The first thing I thought of when I saw this picture was Sherman and Peabody.

The second thing I thought when I saw this picture was, "Where's the bird poop?" But you answered my question already, the spikes keep the birds off. We have a problem now with people randomly leaving cat food in our front steps. Now the pigeons are eating the cat food and they invited their friends so there is pigeon poop all over the sidewalk. It's so hot that it doesn't matter anymore.