To wish parents would stop toddlers charging after birds

[yesterdaysunshine]

I've already had a mini whinge about this but it's happened again and I'm fed up.

When a kid charges towards pigeons, they fly up en masse and seek to find somewhere else to go, which means because they don't get up very high, they are eye level with your face.

So while YOUR toddler has had the time of their life, MY toddler has had a horrible fright!

so have i

Why, oh why do people not appreciate its really anti social?

We were once at a petting farm and a kid was doing this at a clearly territorial bird of some sort which was doing it back from his side of the pen with his chest puffed out and feathers ruffled. The parents thought it was hilarious and said to me "haha i wonder who will get bored first?! " they didnt find my response that the bird will because the second he got over the fence he was going to attack their kid. It was quite a large peacock like bird and would have really hurt him - the parents were alarmingly thick

Pigeons are absolute knobs. They'll flap at anything, not just toddlers. I once watched one get run over at some traffic lights because it settled on the road while the lights were red and then when they turned green, it just didn't bother getting up or flying off.

Fucking idiot. That was Darwinism and natural selection at work right there.

Well let's hope Psychomum no one else who was scared of birds was in the vicinity! I think though, the thought process was 'well who cares as long as I'm ok...'

It was under a bridge on our way too and from college no one really about but hey let's assume, why shouldn't that be the thought process of someone who is scared of birds?

Yup. But you encourage your children to charge at them yet you have a friend who is scared of them. See what I mean?

That is a beautiful cushion, hedgehog.

My friend is scared of toddlers - I shall now start charging at them flapping my arms so she has right of way.

Yes, I suppose you could do the same If you're scared of dogs, men, children, birds, motorbikes ...

Oh well if they only want to touch the birds that's different

Repeated take off and landing could actually be fatal to the pigeons over a sustained period. Take off is the most energy intensive part of flight in kj. So if a pigeon was repetively forced to take off and wasn't able to ingest enough calories in a day (especially in winter ) to make up the carlory deficit it could easily strave or freeze.