Ask Clay: Why is a mockingbird dive-bombing my car?

Today’s question:

Recently a mockingbird started hanging around our car and is making a mess of it. We have tried covering the mirrors. It just started on the windows. Now we have to cover the entire car with tarps to keep it from pecking at the car, leaving foot prints on the windshield and messing on everything. I have tried looking online for solutions to our problem but so far have drawn a blank. Could you please help us?

Boy, that’s a tough one. Once a mockingbird gets an idea in its head it is kind of hard to sway it. They’re tenacious.

I think maybe you’ve already hit on the best solution — covering the car with a tarp. But there are a few other possibilities.

The simplest solution might be to just park the car someplace else. That, however, might not be practical, and there is always the chance the mockingbird, if it is truly enamored of your vehicle, might relocate with it.

I don’t have much faith in those plastic owls, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try. Look for one with lighted, moving eyes.

Try this: Use some cardboard to make a silhouette of a hawk and hang it with some fishing line on a branch near the mockingbird’s tree. That might do the trick.

You could get one of those powerful squirt guns and hope to hit the bird a couple of times, but that would pretty much require constant surveillances.

Why do sports team owners feel compelled to wear suits and ties at games? Does the NFL, for example, have a rule regarding this?

Try not to worry about it.