Be it ever so humble?

When we first moved into this apartment we didn't know the pigeons had already claimed their space. I shooed them away and tried to scare them with a big plastic bobble-head owl. It didn't work and I knew I was in trouble when I saw a female doing the "let's do it" dance for the big plastic owl. With Spring almost here and the weather getting warmer, the little guys are getting ready to roost and make babies and these two think they have found the perfect two story "fly-up" just outside our window.

She sits in the abandoned flower pot thinking about how great it's going to look as a nursery and he sits above her, on the second floor looking so proud of himself for finding such a safe, protected home for his mate. I don't have the heart to shoo them away. I understand how great it feels to find the perfect home. I'm going to be moving into mine in 5 days and that old, crappy shelf isn't coming with me. As I move into my new home I will be ripping away their new home and putting in an alley for someone else to find and use and I feel kind of bad about that. Hopefully the new tenants will have something roost worthy that they will replace it with, otherwise Walter and Penelope are shit outta luck. (I'm pretty sure that's their names).

Hey, it's a tough market out there...

Who loves the sun?

Wednesday morning Lorna and I made our way over to Granville Island and took a brisk walk

on the seawall. It was so beautiful. This is my favourite time of year and the weather has been so perfect this week.

Note to self: maybe this is a good time of year to get married???

After our walk we grabbed a bite to eat and sat outside n the little public harbour area to eat it. The crowds of people were more seniors than anything else what with the kiddies back in school. Granville Island has a real issue, as far as I am concerned, with birds. Dirty, unhealthy, moochie pigeons, seagulls and even geese sometimes. They are aggressive, they shit everywhere and they will try to dive bomb you with poop if you're not careful. The worst part is they have no fear of people so they come right up to you begging for food. The most persistent pigeon yesterday only had one foot and came limping over looking for food over and over again. It was pretty creepy. The thing that gets me is how many people sit there and feed them. How can they think that they are doing those birds any favours? These birds are not healthy and are missing out on the nature that surrounds them. It makes me sad.

I like birds when they are doing their thing in nature but when they start relying on us for greasy french fries to live on they seem more like vermin to me.

why won't he notice me?

So, I'm sitting here this morning with my morning cereal, catching up on my favourite blogs when I notice this scene. I'm pretty sure she's a female pigeon and she's making the wooo-hooo sound so I think she' just trying to get the attention of some male pigeons. Then I notice her making her moves, ON MY PLASTIC OWL! This owl was designed to scare pigeons away but apparently, for some girls, it just makes him sexy as hell. Now this actually makes a lot of sense to me. I am surprised no one has thought about it. Let's look at the facts, he's bigger than the males she's used to, he holds a position of authority, he's supposed to be mean and her Momma says he's no good but he's never actually done anything except give her long meaningful looks. I mean he hasn't actually eaten or killed anything nor have his gang of friends situated around the building caused any real harm to the pigeon population. And, well, he's just soooo badass. wooo-hooo!

Do you think it could work out?

did owls and pigeons call a truce?

I live in a brand new 4 story apartment building with a little problem.

The pigeon is a common sight in urban areas ranging from small rural hamlets to large metropolitan cities. Historically, pigeons are descendants of the rock dove and were brought into the country by early immigrants.
The largest problem that pigeons cause is the tremendous amount of feces they produce. Accumulation of the feces may pose a health hazard to the general public. The fecal composition is acidic and occasionally erodes metal and stonework.
In many cases, pigeons present problems in and around the home. Permanent control of the pigeon is not possible because these birds have adapted to stress and the many sources of food made available to them in the urban environment. The most effective control available is the alteration of their environment.

Soooo.... The fantastic people who keep this building running smoothly have taken this problem on as there personal missions. We have spike strips, they make sure there is no food or roosting material anywhere on site and we can't forget the plastic owls. We probably have at lease 30 plastic owls strategically placed around the building.

Recently we couldn't help but notice that our deck was turning into a shit factory meeting place. Oh, they don't just shit, although they do a LOT of that, they also court and mate. This seems to involve a lot of chasing back and forth, it kind of looks like one of those shooting games at the midway. Back and forth, back and forth. Also, and this may be seagulls, someone has been dropping body parts of other animals onto our deck. So far there has been a raw, picked clean chicken back and some part of a crab or lobster. Gross!

We thought it might be time to get our own owl so I mentioned it to the building manager and a couple of days later I came home to this creepy looking owl. His head moves in the wind like a bobble head and it always seems to be backwards, and looking at me.

The pigeon problem is almost completely cleared up but every morning I watch this one pigeon land a couple of feet away from the owl, stand and look at him for a few minutes and then walk right around him. I think they are on to us.

Have you ever had to get rid of wildlife that was encroaching on your domain?