OT pigeon hate

[Mary Fisher]

Why are their noises 'stupid'?

They're descended from rock doves which were bred for food - in dovecotes. Why wouldn't be a good idea to eat them?

Eh?

...

But very difficult to skin.

[Rob Morley]

I like rats too :-)

[Mr Fizzion]

LMAO. I love the concept of "proper sized birds".

Could you do the same thing round some of my local nightspots? :-)))

Mr F.

[John Schmitt]

By reading on the subject. My curiosity seems to know few bounds.

I am interested how far the effect will propagate. Curiosity again. Must but a box of crow scarers as part of the experiment. 11th commandment applies.

More live the fact I have favorite films and places. Just because I have eaten a particular dish seems not to be a reason to repeat the excersise.

Of course I *can*. North is easily found and folowed by a number of methods. There is this thing called the sun, which reliably shows and tracking the shadow of a stick gives it away. Assuming my watch is with me, this can also be used to find North and indeed which hemisphere I am in . It also helps with latitude. A magnetic compass is useful, assuming the capsule is balanced for the correct latitudes, although within a couple of thousand miles of the magnetic poles it is unreliable. The old polar explorers used sextants for navigation. At night, of course, you can use a star fix to navigate. These days, I have become lazy and own a GPS unit. Start walking and an arrow points to your selected destination. Should I wish to visit my brother's old address, it is at

40 46' 43.0"N 73 59' 18.2"W It is a bit of a swim.

There seems to a fairly strong case for evidence-based reasoning, as opposed to knee-jerk decision-making. If the opposite is true all the human effort since the Renaissance appears to have been for nought and it looks like mud huts all round, with people asking about exactly the best quantiy of water to soil is best for mud bricks.

John Schmitt

[dave]

Only just got in... ah yes the pigeons...

Yopu poor thing - seek help seek help.

"Noise" - yes that the word for it. I take it you don't do much thinking or you'd realise what a horrible distraction they are.

They're not.

Just 'cos something's filthier it's much of a case though is it!

That must be while our local council's just sent a note out asking people NOT to feed PIGeons becuase they are breeding to excess and are disease carriers.

Doesn't make it false either. 'twas a light hearted comment.

Awww don't tell me you eat those nice coo cooo birdies! Horrible thing to do.

Depends where I suppose.

Now did I say they were the worse problem. Why do simple folk always take a comment, add something to it, and then attibute it to as if it was said in the first place.

Ah well, enough fun for one day.

[Mary Fisher]

They're everywhere. They drop litter, get drunk and vomit and urinate wherever they are when they've lost control of themselves (for fun, I understand). They drop cigarette ash out of car windows, empty ashtrays in gutters and eject chewing gum on pavements. They spray walls and have, to my eye, ugly gardens. They swear and spit - have you seen a football match lately? They don't wash themselves or their clothes so smell of sweat, some don't brush their teeth and have offensive breath. Many have infectious or contagious diseases. They park cars on pavements, obstructing access for pedestrians. They make awful noises in and out of their cars and think it's clever to show their lack of vocabulary. That's just a start.

I must admit it's mostly boys and men who do these - and other - things but some women do too. If you say you've never seen any of these I don't believe you.

I rest my case.

Oh, wouldn't that be fun :-)

Nature abhors a vacuum.No matter how many birds you kill there'll be others to take their place.

If it were as easy as killing the ones which can be seen farmers would have no problems, would they?

I do wonder what you mean by 'proper sized birds' though.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

From you?

That was the word used by the poster. If I'd paraphrased he might not have understood.

Can't you multi-task?

You haven't looked closely at the variety of their colouring or you wouldn't say that.

It would be a case for shooting humans.

That's nothing to do with the fertilising properties of their droppings.

Is your local council the fount of all knowledge on pigeons?

Certainly light-weight.

You don't eat meat?

Not at all. Microbes, insects and carrion will all take time to deal with the carcase, in the meantime I don'tthink you'd like what's happening to it.

Worse than what?

I didn't, you said:

"Does anyone hate pigeons more that I do? Impossible! Their stupid cooing sounds, their filthy habits... "

But it's the simple minded among us who don't complicate matters.

Ah! So the pigeons have given you the means of some fun.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

"with no previous experience"

[Mary Fisher]

References, please. And authority on how the writers know what they seem to think.

Crowscarers have limited usefulness. Ask an arable farmer.

I don't understand that sentence.

You're using previous experience as well as artificial aids. A pigeon doesn't even need a stick.

But knee jerking is what most people seem to be doing ... they don't like a pigeon's call so their reaction is to hate everything about the bird and want to kill it.

Since the Renaissance?

I think your history of humankind is as weak as your natural history.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

They have their place in theGreat Scheme ofThings..

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

I've had no experience of that, they seem to be particularly active where people drop food.

Mary

[Adrian C]

What's living, mutated & chemical inside the town pigeon is a bit of a worry. If they were generally acknowledged as safe to eat, the streets of London would be overrun with 'Kentucky Fried Pigeon' shops.

And I'd be a customer, especially after the Pub :-)

-- Adrian C

[Mr Fizzion]

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 15:29:16 +0100, "Mary Fisher" >

Seems eminently reasonable to me! :-)

Mr F.

[Matt]

Anything blackbird size and below would be nice - there were loads around until about five years ago when the magpies arrived, if anything the pigeons are a bit of a change - its just they always perch on exactly the same branch and hence their deposit lands in the same place.

Oh and I never ever drop litter except for in my own dustbin - which is soon to be filled with lead impregnated manky pigeons!

[Mr Fizzion]

Indeed. If you have ever "peeled" a pigeon (preferably a dead one) to extract the breasts then you will know that you often end up getting some of the stuff that was in the crop onto the flesh. I don't want bits of McDonalds nor part digested dog ends on my fried pigeon! :-)

Mr F.

[Harvey Van Sickle]

You mean that's not what those restaurants sell?

Live and learn....

[Vera]

A human brain is about 1000 times the size of a pigeon brain. A magpie brain is about 5 times the size of a pigeon brain.

An Arab can live for a whole year on one grain of rice.

[Geoffrey]

You don't know much about pigeons do you? If a pigeon has no experience of a place it can't deliberately find it. Homing pigeons have to be trained to return.

I'd stick to bees if I were you.

[dave]

I 'ate pigeons... opps, did I say that already :-) Anyway, does that make me racist?

[Mary Fisher]

Cut off the branch.

I didn't accuse anybody here of dropping litter but nobody's refuted that that's what a lot of people do.

Mary