Set-up for Conditioned Stimulus Aversion

Adapted from Velasco 2015

All items (except for the quail eggs) are easily purchased from Amazon. To create aversion to eggs by Fish Crows we had the set-up active from 8-12 for 10 days at the beginning of shore/seabird nesting. We placed the plates within 20m of the actual nests. It is likely you could do it for fewer days. We left the plates and wires buried, but brought the energizer, eggs, and decoys out each morning as we were on busy municipal beaches.

1. 16" Aluminum Pizza plates (make sure they are not coated). Cut a ~3.5" diameter hole.

2. Get speaker wire (we used 12 and 14 gauge, but other sizes should work) and separate the 2 wires (it comes with 2 glued together). Strip about 1" from the end of each wire using wire strippers.

• Cut 5 segments of wire to go from energize to plate to plate (and strip ends)

• Cut 5 segments of wire to go from energizer to egg to egg

Either drill holes on either side of the pizza plate or clip or the wire with metal clips (like those that hold paper together). Duct tape works well too. Run a wire from the energizer to plate 1, then from plate 1 to 2 and so on (we did up to 5 plates).

3. Get quail's eggs from an Asian market. Sort for size and choose larger eggs for seabirds and smaller for plovers. Cut a hole in each egg and hollow out. Then paint the inside of the egg with conductive paint.

4. Fill each egg with aluminum mesh. Attach a short piece of wire (with ends stripped) then fill with glue from a hot glue gun.

5. Out in the field, set up the battery powered electric fence energizer (the type for poultry and small animals):

6. Now you are ready to connect the wires from on side of the energizer to the plates

More details on plate layout:

7. Now you are ready to connect the wires from one side of the energizer to the eggs.

8. Next bury the plate with a very thin layer of sand (and bury the wires as well).

9. Add a suitable wood decoy (made with a jigsaw) and turn the energizer on. You can test it to see if it is working by pushing the egg against the plate (you should hear a snap). The only way a bird can get an electric stimulus is if its feet are on the metal and their bill is damp and biting on the egg. So smaller birds that can't reach will not get a stimulus because their gape is too small and they can't reach the egg while standing on the plate. People can receive a stimulus if holding the plate and egg with a damp hand, but it is not enough to cause harm.