Am I wrong to discriminate against pigeons?

[dellzeqq]

well, Sara, six months ago I would have agreed with you. Rats with wings and all that. However........attending a soiree at TeeCee's fashionable salon in Les Mumbles taught me otherwise. I met a young woman (not that her gender, age, or surpassing beauty are in any way relevant to this thread) who attaches tracking devices to pigeons. And it turns out that pigeons steer by motorway junctions. As in a pigeon bound for Birmingham will go up the M1 and then remember to take the M45 turn. Well, 50% of motorists aren't that smart! So I'm inclined to give pigeons a bit of a pass.

Oh, and pigeon courtship ritual, with all that low cooing and tail fanning is a hoot. You can make up your own dialogue, or adapt something from 'Round the Horne'.

 

[Crackle]

Pigeons are smart, smart and pooey. Discourage them regularly and they'll soon avoid your feeders. I used to have them trying to roost on my house. A few weeks of regular tennis balls up the jacksie and they avoid the house now. Clever.

 

[Night Train]

I grew up eating pigeons and pigeon eggs. Very nice.

 

[rich p]

Pigeons are smart, smart and pooey. Discourage them regularly and they'll soon avoid your feeders. I used to have them trying to roost on my house. A few weeks of regular tennis balls up the jacksie and they avoid the house now. Clever.

How many did you have to put up your jacksie?
Was it the resultant stench that put them off Crackle Towers?

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

No he gets thrush.

Ah, Is that why 3BM gets no shag?

 

[betty swollocks]

My elderly mum has a bird table just outside her kitchen window and loves to see all the birds come and go...... except pigeons. The big fat bastards land on it like fighters on an aircraft carrier and just hoover all the bird food up.
I put up a sign saying 'No Pigeons', but they carry on regardless. Bastards.
I hate pigeons - they're flying rats - and so does my mum and I'd hurl grenades at them if I could: but I can't, as my mum doesn't have any. She doesn't have a flamethrower either.
Pity.

 

[Sara_H]

We have big fat wood pigeons in our garden, you can get "little bird" feeders that the big birds cannot use, Mum who rivals a nature reserve with her bird feeders (some are taller than me!) buys suet pellets rather than fat balls and puts them in the feeders only little birds can use.

We have more issue with seagulls... bloody massive things they are when you see them up close! I tried to get a picture of them all scrabbling on the garage roof the other day for the left over scones I threw up there for the birds but they all flew away when they saw me

What are these small bird only feeders of which you speak? I've got these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Squirrel-..._Bird_Bath_Feeder_CV&var=&hash=item3a6d8a2713

I only have a large shrub in which to hang them and after a few days the big fat pigeons worked out that they could just sit on an adjacent branch and put their head through the cage. I've now stripped all the branches away from round the feeders, so the big fat pigeons have resigned themselves to standing below and hoping the little tweety birds drop them some crumbs down!

 

[Puddles]

http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/clingers-only-bird-seed-feeder.html

Mum has some of these where its for tits and also the nyjer seed feeders too where their beaks have to be a certain type to eat it

Also with other feeders if you have short perches the pigeons don't like it (especially fat ones) they also do not like perches that are slanted as they fall off

 

[Saluki]

We have this guy who waits for the small tweety birds, hen eats them!

We had one just like her in the garden at our old place.
Not many small tweeties came to the feeders for some reason.

Quick edit, as according my book the brown ones are the Mrs Sparrowhawks or the kids.

 

[betty swollocks]

This un's hard as err:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-23379586

 

[slowmotion]

We live in Shepherds Bush, London , but the only pigeons that visit our tiny garden look very fat, healthy, and quite edible. Not at all like the hideous specimens that roost inside the giant concrete box sections of the Staples Corner North Circular flyover, and crap on all and sundry in Trafalgar square. I have thought of getting an air rifle, but the faff of preparing them for the pot makes the prospect of hunting them less fun. We have about four bird feeders which are "big bird and squirrel"-proof . The pigeons just hang around below them and pick up the seeds and nuts that their smaller cousins scatter.

Speaking of vermin, Lidl are selling kangaroo steaks right now....£3.99 for 300g. Not a lot of people know that....