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A versatile digital scarecrow promises to put a virtual cat among the
pigeons. Birds soon get used to scarecrows, and simulated gunshots are too
noisy, note Bramley and Wellesley, a company based in Gloucester, and Phoenix
Agritech of Canada. So the firms are patenting (GB 2 323 009) a solid-state
digital recorder that stores birds’ distress calls, predators’ cries and the
flapping of frightened birds taking flight. An amplifier linked to weatherproof
loudspeakers intermittently generates the sounds. To people, they sound like
real wildlife, not just noise.