Thievery

[Sherita]

For those that don't know, I hang my clothes on a line in the backyard rather than use the dryer if I can. Propane is expensive, the dryer heats up the house (no central air, house is a very old farmstead), and the clothesline is a free, renewable energy source. Plus, hanging clothes outside makes them smell SO good.

Anyway, over the last few weeks I have come up missing over 100 clothespins from my line. Just GONE. Yesterday, I hung out a load of clothes and did some errands. When I returned, some of my clothes were on the ground and the clothespins were gone without a trace. So, I did some sleuthing. I grabbed a glass of tea and just sat on the back deck, watching. My main suspect was squirrels. I was wrong.

It is crows. Crows are stealing my clothespins. Right off the line. And to add insult to injury, they are also stealing my socks. It's amusing, but it's aggravating as well, since I had to buy more clothespins yesterday, and I am down several pairs of socks. I am going to have to figure out a way to put a stop to their thievery.

And just to add more hilarity to an already funny situation, the House Wrens are unravelling the tops of the socks that the crows are not stealing, which explains why none of my socks stay up anymore.

Bet you don't have this particular problem to deal with

Gotta love living in the country

[Kristy]

That's hilarious! Can you hang your clothes up in some sort of scarecrow fashion to discourage this? Wonder what they're doing with all those clothes pins?

[allan]

Too bad it isn't a game bird

[Europhyllia]

Oh you NEED to video tape that!

[Sherita]

Kristy, most likely they are making a nest with them. BUT, crows are prone to thievery and will take anything that catches their attention. I have one who is trying to steal the small padlock off of one of my gates. He's been working on it for about a week. Of course, it's locked, so he will never get it, but persistent he is. I'm hoping the clothespin thefts will stop once they complete their nest and get eggs in it. They have stolen nuts, bolts, small tools.......if they like it, and they can pick it up, it will fly away.

Karin, if I had a video camera I would be happy to video this nonsense. In all truth, the house wrens are funnier than the crows. They will spend a lot of time working a thread out of my socks, then yank, yank, yank......move to a different spot on the sock, grab thread, yank some more. Lather, rinse, repeat until they get the thread loose. Then come back and do it again. And again, and again. They have a nest under my carport in my log splitter. I love them to pieces, and they can have all the threads they want.

But the crows need to leave off stealing my clothespins and socks. Crazy birds.

[350gt]

Lol crows stealing socks????

Any chance they get into my garage where my dryer is? That's what I would like to know...

[Sherita]

Tony, the dryer thefts are the sock fairy. I thought everyone knew that, LOL.

I tried tying some bright strips of surveyors tape to my line, thinking the fluttering would startle them away from my clothes. You wanna guess what happened next? I am in a battle of the wits with birds, and they are winning. Not sure what that says about me, but I am thinking it's not good

[350gt]

Lol as you can tell, I don't wash much.....

[jroescher]

Tie a string to the clothespins. Then watch what happens as one flies off when they get to the end of the string.

[350gt]

Lol