What is this thread all about?
Just a place for general discussion. A place to unload whats on your mind and talk about anything - personal, health, help needed, achievements, daily highs and daily lows, theories, predictions and what have you.
Does not need to be Q related.
I am in a murderous mood: flocks of pigeons invading my garden and gobbling up the food I put out for birds I love. One cheeky sod does not even look up then I bang on the window and waits till I go into the garden before leaving after giving me a "WOT?" look. He is so fat he can barely take off, wishing a hawk would get him instead of the songbirds - family sized meal!
Oh for a blunderbuss... Catapult and water pistol ineffective. Installing a sprinkler would be very difficult. Any ideas?
What makes one bird more desirable than another?
I’ve actually seen there’s some type of a sprinkler that’s motion detected. Somebody was having problems with people stealing things out of their truck, so they put a motion detector sprinkler system out. It’s a great way to get rid of pests, of any size. However… The other birds would get wet too so I don’t know how that would work out.
Also some thing else you could do is just get a box or something and put old bread, art stuff that’s cheap in it, and move it away from the area where you want the cute birds to come. If the big bird wants to come first and chow down, he’ll go to that other box 1st. Once you see him out there chowing down, then put out food for the little birds.
https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/pigeon-pie-recipe-mushrooms
Get an air rifle or bb gun. Make them pay with a little pain.😁
This is funny because my dad used to be bothered by crows. So he had a BB gun. He said if you leave a couple dead ones laying around, the rest never come back. Lol
A big plastic bad ass owl on a stake and a couple of fake rubber snakes in your garden. And an air horn or extremely large wind chimes! The air horn you can blast thru an open window!
Name checks out.
a pretty Maine Coon cat and a garden bench for him to sit on:)
And no sparrows, blue tits, finches, woodpeckers, blackbirds, jackdaws, collared doves. No fledglings being fed and learning to feed themselves. Main reason I can't have a cat. Get heartbroken when I find a dead one a marauding feline killed.
Pigeons are much larger than your regular songbirds. Rig up a top for the (open) feeder out of windowscreen that is just a little too short for the pigeons to land under/fit under. Smaller birds won't have a problem getting in and enjoying the seed.
And with regards to the fat pigeon who is not afraid of you, temporarily rig up a sprinkler nearby with the on/off somewhere you can reach it easily near your door. As soon as he shows up, hit him with the sprinkler until he leaves. Might have to do it several times in a row because he will keep testing you, but eventually, he will figure that it is too much effort to get a small meal. Don't keep your feeder full during this time, only a little seed, because when your sprinkler blasts the feeder you will ruin the seed for the other birds.
I thought pf putting up a cage which would allow small birds in but exclude larger ones. Unfortunately it would also keep out beautiful collared doves which I love. The pigeons can't access the feeders but fly into them and knock out the contents. No water for a sprinkler, sadly.
Sounds like your garden is an allegory of the U.S. right now.
LOL!
Let nature do what nature does best; teach those fucking pigeons how to be more like Russian tables and STOOL... narf.
Perhaps not a blunderbuss but pellet guns have come a long way
You're not wrong...
Same here. Tons of pigeons pooping everywhere, and making a racket early morning. We started putting hawk/owl/eagle dolls and it seems to help - as long as you keep cycling them so they dont figure out that these are mere dolls.
I had a huge plastic owl on my strawberry patch. Worked a treat till one day there was a snail crawling up its face and the birds fell about laughing.
I have a plastic hawk and my son's Halloween raven and skull that I keep out in my garden and move around nearly every day. They seem to help.
Warner Bros could make a fortune in animatronic Foghorn Leghorns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMaUBeaiHnQ
I nursed a pigeon with a broken leg back to health. It would always be nearby and fly down to me when I'd go to my backyard. It was great, but shat everywhere so I took it to the park and released it.
One could be welcome - huge flock that wait around like vultures for feeders to be filled is another matter. I'm sick of them. Decent bird seeds is not cheap.
Oh absolutely. They soil everything, too. Very acidic poops.
I knew a dude from Africa that said some bird there poops like a big puddle (fun fact: bird excrement is a combination of feces and urine, released all together from same outlet) and if it gets your car and you don't wash it off fairly quickly it takes the paint off.
Pigeon pie was very popular in UK at one time!
Yes - it needs a revival! Come and bag your own - no charge :)
Not so hasty!! If the canals next move is to starve us you will need all the pigeons you can muster..
Meanwhile here are some tasty recipes to make you love them.....the gentry pay a lot to go on a shoot!! And royalty serve the pigeons ..in pastry.
https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/pigeon-pie-recipe-mushrooms
Hmmm... Would need to find someone to dispatch and pluck them etc - I am far too squeamish. Can take watching cesarian sections and hip replacements but dead birds - no.