A Conundrum

A few evening’s ago when a friend and I were having dinner I looked up to see a rock pigeon on a bird feeder.  I raised my arm and waved.  Despite the distance the pigeons are usually so aware of any movement that they fly off.  One did.  The rest followed suit.  Except for the one on the top of the feeder.  Puzzled, I went to see why.  I opened the study door and walked out.  The pigeon didn’t flinch.  That’s unheard of.  Then I realised that what I had thought was something in his beak was, in fact his beak.  And here’s the rub.  I would happily do away with the pigeons even though I abhor killing any creature (except wasps!) but I suddenly felt desperately sorry for this bird who was, presumably, beyond caring because, with a beak as damaged as that, she could not be far away from death.  Leastways I assume that to be the case.

All Creatures Great and Small

I'm definitely having a few days of involvement with the feathered and furry creatures in the neighbourhood.

Yesterday started with two cats from the area having a really massive battle in the garden leaving it covered in fur. My attempts to separate them before I had to take one home to an owner in a black sack were not proving fruitful and were exposing my uncovered legs to potential excessive brutality (not that even a thick pair of jeans would have afforded much protection had they turned on me). My eventual solution was to turn the high pressure hose on them. Water is always a great favourite with cats!

Then, as I was idly watching the world, a rock dove kept circling the house sometimes very close. Suddenly I realised that it's 'companion' was not in fact another rock dove but a bird of prey with a significant white throat area. At one point it became difficult to know which was chasing which. There are Merlins in the area. Merlins are similar in size to pigeons but, so far as I can see, don't usually take them. However they do take their prey by flying with them (compared with Peregrine Falcons which tend to swoop down on their prey). So it looks very much as though this was a particularly enthusiastic Merlin.

Talking of rock doves they and the starlings are becoming a nuisance again. The Study roof is covered in their droppings and the starlings are driving the sparrows away from their feeders. As I write this there are 25 rock doves and countless starlings on the feeders and ground around them and one sparrow braving the starlings' beaks. Hmmm.

Now if anyone thinks that pigeons are bright let me disabuse them of that notion. I have a pond. It has a 'beach' area so that the birds can easily have a drink or bathe or whatever. This morning I was distracted from the computer by a splashing on the pond. A solitary collared dove was standing on the surround to the pond and trying to lean in (a drop of about 4 inches) to have a drink. He (or she) kept falling off the edge. After a while he realised this was not going to work so he tried to land on the water. Pigeons are not equipped for this task. He didn't know that. Time and again he tried and time and again he failed to manage to walk on the water. Eventually ie by the time I came to my senses and managed to power up the camera, he realised the error of his ways and flew off. I've not seen him since.

I wonder what other exciting things will happen today.

Problems With Pests

Last year I got a bit obsessed with the pigeons which deposit so much poo all over my roof and dominate the garden. This year the number is about 30 and it's becoming a serious problem. Last night when I went up the ladder to clear the Study roof (not having done so for about 2 weeks) I was astonished, not just at the amount of poo there was up there but also by the difficulty I had removing it. There are two sorts. That which is like small pellets and rolls around in the wind just causing considerable irritation. Then there is the sort that sticks like cement to the polycarbonate. I couldn't reach it all with a broom so I will have to go up onto the roof and attack it from that angle. Of course the stuff which is stuck to the polycarbonate will only come off with the power washer so I'll have to lug that up the ladder and and across the roof. What a chore.

I decided this morning that something would have to be done. So I Googled the problem. The first site I looked at looked promising: Jones and Son, Pigeon Spike Manufacturers. So I'm obviously not the only one with the problem!

What I just loved about their website - and that which prompted this posting - was the statement that "You can ask us a bird spike question here, we will get back to you within two hours, test us. If we fail we will send you a large bar of chocolate."

Rock Pigeons

I'm not sure whether I'm becoming obsessed with the Rock Pigeon population explosion or they are, en masse, becoming obsessed with my house and garden. Whichever the 26 which are visible in front of my study window are becoming just too much of a nuisance for their own good. They are not doing my roof much good either and they keep dropping 'things' whatever they may be (they rattle around on the roof in the wind) onto the Study roof. My next step is to use different and non-pigeon friendly (it doesn't have wheat or corn) bird food. I've ordered it. I await the results but my feeling is that very little is likely to discourage these hoovers.