Pigeons

Squab pie too Anya. Sorted!

We don't get pigeons round here except for a few enormous wood pigeons the size of a large duck. They would last us a week Alea in a pie, if I had the heart to catch and kill one. But I don't. They nest in our front garden and are such good parents, even chasing away the hordes of magpies we have.

Thanks Granjura for the explanation. Although I dislike pigeons I have noticed that when walk around our garden they don't bully the smaller birds who just ignore them.

They poo in our water bowls too and we just keep changing the water. It is lovely to see our special blackbird having a bath and showing pleasure in having a thorough wash and brush up.

We have a large flock of parakeets that fly over us daily, fortunately they have not discovered our small garden yet, as they are very voracious in their eating habits. How such an exotic bird has managed to acclimatise itself to our weather I don't know.

We should call this thread Peter Scott Corner

In this corner of Berkshire we have plenty of Wood Pigeons, Ring Necked Parakeets and Collared Doves, along with the ubiquitous Magpies strutting around with their hands in their pockets... a few years ago there were always Great Tits and Chaffinches, but they seem to have vanished for some reason.

The Collared Doves are, like the parakeets, an introduced species that seems to thrive here.

We seem to keep to three wood pigeons and two collared doves. Even when the sparrow hawk takes one another appears to take it's place so we assume that's what our garden supports. I don't mind them too much as they clear up the seeds dropped from the feeders so we don't have rats. (Mice, but no rats)

whitewave how do you make them understand which is their feeder, because that does sound a really good idea? (giving them their own feeder)

My neighbour has had a pair of Collared doves nesting on the support bracket of his satellite dish, just under the house eaves, for the last couple of years.

Flying rats my dad calls pigeons! my next door neighbour has started feeding the birds mealworms etc....but now we have big magpies/and pigeons coming, pooing all over my washing and conservatory windows, of course they go and coo coo to their friends and we have more! 3 people have now had to have the rat man up ! I have lived here 15 yrs and never seen a rat, but recently there has been sightings of a daddy rat [confused[ and yes I know someone will say "well your always within a few yards of a rat, but it seems a bit of a coincidence that after 15 yrs we are suddenly having a problem with them,that combined with the rabbit food next door is n't good! also in our town center you could't go and buy something to eat and sit on the benches without the pigeons round your ankles! they have now put BIG notices up saying PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE PIGEONS" but it's obvious some can't read, which may be true!

We have pigeons too but try living next door to a woman who is a lovely soul but feeds the blasted crows and jackdaws that have become a nuisance over the past 2/3 years.

Some days it's liking living in a Hitchcock movie .

They always sit on our fence and s--t our side

that's because they know you don't like them POGS!
come the ( bird) revolution you will be the first up against the wall and in the line of fire( poo fire that is.)

We have about six regular big fat wood pigeon visitors, they head for the bird bath and hog it for ages.We only feed birds in Winter, but had to stop due to increased pigeons, mice and even a rat!

The sparrows are the bullies in our garden. Just simply by their numbers. We ration bird feed and have limited the number of feeders by trial and error to keep numbers stable. Once it's gone, that's it for the week. Otherwise the more you put out the more you need. We gave up on a bird table as it attracted jackdaws, magpies and rooks. Bloomin' great things! They can scrounge elsewhere!

I was also told a long while ago by an old country boy that if you had mice you probably didn't have rats (they eat baby mice). Kill the rats and the mice will come back. You take your choice said he!

The rat vanished after a while ( still the odd mouse though) perhaps they formed a gang to get rid of him.

granjura the birds in my garden perch on the rim of a big bucket filled with water and drink from that but I have never seen the pigeons doing it.

My next door neighbour feeds the pigeons. Consequently we get loads of them around here. They c**p all over the washing. She also puts cat food out for 'any strays that might be passing'. She has informed me this morning that she has had to stop putting food out as she has seen several rats in her garden. I am not happy. I don't want rats in my garden. Grrrr

Talking of rats. We don't have any (that I'm aware of) in the garden but I'd like to put food out for the hedgehogs and am wary that this might encourage rats.

What do others think? Remembering that rats will eat anything....

Rats tend to move around the perimeter of their habitat, therefore, if you put food in the middle of the lawn there is less chance of the rats targetting it [I think]. It's bird seed that they are particularly fond of [as are mice which is why I ended up with them in my house as I kept the bird seed in the living room. I ended up with rats because I put eggshells in my compost bin [that's now gone]. Last year I had trouble with fruit flies and the before that it was ants. All problems seemed to have been caused by good intentions [feeding birds/composting etc].

...what food is best for hedgehogs? My son has one in his garden.

NOT bread and milk for hedgehogs, in spite of all the storybooks. I think mince or pet food, but there is probably something on Google about it.

See www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/wildlife/inthewild/gardenhedgehogs

"Feeding
Food and fresh water will encourage hedgehogs to return. Leave out foods like minced meat, tinned dog or cat food (not fish-based), crushed cat biscuits, or chopped boiled eggs. Specialist hedgehog food can also be bought from wild bird food suppliers.

Never feed hedgehogs milk as it can cause diarrhoea; instead provide plain, fresh water in a shallow bowl."

Thanks Elegran I've fed them chicken cat food before now...at least I think I fed the hedgehogs because it was all gone in the morning, but round here there is a tradition (shudder) of 'putting the cat out at night' and who knows who cleaned the plate.

Sooner next door's moggy than a rat though

My dog found a baby pigeon and backed away in horror. It looked like an embryonic dinosaur and was huge. I tried feeding it but it died.
I actually hate pigeons because I had a little dog who swallowed great long feathers, whole, and died last year from the abcess caused by one piercing her stomach. Pigeons drop their bloody feathers everywhere.

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