Although I was able to capture that photograph of the bird sitting on the Tempest, that’s actually the only time I saw a bird on the sensor since I installed the deterrent. Previously they would sit there often. So I do think it’s working, even though it’s not infallible.
I also have a standard cup and vane anemometer, and often see birds on either the vane or the cups. They’ll swivel around on the vane as if they’re on a Disney ride.
Has anyone tried stringing some monofilament between the spikes over the sensor? Should be thin enough not to affect the solar. They string that in places around here in coastal Florida over outside restaurant seating areas to keep birds from landing in the seating areas.
I just made it through reading this thread and I’m more interested in the fact your stove has a “chicken nugget” setting than i am in seeing WF Birdkiller installations!! LOL!!
A haptic sensor is not a load sensor. It senses vibrations instead. That is why it is difficult to filter out bird landings.
We actually do have a “bird rain” filter along with other algorithms to detect and suppress “false rain” built into the Tempest system, but they are not perfect. We will continue improving these as time permits. We’re also considering adding feedback mechanism for users to let us know when they observe “false rain” to help improve those algorithms.
@lane.dortch Davis McNuggets are delicious! 
You got that right. Let’s ride and poop at the same time!
I seldom have a problem with birds settling on mine since I mounted a plastic mopoke owl to the top of my TV antenna post. There is a resident mopoke living in a tree less than 100m away which takes care of those smart alec birds that work out that it isn’t a real mopoke. I originally got it to prevent the birds depositing on my roof under the TV antenna.
The bird spikes look nice but the Western Blue Birds don’t seem to care. We still get bird rain. I think a cross-over bar (from one socket to another) with a vertical spike in the center might keep them away. The vertical spike is to keep them from perching on the horizontal bar and raining their droppings onto the sensor.
Does something like this look more helpful ? Ultimately you need to block them from perching somehow and hope the spikes are thin enough to not measurably alter the solar readings. Another options is to give them a higher perch to sit on, presumably on the North side of the station.
Looks possible but I’m not sure it would fit the Tempest without touching the rain sensor.
Yes! A wire whisk may be just the ticket. Diagonal cutters may be damaged depending on the wire. I have some hard wire cutters that may do the job!
A mini electric grid fired by a larger solar sensor. Mini zap, no birds.
My thought is to only use 2 loops. If 12 o’clock is facing north, I’m thinking one from 1 o’clock to 8 o’clock, and the second from 11 o’clock to 4 o’clock. Trying to keep the south “window” open for solar data, and not cross the wires over the dead center of the cap…
If you use loops across the top… won’t that just make a perch for them above the top?
that’s what I was thinking.
Besides it will always create shadows on the light sensor and might even interfere with the rain measurements.
With respect to rain… assume a rain drop size of 4 mm diameter and a wire of 2 mm, there is an area with a width of 6 mm where the drop will hit the water. I don’t know the exact diameter of the top of the unit but assume it is 100mm, it will have an area of 7854 mm2. Because you have two wires each having an effect on an area of 6*100=600 mm2, the total effected area = 1200 mm2, which is about 15%. All based on various approximations and assumptions, but it might give you an idea of how much influence you can expect from wire going across the haptic sensor.
I think that a piece of scrap wire can take care of that possibility…although I would rather use razor wire: 
If people are looking for a better deterrent for birds, maybe paint the spikes bright white. Birds seem to see this colour as a danger apparently. Could possibly fix the shadow problems too as white reflects light. https://www.fivestarpainting.com/blog/2019/may/color-a-better-outdoor-bird-and-bug-repellent/#:~:text=One%20color%20that%20the%20majority,them%20to%20avoid%20those%20areas.
If the color of an object effects its shadow, the effect will be very, very tiny. On the other hand having white spikes might increase the measured brightness and UV values, because in the directions other then the sun, the white parts will look brighter than a clear blue sky. So I think it would increase the measured value. The dips in the measurement when a shadow passes over will still be there. A bit less, but at a costs of having wrong measurements even when the shadow isn’t over the measuring window.
