Residents of Bristol's salubrious Downs Grasslands neighbourhood have had enough of bird droppings on their cars, opting to lay anti-bird spikes on several large trees in the area.
The spikes have been fitted to two beach trees in the grounds of Essendene House and Heathfield House. The area is known for its costly homes and equally costly cars, many of which are parked under the trees' branches - leaving them open to aerial assault from pigeons and other urban avians.
Locals concerned about their BMWs and Mercedes being unceremoniously decorated by bird droppings appear to support the introduction of the spikes. A wooden owl had previously been added in an attempt to dissuade less exotic species from perching in the trees, but they ended up dropping the idea.
The Daily Mail reports one anonymous resident as saying: 'The spikes are solely to protect the cars, there is no other reason.
'There is a big problem with bird droppings around here. They can really make a mess of cars, and for some reason the birds do seem to congregate around this area.
'We did try other methods to scare off the birds.
'I think we had a wooden bird of prey in the branches, but that didn't seem to do anything.'
However, the spikes have ruffled feathers around Bristol.
Twitter user Jennifer Garrett wrote: 'Our war on wildlife: now birds are not allowed in trees...?! Pigeon spikes spotted in Clifton, Bristol above a car park. Has anyone seen this before? How is it allowed?!'
Her comment was re-tweeted over 200 times. The sentiments of her tweet were no doubt echoed by the local pigeon community.
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