It is forbidden

[Poulette]

Yesterday while I was feeding my pigeon friends in the backstreet, a car was coming behind me slowly. I moved to let it pass by me, and then the driver opened his dark glass window, you know like in a ganster movie... very slowly... I was thinking " Well a pigeon lover, or not?" He was the ennemy. The man with the mafia hat began to say "So it is you who attract the pigeons in the neighborhood, you know it is forbidden to feed them... etc." A panic red alert was ringing in my head, but I put my "nice lady" mask. I told him that I was not the only one to feed all the lovely birds, there are sparrows, robins, starlings too, that pigeons are really not flying rats, and in the winter they have a hard time with all that snow, etc... Anyway we finished the conversation almost friendly, talking about the other birds who go to Florida for the winter and that finally we would like to do the same after all, and laughing together!!! And my pigeons had their meal

They are helping me to fight my social anxiety (with humans) after all!
Suz.

[Reti]

Glad it ended well.
Unfortunately not all humans are that open in changing their opinions about feeding the birds.

Reti

[re lee]

Its sad that some towns and neighbor hood have gone to the limits of trying to control feeding of the feral pigeon. Here where I live. I have never seen any body feeding the birds. Except small bird feeders. We have several large grain elevators And a couple of railroad yards. There is plenty of spilled grain on the tracks. So most the pigeons and other birds go there and get plenty of grain. We keep bird feedrs out for birds. And get different types thru the year. But most all the pigeons will go to the tracks and eat pretty well there. Even saw a brown check feral the other day. It had to have crossed with a homing pigeon somwtime back to get that color. There is a person in town that raises several different colors of homing pigeons. So I guess he lost a brown sometime back.

[cyro51]

Well done Suz!!! A true example of a gentle answer turning away wrath! I fear that in the same situation I would have overreacted and strirred up anger, which would not have helped the pigeons at all!

Cynthia

[elvis_911]

No , i used to feed pigeons at this one park with a historical building. Then they started using poison to kill them. and these men in blue suits , i belive security they kicked me off and i never came back . Some old lady started a petetion against it , who knows how it went

elvis

[Poulette]

Well I guess I would play the part of that old lady... The other poeple who throw old bread slices to the pigeons in the backstreet are certainly not as devoted admirers of pigeons as I am, but they still help the birds to survive in the cold and the snow...
Suz.

[SmithFamilyLoft]

Thank God for those sweet old ladys, who must be...gawd, I'd say at least 30 !!!!

Just once, I would like to have some jack...er...uh..person, tell me not to feed the pigeons. There would be more 100 pound sacks of feed put out, then that neighbor could swing a stick at !! Maybe it would even be worth getting "arrested". I can see it now, "what are you in for"...."feeding pigeons", sure would make a great human interest story.

[Poulette]

Well today I did succeed in moving my flock from the backstreet to the park near my work place (a 15 minutes walk). There is another flock there, so the 2 pigeon groups met today! I hope they always all wait for me in the park so the neighbors won't catch me anymore...
Suz.

[Pete Jasinski]

My neighbors used to threaten me about feeding so I came back with my own threat! I told then if they called the police and reported me I would make thier lives a living hell! I'll call and complain for every little thing from parking too far from the curb to music or mowing the lawn too early or too late plus everything in between. For some reason they haven't mentioned a thing about me feeding the pidgies since that conversation. Unfortunately you have to fight fire with fire in today.

[Reti]

Sus, that is great.
pigeons are so smart, they never stop to amaze me.

Reti

[Lin Hansen]

Hi Suz,

It takes some time, but Dano's method does work. I don't think you should have a problem with the pigeons as long as you only feed them at the park. They are smart and with time, will get the idea that the dining room is closed at your house as long as you never put food out there.
It must have been nice to see the two flocks "meet" for the first time.

Linda

[zoo keeper]

There is a very large feral flock about a mile from my house, I look at the birds in the mornings on my way to and from work. I have so many times wanted to go throw some feed so they would come down off the Mobil, Carrows and Mc Donald's signs, but I have been fearful that if I fed them they would start coming to the ground and someone might consider them a pest. So I just admire them and wish I could feed them. I would never want harm to come to them.

[TerriB]

I know, it's almost like the more you know, the more you're in a bind! We had freezing rain yesterday, so I scattered some of the pigeons' seed out on the side lawn for the wild birds.

[Poulette]

I found a newspaper article that says a guy had to pay a 255,30 $ fine because it is forbidden to give food to squirrels and pigeons in several cities in Québec Province... What a shame

My flock did not follow me this morning to the park like it did yesterday

Suz.

"La Presse
Nouvelles générales, dimanche 23 mars 2003, p. C8
À tire-d'aile par Pierre Gingras

Le crime de Manuel Munoz

[...] Sur le territoire de la ville de Montréal, il est interdit d'alimenter les écureuils et les pigeons en tout temps.

Le 17 janvier dernier, un juge de la cour municipale de Montréal a reconnu Manuel Munoz coupable d'avoir nourri des pigeons dans sa cour et lui a imposé une amende. Il est interdit de nourrir les pigeons dans plusieurs municipalités du Québec, mais les plaintes et les condamnations à ce sujet restent extrêmement rares. Manuel Munoz exhibe le constat d'infraction et l'avis de jugement le condamnant à payer 255,30 $ pour avoir nourri des pigeons dans la petite cour arrière de son logement, à Verdun [...]"

[ernie]

So it's you, why the feral pigeons in Montreal look so well fed.

My daughter was in Montreal last weekend and called me up exitedly:" Mom you have to see the pigeons here! They are the biggest and chubbiest pigeons I have ever seen!" They are huge.

Thanks for making the winter weather easier for them to deal with.