The Sentinals

We have some helpers poolside at our house, I call them the sentinals. They come from home depot, and the one in the foreground even has a little solar panel on his head and can occasionally on his own turn his head to survey the scene. Their presence has severely curtailed poolside gatherings among the avian crowd, a needed change. I really don't mind an occasional grackle coming by to wash his food - in fact, I watched one doing so right alongside Mr Owl here; it either wasn't fooled by the plastic, staring eyes, or else it just never felt threatened enough even by a large (albeit stationary,) plastic owl. The birds (mostly pigeons) really like to do a little meet-n-greet on the gentle slope of the 'beach entry,' there to the right of Mr Owl. So while I considered painting a sign that said, "I don't pee in your birdbath, so don't you poop in my pool, " Jim invited Mr Owl for a little vacay at the Reeder resort.
Up on the waterfall you can see his stiff-necked brother owl,
stationed to ward off potential bathers. I watched it work within minutes of his placement, as a sparrow zoomed in and landed on the large rock bottom right, only to take off the microsecond he landed, having looked up and seen the predatory bird keeping watch.
Less pigeons, sparrows, and grackles means less of their offending poop. (some dried remnants are there right in front of the closer owl.) It's fun to watch some bird flying in, swooping down toward the pool, and then immediately soaring up and over the back fence to look elsewhere for a pond. It's also easier now for Papa to keep the water clean for the grandkids. When they are around, he calls to 'do the colors,' where they get water from the pool and they fill tubes with the colorful reactants in his test kit. He was a chemist when I married him, so this is his favorite part of owning the pool. And now his owl assistants make this task easier.