Atracting Ferals to your home

[John_D]

Originally Posted by flitsnowzoom

Well, you do get plain ol' pigeons in the country too. A couple of months ago, while driving on I-70 through the mountains, what should I see but a small flock of rock doves nesting and living in the cliff rock faces that are on either side of the highway. Altitude, about 9000 feet, weather typical Colorado spring. Blowing snow, rain and snow mix. So, they are very happy out in the cliffs where they get enough moisture and food to survive. Their real estate choice made great sense as only the big horn sheep and perhaps a very careful marten or ferret could get in there (land based). Hawks might as well, but I don't see many in that area.

That's really something, a feral flock reverting to true wild living, just like their ancestors.

That's just about the kind of situation wild rock doves would have in rocky regions in Europe where there are no coastal cliffs. Few of them these days, though.

John

[Florencevegan]

Flits, What will the rock doves eat out in the wild there? F

[Florencevegan]

Originally Posted by John_D

That's really something, a feral flock reverting to true wild living, just like their ancestors.

That's just about the kind of situation wild rock doves would have in rocky regions in Europe where there are no coastal cliffs. Few of them these days, though.

John

Yes, wild before feral, birds before man. Pigeons in early Bible books. Yes the chicken came before the egg. They like being wild.
[/color]My lady's a wild flying dove....

[warriec]

So you really want pigeons landing. This is what I did few years back when I started. It worked quite well. I did this because the boys down my lane were catching my pigeons.

From Cabela's I purchased 8 decoy pigeons which works on batterries and flutter there wings. I attached them to my roof and sprinkled some corn to male it more natural & voila - I got them to land.

[flitsnowzoom]

Originally Posted by Florencevegan

Flits, What will the rock doves eat out in the wild there? F

Well, I suppose they eat wild grass and sedges, berries, flowers, rose hips, lupines, golden banner (especially the seed pods), heath, knick-knick (pronounce the "K") berries, bearberries, currents, chokecherries, wild strawberries, lowbush blueberries. (Actually, most of that is pretty good eating, though the bearberries are icky tasting and the knick-knicks are so tiny and w/out much flavor. I haven't tried the sedges, flowers or grasses, I leave those for the true herbivores ) Pretty much anything they can find. A lot of those plants listed above are native to the subalpine and alpine areas here but I'm sure there's similar stuff in Europe. They just have to stay out of the areas that the bears graze in during the late summer and early fall (bears are great berry eaters), so they don't become part of the bears' dining experience
They get water from the various snowfield runoffs and creeks.
As these birds are along a major highway, I imagine they moved up from the metro Denver area -- darned smart birds!!!
It's pretty interesting, because the two closest towns either side (About 10 miles east and 15 or so to the west) of this particular flock do not have pigeons that I've ever seen.
It seems a rather comfortable life for a pigeon compared to living in the smoggy, dusty Denver environs. I think they would rather take their chances with the 4-legged and aerial predators, than with the 2-legged earth-based ones.

[SusanAmI]

What is a flat bird table? I am trying to attact our bird that got loose. Need some Real assistance. It responds to its name--neighbors think that it is hanging around their home and told us that we can hang out anytime--when do pigeons come down to feed. Our bird is not coming back to its loft...How do I catch a it? Please don't laugh...we would like our pet home again. We have a leanto and I could put corn (what else attracts pigeons?), and how would I setup an environment so that it would like to live under the leanto or
on top etc.? Please help? Where do I get bird nets? Someone told me that you have to hit them with lots of water and then net them, if they are not that friendly, but I want to catch in someway that it humane. Help, please.

[Flying_Pidgy]

hmm i was wondering if you had a local flee ( or flea not sure on spelling) market? I have one here and they sell pigeons ( usually feral color) for like 5 bucks. and u can buy a pair and put them on top of your house , or somewhere high ( in a well protected cage) so they can see their surrounding and learn your house for about say 2 weeks or so and always feed them in your backyard and realease them and leave food there for them so they know theres food there and they might have babies if food and condition is available all year long , and one pigeon will attract another pigeon , especialy if their the same type \ color. Pretty soon you will have lots of ferals!

[Lady Tarheel]

Susan, I think you could set any flat surface table, like a card table, in your yard and sprinkle seed on top.