OT pigeon hate

[dave]

Does anyone hate pigeons more that I do? Impossible! Their stupid cooing sounds, their filthy habits... And yet people feed these vermin in town squares and yes, even back gardens. I know I am not alone in my pigeon hate world - Bill Bryson has a paragraph about these pea-brained creatures of filth in his book "Tales from a Small Island" book.

Ah,,, that's better.

ps small print: I was just trying to bring a little smile to all on sunny Wednesday morning :-) (which would be nice and quiet if it weren't for the damn pigeons!!!!

[tony sayer]

In article , dave writes

Well I've managed to down a few this year with the old .22 Webley..

Not quite as many as some on here:))

[Phil]

There was a reason God made airguns....

[Mary Fisher]

I like pigeons. I like their noise. They're beautiful. They're not as filthy as humans. Their droppings are the best fertiliser ever. Just because a famous author makes comments doesn't make them true.

I hope that those people who kill them also eat them, they're delicious. If they're left to rot on the ground they cause far more problems than when they were alive.

If pigeons are the worst problem you'll ever have in your life you'll be very fortunate.

Mary

[John Schmitt]

Woody Allen describes them as "rats with wings". Should you wish to use animal psychology to show them your superiority, clap your hands and suddenly raise your arms sideways. They seem to think that you are some sort of uber-pigeon and have taken fright. Once one in a group reacts the rest follow it into the air. One of these days, I must try it in a large square full of pigeons. Being so stupid pigeons have little capacity for avoidance learning and come back to the same place, making this a game you can carry on playing indefinitely. I see sloution number

22 has already been suggested.

There was that guy who was netting them In Trafalgar Square and selling them to Turkish restaurants. You may perhaps take this on as an enjoyable and lucrative hobby. ;-)

John Schmitt

[Mary Fisher]

So?

How do you know what they seem to think?

In some places I know, if you raise your arms sideways the pigeons will sit on them. I suppose you think that it's because they think you're a tree. It's not at all, they've learned that there's usually something to eat at the end of your arm.

Oh, what a big man you'll be then!

So you're playing it indefinitely? Does that make you stupid, with a little capacity for learning?

Can you navigate back to your house if let loose hundreds of miles away with no previous experience?

Of course you can't. Does that make you stupid?

To say that any other creature is stupid because it doesn't behave like you is irrational.

Mary

[Mr Fizzion]

Personally I hate them and their stupid noises. There are two types you are likely to see however: The common "town pigeon" (Columba livia) which doesn't have the white band round its neck, and the Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus) which does have the white band. I'm not too sure if it's a good idea to eat town pigeons.

Wood pigeons are more likely what you get "in suburbia".

You can't shoot pigeons without a good reason. The general license issued each year by defra under the wildlife and countryside act 1981 lists these reason for killing these birds:

Preventing the spread of disease Preventing serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber, fisheries or inland waters.

"I hate them" or "they're tasty" is unfortunately not enough.

Anyway, if pigeons are bad, magpies are a lot worse!

Oh and grey squirrels are quite tasty.

Mr F.

[ben]

You forgot...pigeons can be shot in a built up area and its illegal to feed them in that same instance. A woman in my street was fined for feeding them daily, guess what no more pigeons.

Personally rat poison does wonders mixed with bread.

[Vera]

I am one of the clever ones who can

a) read signposts b) Ask for directions to the nearest train station c) Recognise a phone box from a fair distance away d) Work a mobile phone e) Read a map f) hail a taxi

and many other useful skills that would come in handy if I were ever left in some park in Halifax (I've never been to Halifax BTW).

To insist any creature with a brain the size of a pea is NOT stupid is, well, a bit weird.

As it happens I don't mind pigeons too much - the birds I hate are bloody magpies! A cooing pigeon is pleasant compared the squawking of any member of the crow family that spots my cat strolling through the garden. The damn magpies even come and sit on the balcony chairs and scream at the cat asleep on our bed! If it were not for the fact that we have neigbours one side and over the back I would get an air-rifle and take a few potshots.

[tony sayer]

Yep!, there're fair game too;))

[ben]

Mary Fisher wrote: [snip]

Isn't it amazing when your half legless through drink you manage to find your way back home. :-) mind you it takes you longer when drunk because its

2 steps forward and 3 steps back. lol

[Bob Martin]

I'm with you, Mary. People who think our wildlife exists just for their amusement are a lower life-form than slugs, especially those who enjoy killing.

[Mr Fizzion]

That sounds pretty non-selective. It will kill any bird that eats it I guess.

Mr F.

[Richard Conway]

What about those who belittle slugs?

[Mr Fizzion]

My neighbours cat appears to enjoy killing the birds in my back garden. Does that make it a lower life form than a slug?

I don't think the "highness" or "lowness" of a lifeform is dictated by whether it enjoys killing.

Mr F.

[ben]

I have'nt seen any birds in my garden for a while. :-)

[Owain]

I don't mind magpies as long as there are two of them :-)

I dislike gulls. They used to be a nice characteristic of the seaside but now they've moved into towns they seem to have got a lot more aggressive.

Owain

[Matt]

Must be some very mucky humans you are acquainted with! All the crap that drops on my back lawn below where the filthy buggers perch on a convenient tree branch kills anything it touches. On the good side I think the Magpies took out all but one chick from the nest and had a good feed on my garage roof.

Its tempting to get a mate round with his shotgun and do a vertical discharge right up the tree - I think we might be just ok legally but it won't half scare the neighbours ;-) Then take out the Magpies and the Crows and we might end up with proper sized birds in the garden again.

[Matt]

What do you think sat nav is for? Some women can even navigate using it ;-)

[Mary Fisher]

All those need previous experience, which I specified. A pigeon doesn't do any of those.

You've seen the size of pigeon's brain then?

Or - more relevantly - compared it, size for size, with a human brain?

I'm not keen on cats, they scratch in my garden and leave stinking deposits and they account for more small bird deaths than all the magpie (corvid) family combined. And they howl and spit and scratch and leave pawmarks on the windows and cars - and have ruined an expensive caravan cover by climbing up a corner of it and shredding the top.

They're cats. As pigeons are pigeons and mapies are magpies. None of them has damaged the Earth or others of their own kind as much as Man. Which is superior?

Mary