Glancing at the horizon several days ago I noticed a bird behaving oddly. It was a long-distance sighting as the activity occurred across the canyon in a nearby neighborhood. The bird was large and repetitively swooped over a lawn area with its wings fully extended as if preparing to grab prey. But its movements were erratic and its wingspan appeared wider than the hawks that frequent our area. I moved on to other things but, hours later, I noticed it again behaving similarly in the same area. I pulled out both my cell phone and my Canon, using their zoom features to get a closer look. Here's a very short video documenting what I saw:
The camera's still shots cleared up matters a bit.
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| That bird is plastic and attached to pole |
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| Its erratic movements were dictated by the wind. When there was no wind, there was no movement. |
Another photo taken at a different time showed that there was more than one "species" of bird swooping over the area.
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| This one was blue rather than brown. The structures in the distance are part of the Port of Los Angeles complex. |
The "birds" have been flying for about a week. The question now is why? Do you have any theories?
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| The birds soared above this area underneath a tall flagpole, bordered by a sharp slope. The "lawn" is also fake - I saw it being installed a year or 2 ago. |
All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
So odd...I would guess that they are scare decoys, but can't imagine the plastic lawn has a huge wildlife problem?
ReplyDeleteExactly. That's what confuses me too.
DeleteI think whoever is in charge, doesn't know how to "nature".
ReplyDeleteI've wondered if that homeowner is a golfer who uses his back garden for putting practice. While I've can't say I've ever seen him with a golf club in hand, he replaced his sod lawn at least twice before he installed the fake turf. I'm guessing he's trying to distract birds and/or other critters from his pristine plastic lawn but why would they even bother with fake grass?
DeleteThey are used to scare away smaller birds like sparrows.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to believe there are any birds even attracted to that space but then I can only see a small slice of that back garden.
DeleteYou've reminded me of the morning Andrew was watching a large bird, maybe an owl, that had perched on a utility pole a block or so away. He was so intrigued he had to go check it out, only to discover it was a piece of metal attached to the pole.
ReplyDeleteHa! I had a similar experience a couple of years ago with an owl sitting on a rooftop up the street. I finally zoomed in on that one with a camera too to reveal the truth.
DeleteHuh, interesting. What the others say, and what you've said make sense. Some kind of decoy for the golfer's sod area. "What's going on with that bird?" ... indeed. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI wonder how long the guy's going to leave it there? It's sad looking when there's no wind and it's just hanging there ;)
DeleteIn my area these are sold as kid's kites. It looks like these were just put on shorter strings. We live in a windy area so you see this all the time with the kites attached to poles when kids aren't flying them.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw it in closeup, I expected it was intended to operate as a kite. Why they've anchored it below the giant flagpole I don't understand but I suspect they want to deter some kind of creature. Maybe the raccoons are trying to dig up the fake lawn! (Although raccoons are pretty smart and probably wouldn't be fooled for long.)
DeleteI searched on "bird kite on a pole"; they are sold as deterrents to scare song birds from crops. Eye roll...
ReplyDeleteWell, I can't see all of that backyard. Maybe they have a tomato plant in a pot ;)
DeleteYeah, the only thing I can think of is that they have a small fruit bush or something that we can't see that the birds or rodents are taking. Otherwise, who knows. Maybe it's for entertainment.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's working as it's there day in and day out. It's sited in my direct view when I'm at the kitchen sink and it's frankly getting annoying seeing it swooping about most of the day.
DeleteHa, fun to read the comments... I wonder if they have fruit trees or bushes? Eliza
ReplyDeletePossibly, although the fake grass doesn't scream "garden lover" to me, Eliza. But then the decision to replace real grass with plastic turf make some sense (at least economically) given the prior decisions to repeatedly replace the live grass time and again.
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