Scary pigeon activity 🫣

Since owning chickens I’m less scared a of birds but still don’t like low flying sorts. After overheating in the garden I’m in the cool tub cooling off but being stressed out by a pidgein flying off one way and back the other with a stick in its mouth. I just went to look and the damn thing is building a nest, right over my outside cooking area at the back door. Thinking should get rid of it now before it lays eggs, or will it just rebuild it???

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Oh and just thought, will they get aggressive if we leave them and they have young? They really are right next to our back door which is in use constantly. :worried::face_with_peeking_eye::exploding_head:

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OK this is the view if I’m stood at the airfryer you can see in the first photo :face_with_peeking_eye::face_with_peeking_eye:

Pigeons aren’t aggressive, and you’ve nothing to fear. You could ‘disassemble’ the nest with a long stick quite safely.

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take the sticks away quickley before they lay eggs. We had a nest in our front garden wisteria, for weeks the squabs (baby pigeon) were shitting on all the plants below, missing the seating area by not very much.

I am not letting them built another nest in the wisteria, plenty of trees around they can occupy…. and drop fertiliser.

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Hi Tory. We have pigeon nests every year, and have never had any problems with the birds. I love to keep an eye on the (very slow) progress of the young birds. Pigeons are not fierce birds, but they are large and rather noisy especially when they take off. We have had three nests this year, in different areas. One in each tall fir tree, and one up on the pergola. But the nests are fragile and the pergola nest did not succeed. It was constructed with very loosely stacked up twigs and simply collapsed. The adult birds spend ages here wandering around on the grass in the evening looking for good sticks.

The whole business is long !

Pigeons mate for life and rear their broods together. Once the simple nest is built, the female lays an egg and then another a day or so later. The incubation period for common pigeons is long, 17 to 19 days. The female sits on the egg from late afternoon through the night. The parents both feed them regularly. By the time the squabs are ready to fly, at about 4 weeks, the father is doing most of the feeding. Then the squabs are fed for another week to 10 days after they are free-flying.

The nest you have may well be rather rickety, especially if it is new, in which case you could probably delodge it as Dr Mark suggests, if the young birds are not inside it.

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I couldn’t imagine interfering with a bird’s nest - the work that goes into them - but that’s me.

If you’re bothered, I’d just do a lot of activity in the area where it’s building its nest, in order to put it off. Have a look in the nest, for example, while it’s building it.

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Loving all wildlife as I do and would love to watch progress in a nest, the region for my soon to be hide, I nevertheless recognise how inconvenient this might be for you. Is it really not possible to co-habit? If not then. as long as eggs aren’t there yet, perhaps smother the nest with twigs yourself to persuade them to start again elsewhere, otherwise they might simply begin again in the same spot.

I once had a wren’s nest just above my exit to the garden at the back. I put up with it and only was encouraged to find out more about them and their habits. No wrens this year, but the nest is still intact.

You may find this article helpful

Pigeon Nesting: How to Spot, Support and Deter Nesting Birds.

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I’m for ‘Live and let live’.

:bird:

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Live and let live needs to be respected on both sides. :slight_smile:

If Tory finds birds scary, especially ones that fly low and are big, then I would suggest it is appropriate to encourage the pigeon to make a nest elsewhere.

It also seems to be above the space where her outdoor kitchen is situated and quite frankly having parent and baby birds crapping in that area - and boy can they crap - I would suggest she has every right to ask the pigeon to find a nesting place elsewhere. Especially as the article I linked above implies that pigeons are birds of habit and they will continue to nest in the same place each year.

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Are the Chi seagulls as civilised and middle class as the human residents? You’re a few miles inland but I bet you’d still have to deal with them and being dive-bombed by a furious mother trying to protect her babies and having to run inside as she’s trying to attack you is a right of passage for new residents!

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The trouble with pigeons is they are destructive birds. They shred new growth in the spring. You should see the damage they did to my plum tree. They seem capable of getting nourishment from anything green, so all plants, shrubs, trees etc are fair game. I couldn’t kill them but I do everything I can to deter them from sojourning in my garden!

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I drive them away by replying to them, I was trying to enter the conversation but all that happened was their replies steadily got further away. Perhaps learn to coo like a pigeon @toryroo . :thinking:

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I wouldn’t be happy with them that close to my house and as already said, the amount of s*** they fire out is horrendous. Getting rid of the nest at this stage is a good idea, they may try again but after a couple of attempts give up and move.

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They won’t be aggressive. Be nice to them, too few people are :slightly_smiling_face:

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I think the consensus seems to be to ensure they pick a different spot now while it will cause less disturbance to them and then Tory can be nice to them from a bit further away :slight_smile:

I’d certainly take the opportunity to ensure prime pigeon crap fell elsewhere than my outdoor cooking area.

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