Pond Boss
Posted By: Cecil Baird1 The pigeon that won't leave - 06/12/10 12:21 AM
We had a pigeon with a black band on it's leg show up the other day. It was hanging around the house. No idea where it came from although we suspect it may have escaped an animal auction nearby that occurs twice a year.

Anyway it's quite tame and sits on my deck bannister or the roof all day and then roosts above the window air conditioner on my parents apartment during the night. My dog wants it bad!

So yesterday we put it into a cage and took it over to an Amish friend that lives a good 20 miles away. He has pet pigeons in his barn that come and go. That was yesterday evening. Today he's back here again.

I'm concerned either the dog or a hawk is going to nail him. I know that's the way of nature but we're not sure what to do. Any ideas?

I'll take pics as soon as my new camera battery charges.


Posted By: teehjaeh57 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/12/10 03:37 AM
Seems like a friendship destined to happen, Cecil. Why not make him a little house and feed him? Can't hurt to have him around...will he allow you to handle him? You could set him on your shoulder while you feed the fish - pirate style. Cooo...Cooo!
Posted By: Todd3138 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/12/10 05:10 AM
Originally Posted By: teehjaeh57
You could set him on your shoulder while you feed the fish - pirate style. Cooo...Cooo!


Arrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
Posted By: esshup Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/12/10 06:15 AM
Cecil:

Is there any number or id on the band? If not, I'll be needing some pigeons for dog training soon......... grin
Posted By: Bill Cody Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/12/10 02:35 PM
Cecil, Bird is probably a lost pet 'carrier' pigeon and used to people, although probably not the smartest pigeon in the loft. not carrier pigeon but homing pigeon - could think of right name. Arrrrg Matey- that is just what you need is a bird poopin' on your shoulder, but he evidently finds your place 'friendly'. Does it like fish food?
Posted By: Cecil Baird1 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/13/10 12:22 AM
Guys,

Apparently my place is good enough to poop on but he or she eats somewhere else. frown We caught him last night and didn't find any numbers on his band but possibly a very small 'p.'

This morning there was another one with a silver band standing next to him or her on the peak of the roof, but it flew away. Just before a thunderstorm this evening the bird made a beeline to the southeast as if it knew right where it was going. Hopefully it won't be back.

Scott not sure if you want a carrier pigeon training...
Posted By: esshup Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/13/10 01:34 AM
Not a Carrier pidgeon, but Homing Pigeons would do just fine. In the beginning I need to let pigeons fly away, and they'd be reuseable if I could catch them again. They really need to "home" here tho, 'cause it makes them easier to catch again. grin

The ones that the dog retrieves after they've been shot usually can only be reused a couple of times that day.
Posted By: Dudley Landry Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/13/10 02:58 AM
There are those who raise pigeons and enter them in homing competitions usually involving many, many miles. If any of the birds have a hard time of it and stop at our places to rest or re-orient, we should appreciate what we are seeing and not harm the birds. Bird owners highly value their birds and feel about them as we do our fish, only moreso, if you can imagine that.
Posted By: andedammen Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/13/10 12:10 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNNl_uWmQXE&feature=related
Posted By: esshup Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/13/10 01:26 PM
Originally Posted By: Dudley Landry
There are those who raise pigeons and enter them in homing competitions usually involving many, many miles. If any of the birds have a hard time of it and stop at our places to rest or re-orient, we should appreciate what we are seeing and not harm the birds. Bird owners highly value their birds and feel about them as we do our fish, only moreso, if you can imagine that.


I can appreciate that. We were at one trainins session in Central Ca. one weekend and a stray Homer flew in and was walking around the training birds in the cage. We put out feed and water for it, and made sure that the dogs didn't bother it. It stuck around for most of the morning than it went on it's merry way.

We'd sometimes get Homing "culls" from the breeders, and it took quite a while to get them acclimated to their new home.
Posted By: esshup Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/13/10 01:29 PM
andedammen - I was working on the Los Angeles Coliseum after the Northridge Earthquake repairing it from the earthquake damage when I saw a Raven pick a full grown pigeon off of a ledge, kill it and carry it away. I was wondering why I saw the pigeons scatter when a Raven would fly by, then I knew. I have never heard nor seen that happen again.
Posted By: Cecil Baird1 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 01:03 AM

Posted By: Todd3138 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 02:56 AM
laugh laugh laugh
Posted By: esshup Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 04:28 AM
That's a great picture Cecil. grin
Posted By: CJBS2003 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 05:54 AM
I've raised pigeons for dog training purposes in the past. It's amazing how far they will fly to come home. I've had them fly from south central PA back to northern VA in less than 2 days to get back home! I've heard of much further travels. They just took up too much time to take care of. I found a spot where wild ones roost at night so I just slip in there with a net and catch all the ones I need for training purposes now.
Posted By: adirondack pond Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 12:48 PM
SO that's why the pidgeon population is endangered in northern VA. grin
Posted By: jeffhasapond Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 02:38 PM
Cecil that photo is hilarious!!!
Posted By: esshup Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 04:19 PM
CJ:

I'll bring the bird box. I think I can fit 200 in there for the trip back home. grin

The lady that I bought the birds from in So. Cal. would go thru roughly 5,000 birds a month between the dog trainers. That would double if there was a *gasp* pigeon shoot that month. She had a crew that'd trap them from L.A. and the surrounding cities.

