail collector seems to me to "violate" the CWOP standards for rain collectors.
I really don't see how tiny diameter spikes could effect accuracy even close enough to add/subtract from the basic errors inherent with tippers as is.
-
Havtrail,
I've contemplated the same thought you had that bird spikes could affect rain collection measurements. But I reasoned that if it truly were an issue then Davis would not have incorporated the solution in the VP2. The VP2 only gained bird spikes rather recently circa late 2015 or early 2016 I think. I'm sure that they tested the solution well.
That said there are ways to do it wrong. For example this below link DIY solution to me is the wrong approach (apologies to rods55555, sorry but not feeling it) because the diameter of the collector is being changed and even though there is a small gap there is a great chance of water splatter and jumping off from being collected. I feel this regardless of rods55555's positive comparison results, as I think different types of rain (larger drops or faster rate) could have different results.
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=32543.0
I do agree with you though when I see a rain collector bolted to a pole that continues to extend up for the anemometer. If the wind is right then that pole during a rain shower could be blocking the rain collection.
-
Everyone, make sure you are sitting down...I paid $155.00 for my factory bird spike kit. #-o I am not rich by any means. The wife will NEVER know about it. You guys are privy 8-)
-
Everyone, make sure you are sitting down...I paid $155.00 for my factory bird spike kit. #-o I am not rich by any means. The wife will NEVER know about it. You guys are privy 8-)
I'm interested in what a $155 bird spike kit looks like. Please share pictures or a link or a model.
Incidentally I just recently completed my initial 3 month maintenance* and I found no evidence of bird droppings. Hence until I see a bird or droppings on my station I don't think I'll be doing any modifications. It really is looking like for some reason our station design does not require any bird spikes. Maybe it is the proximity of the spinning anemometer that birds don't like. There also has not been any reported bird issues with the WS-2902A outdoor sensor array... yet.
*If you haven't seen my other thread regarding the maintenance that is recommended every 3 months please check it out.
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=35446.0
-
Here is a link.
https://store.vaisala.com/us/bird-kit-for-wxt530-series/212793/dp
-
Here is a link.
https://store.vaisala.com/us/bird-kit-for-wxt530-series/212793/dp
Nice. With that bird kit for the Vaisala WXT530 series, I'm wondering if less is more. There are only 6 spikes total for what appears to be a standard 4 inch diameter rain gauge. So for anyone doing the DIY zip tie mod maybe having twice as many spikes is unnecessary. That way there is less possible interference with rain in windy weather.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Vaisala Bird Spikes
-
Everyone, make sure you are sitting down...I paid $155.00 for my factory bird spike kit. #-o I am not rich by any means. The wife will NEVER know about it. You guys are privy 8-)
I'm interested in what a $155 bird spike kit looks like. Please share pictures or a link or a model.
Incidentally I just recently completed my initial 3 month maintenance* and I found no evidence of bird droppings. Hence until I see a bird or droppings on my station I don't think I'll be doing any modifications. It really is looking like for some reason our station design does not require any bird spikes. Maybe it is the proximity of the spinning anemometer that birds don't like. There also has not been any reported bird issues with the WS-2902A outdoor sensor array... yet.
*If you haven't seen my other thread regarding the maintenance that is recommended every 3 months please check it out.
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=35446.0
put it down to luck , it will happen one day and doesnt neccesary mean the bird(s) is perched on your weather station it may just be flying over, this time of year all the local starlings gather for their annual display literally thousands of them fly over creating dancing patterns as they swing from side to side if your underneath the fly over your will get crapped on and your weather station will so spikes become irrelevant ..
here is what they create normally around sunset , took this in a district here in Istanbul we were covered in crap , basically iso1200 and kept the finger on the trigger to capture the moment .
ps thats the most expensive bird spike i have ever seen was the cost based on for the time it took make it because it sure doesnt look worth the cost by the photo..
(https://res.cloudinary.com/brian-underdown/image/upload/v1541611098/10873419_10153088615540039_2097281567312475025_o_xx14lb.jpg)
-
Here is a link.
https://store.vaisala.com/us/bird-kit-for-wxt530-series/212793/dp
Nice. With that bird kit for the Vaisala WXT530 series, I'm wondering if less is more. There are only 6 spikes total for what appears to be a standard 4 inch diameter rain guage. So for anyone doing the DIY zip tie mod maybe having twice as many spikes is unnecessary. That way there is less possible interference with rain in windy weather.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Vaisala Bird Spikes
i did this for the weatherflow gear based on a idea by someone called hankster
(https://res.cloudinary.com/brian-underdown/image/upload/v1525149247/1_q6x5j0.jpg)
-
Weather 34,
Those bird spikes are seriously dangerous looking... LOL! They appear to be fondue forks if I'm correct. I can just hear it now, "Honey, have you seen the fondue forks?"
