When migrating swallows turned her house and barn into a home from home, Vivien Reynolds thought she had hit upon the ideal deterrent.<\/p>\n
She placed a model of a giant eagle owl high up in the barn, hoping the plastic predator’s golden eyes and sharp talons would scare off the birds.
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\nSadly, the swallows had other ideas. After two days eyeing up Ollie, the fake 3ft owl, a pair of the birds settled on its head.<\/p>\n
They then built a nest out of mud and twigs – where they are now raising a family of five hungry chicks.<\/p>\n
The swallows arrive every April after making a 6,000-mile trip from South Africa, where they spend the winter.<\/p>\n
Mrs Reynolds, 58, of South Hams, Devon, said: “My husband and I adore the swallows and when they arrive we have them absolutely everywhere.<\/p>\n
“But this year we needed some extra storage space in the barn so we put the owl in there to scare them off.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately it took the swallows about two days to work out it wasn’t hostile.”<\/p>\n
Mrs Reynolds has resigned herself to waiting until the birds leave to reclaim her space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When migrating swallows turned her house and barn into a home from home, Vivien Reynolds thought she had hit upon the ideal deterrent. She placed a model of a giant eagle owl high up in the barn, hoping the plastic predator’s golden eyes and sharp talons would scare off the birds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[413],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n