bird scarer

Birds are great to watch in the garden but sometimes they can be tempted to eat your seeds, fruit or even young plants. Keep them away from your crops and brighten up your vegetable patch at the same time with this pretty bird scarer.

You will need

• ✿ 4 bamboo canes
• ✿ garden twine or string
• ✿ long length of thin ribbon
• ✿ old CD
• ✿ lengths of wider ribbon and sparkly tinsel
• ✿ silver milk-bottle tops
• ✿ pencil and modeling clay

Step 1

Take the bamboo canes and push two of them into the ground at either end of your row of crops to form upside-down “V”-shapes. If you find this difficult, then ask a grown-up to help you.

Step 2

Tie the bamboo canes tightly together using the garden twine or string in a center-of-eight pattern. Again, ask your grown-up to help you tie the twine or string really tightly.

Step 3

Measure off a piece of the thin ribbon so that it is approximately 8in (20cm) longer than the gap between the two bamboo-cane supports.

Try this... Birds will get used to your bird scarer after a few days, so why not change around some of the items on the ribbon? You could try adding strips of aluminum foil or plastic bags-anything that is shiny or moves about will scare away birds.

Step 4

Tie one end of the ribbon to the first set of bamboo canes before threading on the old CD and then tie the other end to the second set of bamboo canes. Remember to ask a grown-up for permission to use the CD first.

Step 5

Tie the wider ribbons and pieces of tinsel onto the central ribbon, making sure that you space these out at regular intervals. Make holes in the bottle tops by pushing the pencil through them into a ball of modeling clay. Thread the bottle tops onto some ribbons, which have been knotted at one end, and then tie them onto the string. The fluttering ribbons and tinsel will scare away any birds.