-
yes you are correct stolen from my wifes kitchen as she has about 30 of em she hasnt noticed.
tried cocktail,wooden sticks but would become soft in rainfall and eventually snap
plastic cable ties would not last long here in peak uv periods here would turn soft in the heat and any wind present they would just flop over and once cooled down turn brittle
-
Ambient Weather seems to have on their website the same looking bird spikes as Ecowitt. Seems to not be in stock yet but the order page is up.
https://www.ambientweather.com/amwewsbispki.html
-
I have had occasional bird issues on my old sensor array and took the opportunity to apply the ecowitt bird spikes when I got my new HP2550/WS2000 system.
So far so good, no erroneous rainfall counts which must mean the birds are staying away.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
-
Today I noticed that my bird spikes had fallen off. The entire thing just slipped down. A few things could have caused this. First I was not really confident that I had been able to apply enough force when I first installed them a few months ago. Second I installed them in the Winter. Now that we are having warmer temperatures I'm not sure if that affected it and the heat somehow enabled them to slide down as Metal (the band) expands with hotter temperatures. Also we've started to have some heavy rains and maybe the force of the rain pushed them down.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
In any case it is all there and I was able to make it tight again. This time I changed my installation method. Rather than try and tighten while in place I tightened it with the ring removed (just a bit at a time and test). Then I slipped it up from the bottom of the funnel to check for tightness. I repeated the process confident that I could still make it a bit tighter and still be able to slip it on. Now it feels much tighter than ever.
-
FWIW - I've never seen a bird sitting on my weather station since erecting it four months ago today. It might be explained that there are many other nearby perches for them that don't have a spinning anemometer.
-
WS-2902A Osprey Array Weather Station Attacked by Hawk!
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
I wish I had a better video quality of this incident. I'll need to work on fixing my camera exposure. But here (in video link below) you can see that bird spikes don't mean squat to a big hawk. Looks like it perched on the wind vane for a couple seconds. It then swoops down and catches an anole (lizard) and then flies back to the weather station! Sure my rain gauge is safe from the hawk so it seems. But I might find a anole parts in the rain gauge though. And what about that wind vane abuse? You can see in the video that the anemometer keeps spinning with the hawk perched on the wind vane.
YouTube video link:
https://youtu.be/DHViA6B0_oU
After this incident I think bird spikes are worth it. I think it prevented a rain gauge landing.
-
WS-2902A Osprey Array Weather Station Attacked by Hawk!
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
I wish I had a better video quality of this incident. I'll need to work on fixing my camera exposure. But here you can see that bird spikes don't mean squat to a big hawk. Looks like it perched on the wind vane for a couple seconds. It then swoops down and catches an anole (lizard) and then flies back to the weather station! Sure my rain gauge is safe from the hawk so it seems. But I might find a anole parts in the rain gauge though. And what about that wind vane abuse? You can see in the video that the anemometer keeps spinning with the hawk perched on the wind vane.
https://youtu.be/DHViA6B0_oU
After this incident I think bird spikes are worth it. I think it prevented a rain gauge landing.
Wow, that pipe is...flexible :o
Regards
-
Not sure why you had to Photoshop the still image, but the differences in the perspective, lighting, and focus of the two objects; i.e., the bird and the PWS, aren't very convincing.
The video I believe.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/DHViA6B0_oU[/youtube]
Boing goes the mast!
Whatever happened to your telepole?
-
Yep pipe is flexible as it is just a temporary PVC pipe. I don't get much wind and I never see it sway really and so rain gauge isn't affected. The Telepole is still in the box in my garage. I'll get around to it soon.
BTW - I wasn't trying to be convincing with the photoshop image, I said so in the post. It was just for fun and because I didn't have a good video image. It also sensationalized the incident as most YouTubers do with click bait thumbnails. So I was going for that angle. I'm not monetizing the video. Again it was just for fun.
So nobody wants to talk about the bird? That is the first evidence I've seen of a bird on a WS-2902-ARRAY.
-
Damn, that's unlucky.
Must be an Osprey!
We have plenty of raptors flying around here but they prefer to stay high and dive on their unsuspecting prey, very rare to see them at ground level or perched.
-
I have to say that I'm rather disappointed with Ambient Weather.
The Ambient 2902 birdspikes are now back in stock.
But the price has been raised from $5.99 to $14.49 (but with free shipping)
Fortunately Ecowitt has them for $8.99
Just another reason to send more of my business to Ecowitt
-
i know this is an old thread, but thought I would post my situation
we have a lot of birds in our garden, encouraged with various bird feeders & a few trees. We often get birds on trim along top of conservatory, all areas of the bungalow roof, anything that they can stand on really
Having looked into getting a Davis Vue I saw they had bird spikes, and so I thought that would be a good idea to have a detoriant.
Following some advice here, i added some tie-wraps
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]