I never participated in one of the shoots, although I was invited. At $5.00/bird not including any side bets, it was too expensive for this 'po boy.
Posted By: CJBS2003 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 05:48 PM
Yeah, I found the pigeons on accident in a strip mall in my patrol area. I was doing business checks one night and stumbled across them. The birds stack up in this area to roost where you don't have to climb. You just walk up with a spot light and a net and go to town. I can usually catch 10 without much trouble. That's more than enough to do the training I do. I initially bought my birds from a lady who got scammed in some pigeon raising scheme. She had thousands of birds and nothing to do with them. I was able to buy then for $2 a pop from her and they were more than just your plain Jane birds.
Posted By: esshup Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 06:14 PM
CJ, that's a pretty good price for fancy birds. We were paying $1.25 to $1.75 per bird for plain old rock pigeons in the early 90's.
Posted By: adirondack pond Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 07:56 PM
First photo's of Big foot caught smuggling pigeons. shocked

Posted By: CJBS2003 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 08:34 PM
Suddenly my hunger has gone away and turned into nausea...
Posted By: Todd3138 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 09:17 PM
I'm with Travis on this. I have no desire to know what is REALLY going on in that picture, nor do I have any desire to know why you are possessed of it, AP!!! grin
Posted By: adirondack pond Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 09:45 PM
Inquireing minds want to know. whistle
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...s-trousers.html
Posted By: JKB Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/14/10 10:01 PM
Boy, That was goofy.

My mind only has a few more cell's left to store things as this, then it shall explode crazy
Posted By: Sunil Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/15/10 08:00 PM
Cecil, where are your dog's front paws in that picture?

The dog reminds me of one of the animals from Animal Farm.
Posted By: Cecil Baird1 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/16/10 04:53 PM
Originally Posted By: Sunil
Cecil, where are your dog's front paws in that picture?

The dog reminds me of one of the animals from Animal Farm.



I needed a pair of extra legs for a dog I was mounting so i cut them off. smirk

I did know a taxidermist that would yank out particular hair strands from his cat to make repairs on mounts or tie flies. For some reason his cat was very skittish and ran away a lot. grin

Seriously the legs are probably pushed up against the building or curved under. This dog is incredibly flexible and could be the dog world equivalent of a contortionist.
Posted By: Cecil Baird1 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/18/10 03:10 AM
Update:

The pigeon roosts for the night and poops here but is gone the rest of the day. I think someone trained him to do that. mad grin
Posted By: CJBS2003 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/18/10 06:29 AM
A pellet gun can solve that problem rather easily...
Posted By: Cecil Baird1 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/18/10 02:39 PM
Originally Posted By: CJBS2003
A pellet gun can solve that problem rather easily...


I know but my dad has become attached it. He's even cleaning up the mess! Says he may build a little hutch for it. laugh
Posted By: Cecil Baird1 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/22/10 12:49 PM
The bird has disappeared for the last two days. Perhaps it finally found it's way or the local hawk that patrols this area found an easy meal. No feathers or carcass on the property that I can see though.
Posted By: Todd3138 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/22/10 05:25 PM
We've had a female cardinal for the past two months that sits on our hot tub lid and then flies into the window of a guest bedroom all day long. She begins around daylight and the whacking sound of her head against the glass works as a nice, though unwelcome, alarm clock. We can't figure out what the heck she is doing, but literally she has been at this behavior for two months. The hot tub lid is covered in bird poop and the window is completely smudged up from her ministrations. We can't figure out if she thinks there's something inside that we stole from her or if she sees something that she thinks she needs or what. She may have a date with a pellet gun decoy if it persists much longer.
Posted By: esshup Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/22/10 11:14 PM
She may think her reflection is another female cardinal and is trying to chase it away.
Posted By: Todd3138 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/23/10 12:40 AM
Great insight, Scott! Never really thought about that angle. I still think I can help her chase that other one away if that's the deal . . . grin
Posted By: CJBS2003 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/23/10 08:30 AM
Scott has it right... Cardinals are very territorial and she is protecting her territory from the "other" cardinal. If you go to a store that specializes in bird feeding or look online, they make stickies that you can attach to windows that look like hawks or other things to help keep cardinals and other dumb birds from beating themselves to death on your windows and waking you up at the crack of dawn each morning. You can also use the stickies to keep birds from flying into your windows because they don't realize they are there.
Posted By: adirondack pond Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/23/10 10:44 AM
CJ those stickers sound like a good idea, I have Chickadees banging the big windows at the cabin all the time, usually their stunned and fly away after a few minutes.
Posted By: Todd3138 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/23/10 12:12 PM
Originally Posted By: CJBS2003
Scott has it right... Cardinals are very territorial and she is protecting her territory from the "other" cardinal. If you go to a store that specializes in bird feeding or look online, they make stickies that you can attach to windows that look like hawks or other things to help keep cardinals and other dumb birds from beating themselves to death on your windows and waking you up at the crack of dawn each morning. You can also use the stickies to keep birds from flying into your windows because they don't realize they are there.


That's really interesting stuff, Travis. Thanks.
Posted By: esshup Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/23/10 12:56 PM
My buddy in Wi. had to put stickers on the windows in one bedroom of their vacation home. The bedroom is on one corner of the house, and it has windows on both walls near the corner. Twice he's walked in the house and thought someone broke in by breaking the bedroom window to access the inside of the house. Both times he's found a dead grouse in the bedroom. He thinks the grouse are looking thru both windows and to them it looks like a hole thru some trees.

The grouse are near the peak of their population cycle now, and so far he hasn't had to replace a window this year.
Posted By: Todd3138 Re: The pigeon that won't leave - 06/24/10 02:30 AM
Wow! I knew grouse were pretty tough, but not THAT tough!
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