Bombs Away!

As I sat here in front of the computer this morning contemplating what to write on my blog, I spied a robin sitting on the maple tree in my front yard. An idea came to me immediately as I watched this bird.

I have two large maple trees, approximately twenty-five years old in my front yard. They were young trees when I moved into this house in 1985, and they've now grown to the point that they completely cover my front yard in shade when fully dressed out in summer leaves. Because of their size, they are both a natural place for birds to congregate.

I have a driveway on my property, where we can park, one car behind the other. But if my son and I both want to be able to leave at any time without disturbing the other, this necessitates one of us to park to the side of the driveway in the grass, under the tree, so as not to block the other car in.

In the last five years or so, having the trees so close to the driveway has created a nuisance every spring without fail. Because several branches of one tree overhang the driveway and the yard parking spot, our cars become splattered with bird shit from bumper to bumper every spring from birds perching in the branches above. It's not just a couple of splats, either -- it's like both our cars had targets that only birds could see painted on them. There are so many splotches of bird shit on both cars that it looks like the birds went on a dive bombing mission. People point and snicker at both of us when we pull up at intersections to wait for a red light.

There's no point in washing the cars any time in the spring, because the birds would have them recoated within hours. So, we just grit our teeth and deal with it until the trees are fully covered in mature summer leaves and the birds cease dive bombing our cars.

Thoughts?