An intruder !

I did think of doing that. Today I have to take a chair out to stand on so I can clean my car roof [covered in pigeon poo and as far away from the tree as is possible]. It will take the paint off if I don't. I can't have a bench outside the patio doors for the same reason. They're quite welcome to live at the far end of the garden, but they don't...

Anyone else who has invasive pigeon problems can take a leaf out of the orchadists book. Have a silhouette of a bird of prey station above the nest site. Birds do not like hawks hovering over them.

I have recently read a book "A Cast Iron Will" it was about Fred Dibnah the famous Steeplejack.

In the book he tells of working at a disused mill (sorting the chimney out) it had been overrun by pigeons for yrs n yrs.

He dropped his famous flat cap in a puddle of dirty water where it contained masses of pigeon feces .

He put the cap back on his head thinking nothing of it.

Few days later he developed red patches on his head, he had caught a disease from the pigeon poo that had entered his skin through and open cut.

He was very ill and had to take to his bed, if he hadn't called the doctor and been given medication , the disease could have spread to his eyes and he could have become blind..

Unfortunately, you do not come to terms with the fact that your being NICE is the cause of the intruder. You can not be both... nice for animals .... and want rid of the pigeons. You have to decide that the Pigeons will be upset and who cares?? My friend feeds cats.. keeps moaning and gettin in a temper because they enter her house, jump on the table etc... I told her .. the fact you give them food attracts the cats... she just does not get it. She lives on this .. "I am an animal/cat, luvvey duvvey crap. She now has 8 cats constantly entering her home and she constantly gets annoyed.... but guess what? She still feeds them??? I find this nuts. You either be nice or you get tough? You cant do both. They are not human you can not ask the Pigeons to please fly away.

What was the death caused by esspee?

My OH has been waging war against the feral pigeons nesting under our solar panels, so much so it has become a bit of an obsession with him.
Last weekend he had scared them away umpteen times and was standing speaking to me at the bottom of our back steps when an egg missed his head by about 6 inches and smashed on the ground. I couldn't stop laughing at their attempt to get back at him.
They not only carry disease (not a myth - our local hospital had a recent death attributed to pigeons) but their copious droppings damage your roof, their debris block the gutters and their cooing is highly disturbing if you are trying to sleep.

I have a variety of birds in my garden, had a robin yesterday, collared doves,loads of magpies, but chased a few magpies away a few weeks ago, as one was actually stood on a pigeon and the others were just stood looking, poor bird,the magpie flew off with it,
I have recently had crows which i don;t like much, they find anything to eat and dip it in the bird bath before eating itSalsaQueen i have had that birdbath for years,it had a small bird in the middle when i got it, but it broke off
Also have achheky squirrel which tries to get any peanuts

Flying Rats my dad calls them.

its illegal to damage a birds nest until the end of breeding season i,m afraid....

Pigeons are amazing at how successful they are. They are clever and annoying. Wood pigeons on my terrace worked out if they body slammed bird feeder for small birds, it would release seed. They then left poos as large as a dog does everywhere. I gave up. Sorry small birds.

blondenana.........I've got exactly the same birdbath, and it often has one or two pigeons sitting in it like that. My cat takes absolutely no notice of any birds.

I have had to end a birds life after a mauling from our cat but it wasnt a pigeon Magicmaggie. I totally agree its tramatic. So far this year the cat has had three baby pigeons, almost the size of adults. He brings them into the hall and then proceeds to eat about half of each one head first and leave everything else scattered all over everywhere. When we come down in the morning it looks like a slaughterhouse and we usually have breakfast late to let our stomachs settle after the clear up. The parents seem very unconcerned and are still strutting around in the garden uprooting our new veg. Maybe its in retaliation!

meant to add pic

I have 2 trees that pigeons nest in, and it doesn;t worry me at all, they often come into the garden and the cats just sit and watch them, i think it is illegal to cut a tree down or disturb nesting birds

I prefer my pigeons casseroled. Game birds, which have none of the fat of domesticised birds are a agood and healthy food.

Pigeons are a nuisance, they damage my tall holly tree by flying in and out of it, they clear the hawthorn tree and the ivy of all berries so the other birds don't have a chance.

In future you would be better to try to stop the pigeons building a nest in the first place. Several years ago I pulled down a quantity of honeysuckle that had grown up into one of our trees. In the honeysuckle was a pigeon's nest which came down with some very small newly hatched baby pigeons in it. I felt awful about it but I couldn't save them in any way.

Last year I poked out a pigeon's nest from the holly tree after the babies had flown - it fell on my head and I was showered in filthy water! Ugh

Cruel!!!!

Couldn't you put up one of those fake black cats near the nest?

www.feathersite.com/Poultry/Pigeons/BRKPigeon.html
should answer your questions as to how long the nest will be inhabited.

I second Ellan Vannin, but perhaps you could put up some of those spikes that prevent pigeons from building over the door to your patio.

I have all sorts where I am....it is baby time at the moment. Love them all

We get them in our garden, and to be honest, I find their antics amusing.
They really are very timid birds and easily spooked. It also takes them ages to decide that they are brave enough to move from, for example, the fence to the grass.
Close up, their feathers are such a pretty shade of grey pink on their breast.
Yes, I know they can make mess, but they are part of our rich tapestry of life and we really should treasure what we have. We don't know how long we've got them for, especially as humans continue to impinge on the territory of many animals.
It would be illegal to disturb a nesting bird, too.

Collared doves are terrible flirts. I once observed one sitting with a big pigeon on a neighbour's trellis. The dove kept shuffling up close to the pigeon as the pigeon shuffled away. This went on for about three minutes until the pigeon flew off. I was in no doubt that the dove was after a bit of billing and cooing.

My tree surgeon refused to prune my hornbeam tree because he said there was a pigeon nesting in it. He said it was illegal to disturb a nest with young even that of a pigeon. Something about the Wildlife Act.

NanKate Pigeon eggs take 17-19 days to hatch and a further 8-12 days to fledge, so around a month maximum before any babies have gone. I have dozens of baby starlings around at the moment, perfectly capable of feeding themselves but still fuss the parents to feed them. They are adorable. Robins nesting in the teapot in the honeysuckle too.

Should have said *started to lay