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Pigeons, A Menace Or A Boon?

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by Tamrakshar, Jun 6, 2021.

  1. Tamrakshar

    Tamrakshar Platinum IL'ite

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    This piece was originally written as the feedback to the post of @SuiDhaaga, but as it became quite a bit lenghty, I thought of putting this on the snippet section.

    Jesus Christ! These pigeons have made my wife's life a virtual hell! During the last year, she has built a lovely mini-garden in our bedroom. This was possible because the windowsills in our house are 1.5 feet wide. She had purchased more than 15 pots with beautiful flowers such as rose, orchid, hibiscus, jasmine, petunia etc. She has worked hard to make these plants bloom. Thus, our room became so beautiful that whenever we shared the pictures of the lovely flowers, the viewers gave a rave review. But you know what?

    My wife's beautiful garden was turned into a hell by a desperate couple of pigeons. This lovey-dovey couple wanted to build their nest in our windowsill. There has been a steep rise in the number of pigeons in Salt Lake, as a lot of residents are very kind to these creatures. As it happens in humans, there has been a tough competition for finding a safe "ashiana" among pigeons. The said pair thought that our windowsill was the right place for them, and Boy! They were desperate!

    I must acknowledge one good thing about the pigeons. Whenever they came to our windowsill, they let us know by constantly cooing, even though it was 5 AM in the morning. In other words, they were not intruders, whatever they did they sought permission for that. However, it was another matter of fact that they didn't care for our approval. My wife tried hundreds of times to shoo them away in vain.

    As the windowsill was occupied by pots, they chose one after another pot to build their nest. In the process they had no qualms in sitting on plants which had lovely flowers. Their sitting on the pot had a disastrous effect on the plant. The plant died.

    My wife was furious. She said that she would take revenge by replacing the dead plant with a rose plant which had plenty of thorns. She thought that the pigeon couple would get their just desserts by sitting on the thorny branches.

    Unfortunately, she didn't know that pigeons have feathers, and boy there are three types of feathers in a pigeon! Naturally, the pigeons didn't care a hoot to the thorny branches of the rose. The mamma pigeon sat merrily on the pot completely ignoring the thorns. In the process she has ruined more than ten lovely plants.

    My wife was in a dangerous mood. She said that she wanted to kill them. I reminded her of the famous quote of Vivekananda that whoever loves a living being, actually loves the God. My wife got more furious, and asked me whether plants are living beings or not! I had no satisfactory answer, and she had her way. She said she would try the brand Hit, which is used to kill insects, on the unsuspecting mamma pigeon. My wife, too, was so desperate as the Mamma pigeon to save her plants that I couldn't deter her.

    Fortunately, the Hit had no effects whatsoever on the female. She might have been surprised by this abominable act, but she ignored it completely, and continued her normal routine of sitting on pots and thereby ruining the plants.

    Now, I have to conclude this piece, as it's getting longer. But, I will not deny you of giving the final result of the battle between my wife and the desperate pigeons. You must be eager to know who won the battle! Unfortunately, the battle resulted in a draw, as my wife throttled the innumerable efforts of the mamma pigeon to lay an egg. But, she could not prevent the ruining of 10 of her plants.

    She wanted to put a plastic net over the windowsill, but I said that this would prevent the growth of the plants. She gave me an ultimatum of one month to find a solution, otherwise I don't know what she would do. Now, I am contemplating of raising a sparrowhawk. What do you say?
     
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2021
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  2. MalStrom

    MalStrom IL Hall of Fame

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    Pigeons are winged rats, as far as I’m concerned. You can put bird netting over the pots. It won’t look great but it will let in light and air and keep the plants protected.
     
  3. SuiDhaaga

    SuiDhaaga IL Hall of Fame

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    Ouch that sounds like a bad situation.

    Yeah, maybe sparrowhawk will keep the pigeons away!
     
  4. Anusha2917

    Anusha2917 IL Hall of Fame

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    I can so relate to what you have written. Yes I also had my plants ruined by the pigeon couple . But more than that the trigger happened when the crows pecked the baby pigeons. I was tracking the growth of these chicks (just googled to understand that baby pigeons are called squabs). It was in one of the pots two tiny ones would be cooing and I would capture them in my phone. Give a protection when it rained n offer them soft food so they would not be in empty stomach. One fine day I saw that they were no more cooing, the mother n father pigeons were no more around. I went n saw one of the squabs had died and couldn't find the other. I did understand the crows had a role to play here. I burried the dead squab in one of my pots to avoid any stench entering our bedroom and decided to not encourage them anymore and found out ways to keep them away.
    Strangely(nothing to feel strange here I understand)the couple pigeon were back to their merry making days within a day or two(How I know they are the same because the female pigeon had a tinge of Green in her feathers and I verified it with the n number of pics I had captured in my mobile) . This time I shooed them and removed their temporary home which I built. Cleaned my balcony of all the poop and took a vow to not feed them again. This thought me that if you want them to be away put a bird net.
     
  5. Tamrakshar

    Tamrakshar Platinum IL'ite

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    Yes, that seems to be the only feasible solution. Thanks for your reply.
     
  6. Tamrakshar

    Tamrakshar Platinum IL'ite

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    Yes Suidhaga, I wish I could find one legally!
     
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  7. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    Thanks to OP for An interesting gripping narration of the plight of better-half to ward of the aggressive pigeons from damaging the flower pots that were close to spouse heart.

    Pigeons are close to fellow IL’ite @satchitananda and I think being specialist in capturing and nursing at times, she may provide OP appropriate answer to his question.
     
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  8. Tamrakshar

    Tamrakshar Platinum IL'ite

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    Thanks for the awesome reply Anusha! So, you were in the same boat!

    What you had observed about the pigeons is the normal behaviour for many animals. For example, you might have watched documentaries about lions, where a new intruder male kills all the young cubs to bring the females on heat. The birds we see around us, such as crows, mynahs, sparrows and pigeons are different. But, once the baby is gone, the female is back on heat, and the fresh effort of reproduction continues.

    In this regard, I would like to share my experience of watching a video on You Tube yesterday. This video was about baby storks. There were three of them. Initially, a sparrohawk took one of the babies. But later on, I was surprised to see that the stork couple themselves threw away the remaining babies. The documentary maker explained that the female was not the mother, but the male was the father of the babies.
     
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  9. Tamrakshar

    Tamrakshar Platinum IL'ite

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    Thanks Thyagarajan ji for your reply!
     
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  10. paru123

    paru123 Gold IL'ite

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    Even I was very much disappointed with the pigeons. I had planted few roses in pots on the window grills. And was very much interested to see them grow. But one day 2 pigeons came and destroyed few stems of my 2 rose plants. Usually we keep our windows open but that day were busy with something and the windows were closed. The pigeons made use of this and started to destroy the plants. I immediately rushed to shoo them away when i saw their shadows. I wanted my rose plantd to grow n give me good pretty flowers. So thought of ideas. Finally I found the remedy. Just hang in plastic covers darker the better. The pigeons get scared when they see the plastic moving and they never dare to come near the pots. I won the battle with pigeons. Though the covers look a little odd if someone from opposite buildings view at it. But I dont care , as I can now see that my plants are growing beautifully n giving many flowers without any hindrances.
     

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