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The Nesting Habits of Pigeons

Alex's Grandma

09:20 / 16.03.05

I'd forgotten all about this until the other day, but last year I had a fair amount of trouble with a pigeon that took up residence in the tree outside the house around about Springtime - It was an extremely aggressive animal as I recall, not like the usual London pigeons at all, it was a lot bigger for one thing, plus it used to spend a lot of it's time banging against the kitchen window, trying to strafe anyone who entered or left the place, and just generally attempting to run t'ings round the area, and while it did go away eventually, it now looks like it's back again, and that this time it's personal.

I'm just wondering if anyone knows whether it's actually likely to be the same bird, and if so what to do about it - Back where I grew up someone would just have shot it I suppose, but that's pretty clearly not a road I can really go down in Central London.

Triplets

10:11 / 16.03.05

Put on Eye of the Tiger and PUNCH IT.

Smoothly

10:20 / 16.03.05

Pigeons do 'home', don't they? Or are those ones specially trained?

Make friends with it.

Katherine

10:20 / 16.03.05

Bad news is yes, they do act like the kitten in the cartoon, they come back.

Call your council they should help you deal with the feathered menace.

Bed Head

10:43 / 16.03.05

Ooh, is it radioactive, do you think? See if you can get it to peck you. Then go home and wait.

Spaniel

10:56 / 16.03.05

Put on Eye of the Tiger and PUNCH IT.

Sound advice. By the end of the tune you'll have mashed pidgeon between your knuckles.

Grey Area

11:09 / 16.03.05

Put a life-size picture of a hawk into your kitchen window...that might stop it battering the glass. Apart from that, do what archraven says and call the council. Playing a soundtrack of fluttering wings and screaming in the background while you make the call may ensure promter service, but is not guaranteed.

Katherine

11:50 / 16.03.05

If it's attacking people then they should act faster. Especially if you mention there's children living in your block.... it's unfortunate but useful the way in which council's don't want negative publicity like say for instance 'Child attacked by Killer Pigeon'

doozy floop

12:47 / 16.03.05

Buy a python and position it by the window with its mouth propped open with a stick.

I like to think the pigeon would fly in and then spend a comedy hour wandering around a snake interior trying to escape.

Perchance then it would learn the error of its ways.

William Sack

12:56 / 16.03.05

Sounds as though you have a rogue on your hands, Alex. Those bastards just couldn't give a fuck. You have my sympathy.

On a related note I actually sent an e-mail to the council about birds recently. I saw a flock of the weirdest looking bright green birds on Tooting Common not so long ago, and saw 4 of them flying up towards Streatham High Road earlier this week. Someone from the parks department wrote back and told me that there was a flock of feral Ringneck Parakeets living in Tooting Common. They are apparently natives of the Indian sub-continent, but some had escaped from aviaries and are doing pretty well in the south east. Apparently there is a huge colony of them in Esher/Epsom or somewhere like that.

Anyway, back to pigeons...

Triplets

13:03 / 16.03.05

If you can find them, maybe you can hire... THE VULTURE SQUADRON

Triplets

13:05 / 16.03.05

Look at those novelty oranges. Pigeon smashing is INEVITABLE.

_Boboss

13:35 / 16.03.05

i feed the pigeons on the crescent of green across the way as often as i can remember. (though i've been threatened with police action by neighbours who i suppose find pigeons a threat to their own livelihood somehow. strange. hatred of pigeons = self hatred.)

sometimes the pigeons have a little ring around their ankle - homie pigeons, i guess. the next day they're gone. so homie pigeons, on their journey home, stop off here and there, chill with a few local pigeon qualities, get some rock-off action if tis the season, say goodbye then wing it back to the coop. is there a beast cooler than this in all the lands? no. except for my cat.

pigeons are fucking brilliant basically - alex, i think you should face it: the bird has you beat. it is better evolved to survive its current environmental niche than you are. beg it for forgiveness and leave a loaf out for it, give it a name and be proud to have the epitome of urban survival roosting in your manor.

Alex's Grandma

14:38 / 16.03.05

I was thinking of leaving a loaf out for it, funnily enough. A 'special' loaf.

The trouble is it looks likes there's two of them, and possibly even some kids by now - It'd be all very well to have it out with Grant as it were, but then where would that leave Tiffany, little Courtney and all the others ?

So I'm a bit conflicted - It's the pigeon's call, basically.

pear

14:48 / 16.03.05

There's thousands of Green parakeets in Sidcup, at footscray meadow where there used to be a big aviary.

I used to get bird watchers coming into the garage where I worked asking where they were about three times a day.

Bill Posters

15:24 / 16.03.05

then parakeets are fairly common in South London and are globalwarmingtastic - I get a deliciously horrifying chill of 'ohmygod we've really, really messed with things we shouldn't have' whenever I see one.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

11:26 / 17.03.05

I guess the parakeets aren't that freakish*. There's shedloads of them in Barna, even now when we've had a really really fucking COLD winter. They just fit nicely into the pigeon niche, I guess.

*Hope springs eternal...

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