Having lived in the countryside all my life, we chose when we moved here to our little corner of France to continue in the same vein as the wildlife here is so wonderful and we love the peace and quiet. However, we have been having a few issues of late with the tits (of the blue and coal variety!) They are our alarm clocks at the crack of dawn this year.
Do you remember back in 1970's and 1980's when milk was delivered to the door by a milkman and left on the doorstep for you to collect the next morning? Do you also remember that after a while the canny little birds got to know how to open the bottles and take out the top part of the cream so we all had to put cups over the lids? Well the birds are doing something similar here now. We obviously do not have milk delivered, but we are having an issue with the tits pecking at the windows and taking out the putty around the glass!
Initially I thought it was that at certain times of the day they could see their reflection in the glass and were trying to flirt with themselves, but it seems not. It is now happening all day and the windows are looking a mess with dried putty all over the sills and floor. I am worried that the glass will fall out if a window bangs closed. With winter coming we do not want to have any more draughts than we already have.
Has anyone got any helpfull suggestions? (apart from closing the shutters all day!)
Thanks in advance
See if your poolman could have a word with your carpenter about fitting just the double glazed units into the original frames to preserve the look if they are wide enough. I had a project a while ago to replace doors on a listed building and via the Tech people at Pilkinton we managed to get gas filled glazing units with a tiny spacer 10 or 12mm so 18 or 20mm overall into the new copies of the old frames and comply with building regs in the UK (R2.5 spec)
Thanks for the suggestion John, I will mention it to my pool man (husband!) I am sure he will have some somewhere.
As for the putty it is so old I am not sure what its made of, but it is coming off in wedges about 1cm at a time.......perhaps its time to think about replacing the windows one at a time for more modern double glazed units, but I do so love the original windows with their old fashioned bar closings and pretty handle in the centre. I think a new kitchen is more of a priority for me rather than new windows though and I can't have both!
Alison, Julian's post mentions Aluminium sulphate, that is what is used in swimming pool flocculent so it maybe easier to get locally or you may already have some.
There is an epoxy putty as apposed to linseed oil based which is probably what the tits are after.
I didn't get past the title but I agree completely
Thanks Julian we will give the solution a try. We would prefer not to put tape all around the windows as when we remove it all the putty will come away too! We know the windows need replacing but cannot afford to do that right now.