Question
Hi!  I live in Albany, NY, and beginning last fall the birds around here started pecking our lawn to pieces.  Earlier this spring we applied grub control, now there are no signs of insects, but the birds keep pecking.  I asked at a couple of nurseries, they said if insects are really not a problem they don't know what to recommend.  What would you suggest to keep the birds away?  Thanks!!

Answer
I doubt the birds can do any serious damage. There are many beneficial insects in the lawn in addition to turf damaging insects. The beneficial insects include earthworms which are a key foodsource for most surburbian bird species. Earthworms are also extremely beneficial to the lawn as it aerate the soil and improve the OM contents.

Mow the lawn high (2.5-3.5" tall after cutting) and mow frequently. fertilize the lawn in late spring, early fall and late fall, and if you water manually, water infrequently but deeply (such as once weekly for 2 hours) rather than frequent, shallow applications (daily for 15 minutes). The above horticultural practices will result in a dense lawn which birds should not be able to alter significantly.

If you have problems with the lawn, it is likely due to wrong mowing, fertilizing, or watering patterns, or due to excessive shade or compaction. Compaction can be eliminated by core aerating twice annually (spring and fall). You can rent core aerators at equipment rental stores. Shade (less than 6 hours full sun) can be challenging to grow grass, even without birds.

My gut feeling is that the birds are not the root cause of your problem. If you have a healthy lawn, it will easily withstand birds pecking. If it is not healthy, birds would not matter much in the grand scheme anyway.

The traditional way of scaring birds was using scare crows. You can buy scare crows which has a sensor and operate together with your garden hose. if the line of sight is broken, the scare crow will spray water at the intruder. It is often sold against deer. You may consider such a contraption (or a regular stationary scare crow) if birds continue to be an eye sore.

Note: once birds get into a habit of visiting a lawn, they will likely stay there until their food source dries up. If you had a grub problem in past, which has now been solved, using a scare crow can be used to break their visiting habits.

Note: grubs may not show in the soil now because they are deeply burried and when the eventually surface, they are too big to be controlled. the best time to apply grub control is in june/july which will target the next season generation (young ones). It may thus take another year or so before the birds find out that no grubs are in the lawn.