We ventured to the garden store to get some fall decor, and they had a wide assortment of owl merch.
This birdhouse was the first to catch my eye. It was next to some nice looking birdhouses made of different colored Trex type material. I wonder what the heat retention of Trex is compared to wood. They would certainly last longer and be easier to clean.
This thirst trap squirrel made me feel uncomfortable, like I walked in on an inappropriate personal moment. 😮
What the actual fuck? What even is that? Why would anyone make, let alone buy this? I have so many questions and honestly I’m not sure I want them all answered…
That’s exactly what I thought!
Someone had to design it, someone made a mold, someone ordered a few thousand of them, and very stores said I need to stock this item.
Bewildering! 🫨
Why do you call it thirst trap?
A thirst trap is a type of social media post intended to entice viewers sexually. It refers to a viewer’s “thirst”, a colloquialism likening sexual frustration to dehydration, implying desperation, with the afflicted individual being described as “thirsty”. The phrase entered into the lexicon in the late 1990s, but is most related to Internet slang that developed in the early 2010s.
These were more St. Patrick’s Day than fall.
Sparrow: omfg you live in that nightmare owl house?
Starling: Oh yeah, it’s great, the bluejays won’t come anywhere near us.
Large and small wooden chime. These made a pleasant sound. The large one might have been my favorite of all the chimes for the cute design and the pleasant sound.
These, on the other hand, are adorable.
They were really nice. If I didn’t think they’d disturb my other backyard birds, I’d be very tempted.
Some small GHO on a stick.
I liked this little trio.
Another metal chime. I liked this owl design.
This intricate metal chime was pretty nice.
A charming statue.
Dreamcatcher
Bunch of little ones with a wire on the bottom to pike it into something.
These remind me too much of all the cursed AI art posing as real…
Omg, the furby I had was supposed to be an owl! I never thought of it that way before seeing this picture!
This large GHO has sprung wings so it flaps in the breeze. It was pretty big and impressive looking.
Would that work, though? Wouldn’t the birds be afraid of the “owl”?
They figure it out after a bit of time of them not moving.
Do Fake Owls and Other Decoys Work?
A study by Linfield College found that songbirds are afraid of owl decoys. Researchers swapped out owl decoys for a cardboard box of the same size in an oak woodland within Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Then they measured how often birds visited feeders in the vicinity of the objects and found they were much less likely to go near the feeder when the owl decoy was stationed nearby; however, they weren’t scared one bit by the cardboard box. The birds did wise up over time, though. After a few days, they realized the owl was fake and returned to the feeder.
The feet are upside down.
They should have had a branch for a perch there. I feel this is the look they were going for to have it make sense:
Okay, I can see that now.
It’s that extra leg bones that makes everything backwards to our legs. Awkward birdhouse anatomy doesn’t help make it any more intuitive! 😉
If it is sitting on its butt with legs out in front, the toes would stick up. If the legs are down holding a perch, then toes would point down. Since it’s a birdhouse, it would probably be mounted on a perch-like structure, so the feet are correct. But when it’s on a shelf, it looks like the bird is sitting.
The best solution would be to overhang the feet from the front of the shelf as if it were gripping the edge; then it would provide a better perspective.
I guess there really is some psychology to product facing… 🤔
Yes, that would work.
