… or pigeon be gone!

We continue to have an issue with pigeons. Thankfully they are no longer roosting on our roof (right over my head as I work in my office). We had to get a company to come and put up meshing in and around the solar panels, which kind of worked, but only up to a point. The plastic clips they used were next to useless once they had been in the sun for a bit, and so Chris ended up significantly modifying one section.

My blood ran cold recently when I heard them above cooing and canoodling, but they can’t get in underneath and feel safe, so they can’t nest and that’s just fine by me. But as we have chickens that free range in the backyard, the pigeons are still freeloading on a free feed. It has become and issue for the neighbours, as they pigeons take up a vantage point on top of their house, and poop on their small uncovered deck that is directly underneath. Until now we have been at a bit of a loss as to what to do.

Maggie, our dog, thinks she can scare them off from the deck and sometimes her bouncing and cavorting makes them take flight. Chris has tried modifying the chicken feeders but there are at least three fat pigeons, who, despite all efforts with wire and obstacles, still have managed to get into the feeders. We have ordered a new contraption that the chickens will have to stand on to gain access to the food (which hopeful eliminates the access for the others) but in the meantime, we have decided that harassment might work.

We cut a nice strong ‘Y’ from one of our screening trees and I made a poor attempt at a sling shot. I then remembered when my sone Alex was about 12, he fashioned a pea-shooting ‘gun’ out of a rubber glove finger, a piece of PVC piping and some tape. We had all the makings and so I quickly whipped one up.

My aim is not so fabulous, but my first ‘shot’ at the assembled 20 or so on the neighbour’s roof, sent them all aloft! The ‘ting’ as one small frozen pea hit the gutter was enough to disperse them. Hopefully the new feeder and the pea-pinging will be enough to encourage them to find a better place to poop.