Advice needed

Hi there, I wonder if anyone can advise me?

Last Saturday a pigeon landed on my lawn. I saw that it had rings on its legs and it also seemed quite tame. It was obviously tired and very hungry and was easily caught. I made a note of it's numbers and through the magic of the internet I was soon talking to its owner. It was indeed lost and had flown from Scotland to South Wales. The owner advise me to look after it for a few days and let it rest. He said he though it might fly home as it was an older experienced bird but if it didn't, then he would send a courier for it. I did as he said and let it out a few days later. it was obviously feeling a lot better as it shot out of my shed like a greyhound out of a trap. I thought that would be an end to it but a few hours later i heard a flapping above my head and it was back. It stayed on my roof looking at me until 6 PM when it suddenly decided to fly off. It didn't come back so i presumed it had decided to go home. The next morning i went out to the garden early and low and behold it was back and this time it had brought a friend with it, another pigeon who also has leg rings. This other pigeon is quite a timid thing and follows the first pigeon everywhere. There was no way of catching them. I phoned the owner to tell him what had happened. He said the other pigeon wasn't his and advised me not to feed them for a few days and then to try and scare them off in the hope that his pigeon would decide to fly home. I also found out that it's a female, and i'm sure the other is female too as it is very quiet and doesn't coo or display. Anyhow, they sit on my roof looking at me all day then both go off at about 6 pm and turn up again at 7 am this morning and sit on my roof all day.

Later that afternoon i went into the garden to see if they were still there only to be greeted by a lot of coo coooing and looking up at the roof I see there are now 3 pigeons, the third one being a feral male who is chancing his arm with the two girls and is cooing and displaying his tail feathers... It was a bit of a Hitchcock moment i can tell you. I had visions of gaining a bird a day at this rate.

I managed to shoo two of them away for a little bit - the second female and the male - by making a loud noise, but the first female who is quite unphased by life, just looks at me like i'm an idiot and very soon the second female has flown back to be with her BBF and the male follows her and continues coo cooing and puffing his chest out trying to impress the both.

Obviously I don't want to start a pigeon colony, or my neighbours will never forgive me and all our houses have cats, including mine, so any advise on the best way to handle this.? They all flew off again about 6pm this evening but i'm expecting them back tomorrow morning and why fly off at about 6pm anyhow? what is the significance of 6 pm in a pigeons life. Do you think i ought to start building a pigeon loft? The way that male wouldn't take no for an answer i'm expecting there to be a few chicks. Can pigeons who have been brought up in a loft survive in the wild? and where would they go in the rain or even worse, in the winter... sheesh, as if i havn't got enough to worry about, i didn't expect this when i looked out of my window and saw that a pigeon had landed on my lawn.

Sorry to make my post such a long one.

Mella.

hi mella, welcome to the site.....very interesting story you have told us about there.

if it was me i would inform the owner that the first pigeon has made no attempt to return home, and that you require him to arange a courier to collect his bird and return it home........once this bird has gone then maybe the second timid bird might decide to return home, if not try catch it and report it to its owner for returning home.

once the racers have gone the feral shouldnt be too hard to get rid of....

You could try and put a plastic bag on a long pole and raise it up to roof level this should do the trick.
Don't feed any food or bread out for the wild birds while they are coming.
If they don't get fed then then they will move on.
But if you feed them, you will br encouraging them to stay.
Any pigeon a racer or feral will not continue to come if it is not being fed.
Simple scare tactics will work and they will not become a problem and move on.
You never know, if you have a local sparrowhawk, this may even do the job for you as they seem to have a great liking for pigeons.

David wrote:

hi mella, welcome to the site.....very interesting story you have told us about there.

if it was me i would inform the owner that the first pigeon has made no attempt to return home, and that you require him to arange a courier to collect his bird and return it home........once this bird has gone then maybe the second timid bird might decide to return home, if not try catch it and report it to its owner for returning home.

once the racers have gone the feral shouldnt be too hard to get rid of....

Will second that Mella

Gaz b wrote:

You could try and put a plastic bag on a long pole and raise it up to roof level this should do the trick.
Don't feed any food or bread out for the wild birds while they are coming.
If they don't get fed then then they will move on.
But if you feed them, you will br encouraging them to stay.
Any pigeon a racer or feral will not continue to come if it is not being fed.
Simple scare tactics will work and they will not become a problem and move on.
You never know, if you have a local sparrowhawk, this may even do the job for you as they seem to have a great liking for pigeons.

Will second that Mella

Hi and thanks for the advice.

I've decided not to leave any food out, ( in fact i haven't fed them for the past 2 days,) and hope they will simply move off into the town with their feral friend where there are loads of pigeons for them to play with.

So far, all 3 are still coming round early in the morning and leaving in the evening, and it's a bit sad sitting in the garden and having them watch me all day willing me to go get them some grub. I just have to keep telling myself it's tough love. :-)

Therese no hope of ever catching them so i'll just have to phone the first ones owner and tell him his pigeon seems to prefer the climate down here and has found herself a new boyfriend and perhaps might never come back.

Mella

ive often heard lost racers do this, apearing early morning and going in the evening........maybe they are going to a safe place to sleep for the night maybe ?

im sure the racers will eventually be able to be caught once hungry enough, and then be reported........but the thing is once reported you should really keep hold of them in a box etc as the owner will need to organise a courrier to collect them.......