City-dwellers know that pigeons can be really annoying. Even more so if they've decided to take up residence on your balcony.
In a recent one-hit wonders post, I mentioned that we were having this problem, though I understand if you didn't realize I wasn't joking there.
The truthiness of the "facts" about myself given in a one-hit wonders post can range anywhere from "absolutely, positively true" to "if you thought this was even remotely true, you'd unfriend me on Facebook."
So anyway, yes, this was a true story. Two pigeons seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time walking around our balcony. I spent the Sunday that I was writing that post continuously distracted by watching them waddle. We did not want this to continue.
Checking around the Net, the most often recommended solution was to use some fake owls to keep them away. It seems they're not perceptive enough to notice that the owls aren't moving. We went to Canadian Tire and picked up a couple of the owls that are in the picture above. I know I was scared by them! So surely the pigeons would be too.
And it worked!
We have not seen a pigeon on our balcony since putting them out there.
Supposedly, if you don't move the owls around a little bit, the pigeons do wise up and realize "Heeeeeeeeeeey, these things are fakes!" So about once a week, we go out there and reposition them.
We even had a crow land on our balcony railing and immediately fly off, landing on the balcony above ours.
Scared by the owls? I don't know. But it was cool to see.
I whole-heartedly endorse what the other web sites are saying. If you have a pigeon problem, plastic owls are the way to go.
It's no wonder it works, though. Looking into that face, wouldn't you be a little intimidated?
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I've never had a pigeon problem but I'll surely remember the fake owls if they decide to invade my personal space. Have any solutions for neighborhood cats?? :)
ReplyDeletehttp://erinsdomain.blogspot.com
There's a book called "Joey Green's Amazing Pet Cures" that has a whole bunch of solutions with everyday products. I haven't read the book, but I read an article on it.
ReplyDeleteIn the article, it mentions that one suggestion for keeping neighbourhood dogs from leaving "presents" in your yard is to lace your yard with cayenne pepper. It worked wonders for him.
Don't know if that would work with cats, or if the book might have a solution for keeping cats away, but it might be a good place to start!
Dave, if you REALLY want to keep them scared off, simply keep a few one-hit wonders playing on the balcony next to the owls.
ReplyDeleteOh BTW, your followers are hiding.
ReplyDeletehey Dave think you for your comment on my blog. i am adding you to my blog roll. just a note they make a solar powered owl that move it head and flaps its wings when some thing comes near. pretty cool, you don't have to move them. thank you and god bless
ReplyDelete@Debra: LOL! Yeah, but unless it's hypersonic, that means *we* have to listen to the songs too!
ReplyDeleteOr are you saying that the *posts* are bad enough to keep pigeons away? Don't know if I should take offense to that. :P
@Roy: That is seriously cool, and probably something we'd invest in if we were in a house or out in the country or something. On our balcony, it would be going off every time we went out there. :)
But thanks for the suggestion!
Well, if you're going to start slinging "truthiness" around blithely, I'm going to pay attention! We had issues with squirrels one year when I was still living at home. They all developed a taste for the plastic coating on the wires of stuff in every car engine. This resulted in one of two of them getting sucked into the belts and getting squished, but mostly, it resulted in complete engine kill. To the point we had to have each car towed to get repairs done. Repeatedly. As in, 3 times for two cars and 5 times for one other car. And believe it or not, insurance DID cover the repairs every single time. Amazing, right? We found out that the remedy for this dilemma was to scatter moth balls in the area underneath each car where you park. Sure enough, it worked. No more squished squirrels and no more dead engines. I'm sure our insurance agent was grateful. And that's the truthiness of the story. :)
ReplyDelete~ Dawnie
LOL I *never* sling truthiness around blithely. I might do it without looking, though, so watch your head!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's an amazing story about the squirrels. I had no idea that kind of stuff happened! And what an interesting preventive cure, too.
Or maybe it *didn't* work and they started getting smarter?
"Hey, wait a minute...if we go in there, we die. That's NOT a good thing!"
Nah, it's probably the moth balls.
Glad your insurance covered it! That would have been a horrifying bill.