Pigeons

[rosielemonaddde]

Aibu to try and remove nesting pigeons from a tree in my garden?

And how should I do it? I don't mean bash them over the head or shoot them, just move them along.

Do light reflectors work? Or a hawk model? 😂

They are shitting all all over the kids garden toys, they make that horrendous gobbly noise constantly and flap excessively everytime anyone goes near the tree. There's at least 4 large ones.

It's just a bloody nuisance and I'm sick of them!

I think it's just the sudden aggressive flapping when he doesn't expect it, its quite loud, it startles me too!

Supersoaker.

Shine torches into the branches at roosting time to get them to move on.

We bought a high pitched pigeon deterrent thing which seems to have stopped them choosing our garden.

We also got all the cross branches where they nested chopped out last winter. This meant the hedge grew much thicker, so they couldn't get in with twigs and nesting materials.

Whether anyone regards them as pests or not is irrelevant. All nesting birds and their nests are protected. And that’s from destruction and also from disturbance, so ‘super- soakers’ used to deter them would also be illegal. As BASC GLs there for pests control in situations like crop damage, they don’t cover minor irritation of a nesting bird in a domestic garden. If you’re unsure whether they are nesting or not then you need someone who can determine that. Btw, be wary of any pest control company that claim they can legally remove them if they’re nesting, they can’t, and you will also be liable, not just the pest control company.

We like pigeons. Great entertainment. Feeding them etc. We can make a whole day out of feeding the wildlife (responsibly). There will be a lot of opinions on that, but my kids love it and have not contracted any diseases in the last 18 years.

Not said I think we will contract diseases just that I'm sick of shit splattered garden items and my baby being scared shitless by the random flapping when they walk past the tree

Have you got a big garden or in the city? Are they wood pigeons?

We live in a city, not the country side.
I'm going to get my husband to have a look with his ladder when he gets home. I can't actually see a nest when I've tried having a look myself using the slide so it might just be they are congregating up there for shade.
It's been a week now with more shit every day

Well, yeah in a city, what can you do? The cat sounds like a good idea.
The birds learn quick.
Try a rescue rather than kitten. Kittens will also shit on everything till trained!

We have grey squirrels in our garden, I love them they are so cute

Bloody hell. What a lot of fuss over a few birds.

Do you would seriously be totally fine that your toddler cannot use their own garden? That you have to disinfect a shitload of stuff every day? Really? I can't see many people liking this.

My neighbour throws large quantities of bread on her front lawn when she leaves to take the dog for a walk. She's now feeding approx 40 wood pigeons and gulls at 7am every morning. They start running about on my roof from dawn waiting for their feed, so I get woken every morning. Then they feed and shit all over my car and my drive as they leave.

I tried ringing the council but he said they're not pests and there's not a lot they can do. He said I'd have to take out civil action against the neighbour which seems petty.

We had woodpigeons nesting in a tree in our garden last month. Robins a while before that. Felt honoured to be honest. Was lovely to see the parents coming and going with food for the chicks and exciting to see the fledglings grow up. There wasn't that much shit but we just cleaned the stuff that needed cleaning. You will encounter bird shit wherever you go so making such a fuss about it is unseemly.

My advice is to learn to coexist with nature and teach your kid to do the same.

Robbin shit or sparrow shit is nothing compared to pigeons shitting what feels like every 5 seconds tbh and it just seems to splatter so much bigger and further.

My neighbours garden is like a really shitty looking paintball garden now due to like 6 pigeons.

We had robins and starlings the odd poo on the egg chair or by the pool simple fast wipe done. Neighbours going to have to jet wash his whole garden 😂

Can't move nest until the babies have left

You don't understand! They're sweet little birdie wirdies worth than you, your house and child! MN is a madhouse sometimes.

Fuckers. I'd make pies out of the lot of them. Yadnbu.

The more you use the garden the less the pigeons will. They're not keen on human activity.

We have wood pigeons nesting at the moment. They are in the tree of a neighbouring garden. Tbh we don't mind them and they nest regularly.

That said, they are not causing the same issues the OP is describing.

In your situation you need to look at what you can do once the babies have fledged. There will be ways of discouraging them from returning. Good thing is they fledge quite quickly. You just need to stop them coming back.

Our pigeons reuse the same nest so perhaps it's a case of removing it once its finished with.

Pigeons aren't great if you get a squad of them shitting all over your property.

I have about 3. They eat the buds of the fruit trees (destroying the fruit). And crap everywhere.

The worse thing they do is that they want to drink out of the conservatory guttering, but they are too fat/incapable of landing in it.

So they land on the roof, then slide down one of the support struts until they land in the guttering. Which is not designed to have a kilo of pigeon landing in it, and is slowly getting destroyed.

I have not employed anti pigeon yet, but may do so next year.

I also think they will eventually destroy next doors tv aerial, because every time I see them land on it it really vibrates, and when they take off it oscillates backwards and forwards for about 2 minutes - probably wrecking their tv.

Now that's a PITA - some places can have by-laws which prohibit the feeding of gulls - your local town/parish council can enact by-laws if you have one. If not, the next most local council level should have the 'powers'.

And bread is very bad for most wild birds so the only wildlife your NB is attracting is pigeons, gulls and rats.

My mum found an injured fledgling that next doors cat had clearly attacked in her garden the other day, so I'd say they're nesting atm so can't be moved until October time I think?

We recently paid a few hundred quid to get pigeons moved on and nest removed

Although you are not supposed to, they are pests and breed continuously throughout the year and spread a tonne of shit in the process . A pest control company will do it in the name of health and safety

They come back to the same nest too. How do you stip them nesting in a tree? I dunno but call a pest control company

Do you would seriously be totally fine that your toddler cannot use their own garden? That you have to disinfect a shitload of stuff every day? Really? I can't see many people liking this

I think it's about attitudes to wildlife really. In our garden we have lots of birds and other wildlife, including wood pigeons, jackdaws, ducks, wild rabbits. They all make a mess and I clean it up if it goes on our stuff or our young grandchild's toys.

It's far easier to teach children to be accepting of wildlife, and to encourage them to enjoy watching them and learn from them, than to be trying to evict them from your garden. We all need to co-exist.

We had them nesting in our guttering above our door. The shit on our doorstep got too much to beat

We had to shift them on using pest control. It's not hygienic

As soon as one lot of babies flew away, another bunch hatched. Over and over . I got fed up of the flying shitesters