Pigeons, Pigeons and MORE

 

 One morning I awakened to the sounds of "cooing" coming from my front porch.  I found two pigeons nesting at the top of the porch post.  They seemed to have found a home.  When I was having the laundry room and pantry remodeled, one of the guys doing the sheetrocking raises Egyptian pigeons.  He looked at the top of the post and said "there are eggs, you better get rid of those or you will have pigeons forever, she will just keep laying". He wouldn't do the task, and I tried but simply could not destroy those eggs. Little did I know what a nightmare this was going to turn into.  First I noticed that I hadn't seen "baby pigeons".  Now I know why. They do not leave "the nest" until they are seemingly full grown. And Jess was correct because these two parent pigeons went from porch spot to porch spot until all 4 corners now had 2 pigeons per spot and two crammed in parents.  I can tell you that I had to go out on my front porch 4 times a day to wash down the sidewalk which was now the landing strip for pigeon poop, not to mention the evidence trailing down from the top of the post.  The racket these birds made was not fun.  I would turn on the hose and spray them away, but as soon as I was back in my house, back they came, babies and all.

..Until my wonderful contractor could get over to solve this issue, I crammed the areas with pots and bricks and thought "well, that's that, no more pigeons". Wrong.  I found atop the bricks two scrunched down parents ready to nest on those bricks again.





 Finally Rodney arrived and he spent hours creating a perfectly sized platform with long spikes nailed in one inch apart.  $135 later, I clapped my hands and said "well, that's that, no more pigeons". Wrong..  
                   The next morning at 5AM I heard familiar cooing.  I absolutely could not tell you the shock to find 3 pigeons nesting on the sharp spikes, their legs hanging down between the rows of nails.  I grabbed the hose.  This was not a fun spray because the pigeons had no surface to launch from so they were wildly flapping wings. Eventually two were able to leave the area and one remained.  I was horrified to think that the pigeon was.... ewwww....impaled on the nail and I, who could not destroy the baby eggs, had to peel him from the nail.  But finally he lifted off and flew away from the water spray.    

.  Back came Rodney and he constructed a heavy wire "cage" from platform to ceiling, securing it so it was at long last pigeon proof.  We did laugh and say we hoped there were no pigeon wire cutters available to them.  .

That's my Pigeon Adventure, and I could have done without the experience.