During the ripening season of cherries and strawberries, the garden plot begins to swarm with starlings who try to eat the entire crop. To protect your garden from them, you need to make a scarecrow that can repel pests.
Materials:
- PET bottles 2 l;
- polystyrene foam, foam rubber or other moisture-resistant insulation;
- scotch;
- washing conditioner cap;
- self-tapping screws;
- pole.
The process of making a stuffed bird
To make the bird's tail and wings, you need to prepare 3 sheets of plastic from bottles. To do this, their bottom and necks are cut off, after which the resulting tubes are unraveled lengthwise. The cut bottles are leveled and secured on a flat base along two edges. They can be pressed with clamps through the rail or simply screwed with self-tapping screws. Then the sheets are heated with a hairdryer. As a result of heating, they become flat and stop curling into a pipe.
The scarecrow's tail and wings are cut out from the prepared sheets. It is important to imitate feathers so that they then flutter in the wind.Without the talent of an artist, it is better to print the outlines of the wings and tail on a sheet of paper, and then cut out a template based on them.
You can find such blanks on the Internet by entering a pattern of a kite imitating a bird into the search bar.
To imitate the body of a bird, a whole bottle is used. The trimmed neck left over from making the sheets is glued to the bottom with tape. It will serve as the basis for attaching the scarecrow to the pole. Then the tail and wings are glued with tape. Since they do not have sufficient rigidity, foam rubber, polystyrene foam, or scraps of pipe insulation must be placed under them. Thanks to this, they will be able to keep their shape and not sag.
To make the bird's head, you need to screw a fabric softener cap onto the bottle cap that serves as the stuffed animal's body. In the latter, a hole is made at the end into which a 4-5 cm long hose or tube cut along the length is inserted.
This will simulate a beak. You can also draw eyes on the top cover.
Next, a pole is inserted into the neck attached to the scarecrow. It is secured to the side with a self-tapping screw.
Then it needs to be inserted into the ground above the strawberries or tied to the branches above the crown of the cherry tree. When exposed to wind, the scarecrow's wings flutter in the wind. From the outside it looks like a predator hovering in the air looking for prey, so they will try to stay away from it.
