I swear that I am the worlds largest collector of bird baths. It's embarrassing how many I have. But hey! Some people collect lawn gnomes. Everyone here is right - any shallow dish can be a bird bath. Some of mine are serving platters, others are terra-cotta pot bottoms. I'm big on dishes of water set about the garden. The two most important features in a bath IMO are shallow and a textured bottom. A bath with a slick, glazed surface birds won't get in. They'll drink from the sides but not get in it. Some people use pebbles or rocks to compensate for this but that's harder to clean. My latest must-haves are small cast stone baths. You can see some here Small Cast Stone Cement Bird Baths. I have about four of them now, set beside shrubs about my garden and am crazy about them. Taller styles are here: Tall Cast Stone Cement Bird Baths but it's the little guys I love. I have had no problems with anything knocking them down. Their biggest drawback is you can't use them in winter, but the reinforced cement makes them stronger than regular cement. The bottoms are rough, birds love them, and you just scrub them out with a brush and some plain dish soap, use the hose. People ask me about them all the time and where I got them, that sort of thing. They come in lots of color choices which is nice!

OJ, I'm sorry for the loss of your cousin. I hope you were able to meet up with the others from that area while you were there, as you'd hoped. I'm not following what you mean in your last post ("How can we let this (cold) story do the same??"). Do you mean how can we let this story die? If so, I guess I think it should ... the "15 minutes of fame" has about run out. I don't think they should get the publicity that they're seeking, because it's not the miracle that they, and some of the media, are claiming. It's a woman having a baby (ok, that in itself is a miracle of nature, but you know what I mean :-) I know a transgendered person. Was male, became female. And to me she is a she and there's no question about it. She went all the way, had the surgeries, is a woman. I applaud her for the courage it took to do so. Can you imagine the social prejudices she had to endure throughout the course of the change, and even still? She must have been very, very sure of what she wanted if she went through all that. And now she's happy. How wonderful! But in this case, Thomas didn't do that. Physically he's still a woman doing what most women do - having a baby. (OJ, regarding your PS, I don't know if you're joking or if it's a real question, but "letter carrier" is the accepted term whether male or female).

I'm glad your bird problem turned out to be seasonal but just in case you ever face this problem again (or any bird infestation problem) I thought it might be helpful to just mention a different angle on this. The problem is not that the birds are pooping (or whatever they're doing) in your pool. That is simply a symptom of your real problem: that your environment is attractive to birds. If you really want to keep birds from being destructive to your property you have to make it so that your land is a place they don't want to hang out on in the first place. There are a lot of different approaches to this but yes, stopping the food supply is one of them. Another would be the mylar balloons someone else mentioned up above. There are also specialized bird scare balloons with 'eyes' that follow the birds wherever they fly as well as holographic tape. These incorporate movement so they are usually more affective than static decoys. There are other senses to attack as well: taste/smell, touch, and hearing. Birds hate methyl anthranilate (a chemical derived from concord grapes that has long been used for grape flavoring)--it gives them a similar sensation to what we feel when we encounter bleach. This comes in commercially available sprays. Also, there are sticky gels, netting, or spike strips that keep birds from roosting on certain surfaces. Lastly, there are sound devices that utilize recordings of predators/distress calls that scare birds away. For a partially or fully enclosed area you could use an ultrasonic device as well (one that can't be heard by humans but is annoying to birds and bats). Make sure that you switch up whatever you use from time to time. If you use balloons, move the location (but always keep it near where the birds are nesting). If you're using a sound device change the interval between effects, try to randomize the effects being used. Also, using the products together in a synergistic way will create a more effective and longer-lasting reaction. I'm glad to hear that no one has mentioned killing or injuring the birds...don't do that. As mentioned before that would be reacting to the symptoms rather than truly solving the problem. Furthermore, it would be very easy to accidentally tamper with one of the MANY birds protected by the Migratory Bird Act of 1918 (and then you'd be in big trouble). Just a side note: be careful when cleaning up the bird poop. Birds can transmit over 60 diseases to humans. Some of them are fatal. Bird dropping particles can be unknowingly inhaled and lead to serious health problems. Good luck in your future bird encounters! Here is a link that might be useful: click for examples, case studies and FAQs about bird pest control

I caught part of last night's 20/20 program, only because the tuner was on ABC and when we finished watching a couple of programs that we'd recorded earlier in the week, 20/20 was on. So, I only saw maybe 20 minutes of the show. But, from what I saw, it didn't appear that either of the two have a job. So, it appears to me that although Barbara Walters made a point of saying that 20/20 was not paying the couple for their appearance on the program, they are seeking out publicity for the money.