On a recent trip to rural Shropshire I was shown the traditional method
of deterring crows from crops. A dead crow is staked to the ground.

At home I have some bird feeders on a pole with both seeds and fat balls
which are visited by a fairly large number of small birds, especially
when they are feeding young. The downside is that these small birds tend
to be messy feeders and drop food to the ground. This attracts Pigeons
which wait on my, and neighbours, roofs waiting for the food to be
dropped. One or two pigeons is not too much of a problem but over the
past year the flock is now 30 which deposit shit on the roofs which not
only discolour the tiles but also fertilise moss etc. I have tried
various methods to try and discourage them including a plastic owl which
worked for all of an hour before they were feeding within a couple of
feet away.

A couple of days ago one of the pigeons was killed by a cat or fox and
left on the lawn. On the first day afterwards no feeding pigeons were
seen and the number waiting on the roof was down to around half a dozen.
I covered the corpse overnight to prevent its removal by the prowling
wild-life and today the uncovered dead pigeon seems to have prevented
any pigeons returning to my roof or garden. The smaller birds are
feeding as normal.

It seems that traditional methods not only work with crows!


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alan_m Wrote in m
It seems that traditional methods not only work with crows!

A simpler method is to just stop feeding the birds seeds.

Like you we found that small birds are picky eaters and discard
90% on to the ground which then attracts pigeons.

We supply niger seeds, peanuts (in a cage) and fat balls and no
longer have a pigeon problem.

We still attract gold finches, sparrows, tits, nut hatches,
siskins, dunnocks and wood peckers.

Tim
--

In article ,
says...

On a recent trip to rural Shropshire I was shown the traditional method
of deterring crows from crops. A dead crow is staked to the ground.

At home I have some bird feeders on a pole with both seeds and fat balls
which are visited by a fairly large number of small birds, especially
when they are feeding young. The downside is that these small birds tend
to be messy feeders and drop food to the ground. This attracts Pigeons
which wait on my, and neighbours, roofs waiting for the food to be
dropped. One or two pigeons is not too much of a problem but over the
past year the flock is now 30 which deposit shit on the roofs which not
only discolour the tiles but also fertilise moss etc. I have tried
various methods to try and discourage them including a plastic owl which
worked for all of an hour before they were feeding within a couple of
feet away.

A couple of days ago one of the pigeons was killed by a cat or fox and
left on the lawn. On the first day afterwards no feeding pigeons were
seen and the number waiting on the roof was down to around half a dozen.
I covered the corpse overnight to prevent its removal by the prowling
wild-life and today the uncovered dead pigeon seems to have prevented
any pigeons returning to my roof or garden. The smaller birds are
feeding as normal.

It seems that traditional methods not only work with crows!

I used to hang a large dish below the feeders to catch the
discards, which other birds would then eat. Not many pigeons
around then, I was in the country and apart from the odd
collared dove the only pigeons we saw were in town1 Mind you we
did have our sparrow hawk, who kept th smaller birds on their
toes.

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

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On 21/06/2018 11:52, Roger Tonkin wrote:

I used to hang a large dish below the feeders to catch the
discards, which other birds would then eat.

I've tried similar with the bird feeders that have an inbuilt large bowl
like base. All this does is allows the pigeons to gain access to the
feeder as they can perch (with slight difficulty) on this bowl.

The dead pigeon is still on my lawn and not a live pigeon has been seen
today. Other birds are still feeding including on the ground beneath the
feeders.

Mind you we
did have our sparrow hawk, who kept th smaller birds on their
toes.


I've just returned from visiting friends in the Shropshire Hills where
it is very common to see Red Kites and Buzzards. However, close to my
friends house crows were nesting and if any Kite or Buzzard appeared
they were immediately mobbed by all nearby crows and driven away.

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On Wed, 20 Jun 2018 22:58:36 +0100 (GMT+01:00)
Tim+ wrote:

alan_m Wrote in m
It seems that traditional methods not only work with crows!

A simpler method is to just stop feeding the birds seeds.

Like you we found that small birds are picky eaters and discard
90% on to the ground which then attracts pigeons.

We supply niger seeds, peanuts (in a cage) and fat balls and no
longer have a pigeon problem.

We still attract gold finches, sparrows, tits, nut hatches,
siskins, dunnocks and wood peckers.

Tim

We had niger seeds out until they started to go mouldy! Not one bird
seemed interested. Fat Balls seem to attract all birds and in our
garden aerial battles of squabbling starlings :-)

On 21/06/2018 19:28, SteveE wrote:
On Wed, 20 Jun 2018 22:58:36 +0100 (GMT+01:00)
Tim+ wrote:

alan_m Wrote in m
It seems that traditional methods not only work with crows!

A simpler method is to just stop feeding the birds seeds.

Like you we found that small birds are picky eaters and discard
90% on to the ground which then attracts pigeons.

We supply niger seeds, peanuts (in a cage) and fat balls and no
longer have a pigeon problem.

We still attract gold finches, sparrows, tits, nut hatches,
siskins, dunnocks and wood peckers.

Tim

We had niger seeds out until they started to go mouldy! Not one bird
seemed interested. Fat Balls seem to attract all birds and in our
garden aerial battles of squabbling starlings :-)



It's peanuts that tend to go mouldy in my garden. A guest speaker at a
Women's Institute meeting that my mother attended suggested that many of
the peanuts sold as bird food in the uk are too small and hard.

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mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

alan_m wrote:

SteveE wrote:

We had niger seeds out until they started to go mouldy! Not one bird
seemed interested.

It's peanuts that tend to go mouldy in my garden.

Ditto, they hardly ever touch peanuts now, but the tits and finches wolf
the niger seed down.

In article ,
Andy Burns wrote:
alan_m wrote:

SteveE wrote:

We had niger seeds out until they started to go mouldy! Not one bird
seemed interested.

It's peanuts that tend to go mouldy in my garden.

Ditto, they hardly ever touch peanuts now, but the tits and finches wolf
the niger seed down.

here peaanuts were gorged on last week - but I didn't see it happening.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

On Wed, 20 Jun 2018 22:58:36 +0100 (GMT+01:00), Tim+
wrote:

alan_m Wrote in m
It seems that traditional methods not only work with crows!

A simpler method is to just stop feeding the birds seeds.

Like you we found that small birds are picky eaters and discard
90% on to the ground which then attracts pigeons.

We supply niger seeds, peanuts (in a cage) and fat balls and no
longer have a pigeon problem.

We still attract gold finches, sparrows, tits, nut hatches,
siskins, dunnocks and wood peckers.


Where do you live? We only get goldfinches, nuthatches and
woodpeckers around the Midlands.

--
AnthonyL

In article ,
says...


I've just returned from visiting friends in the Shropshire Hills where
it is very common to see Red Kites and Buzzards. However, close to my
friends house crows were nesting and if any Kite or Buzzard appeared
they were immediately mobbed by all nearby crows and driven away.

We get red kites here on the edge of town. But remember that
Kites and Buzzards are carrion feeders and do not usually take
live prey. Kites almost seem to enjoy the attention of the
crows, but seem to get tired of it occasionally and turn on
their side and "pretend" to grab at the nearest crow .... peace
descends.

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

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I know someone who uses an ultrasonic bird repeller to keep seagulls off of his pier and it works like a charm. The downside is that you have to listen to the sound of it every 15 minutes or so. It sounds like a rabbit in distress call to me and some people find it quite annoying. More tips on getting rid of pigeons https://homerepairgeek.com/home-pest...f-pigeons.html