[timm]

Greetings from Toronto fellow pigeon lovers. I discovered today that I have a pigeon nest on my balcony with two eggs. This is my fault as I built a little shelter out there for an injured pigeon that I found back in cold November. I brought it up and let it live on the balcony out of the cold. It eventually flew away after it healed but I forgot to deconstruct the shelter and now I discover I have squatters nesting in the same shelter.This is a problem as the land lord had installed pigeon netting on the balcony. I cut it so the temp guest could fly away.
So my question is what do I do with the nest and two eggs. Another oddity is that there are two eggs lying on the balcony away from the nest. They appear to be abandoned. the mother sits on the two eggs in the nest but ignores these other two eggs.
Ideally I don't want pigeons living on the balcony. Its frowned on by the landlord. I could probably get away with letting these eggs hatch but it can't go on and on with more eggs.

 

[Lovebirds]

Get rid of the nest, the eggs, take down the shelter structure and the pigeons will leave and build another nest. If you let two hatch, then there will just be more and at some point, whether it's now or next week or next month, everything would have to be removed. Best to just do it now and get it over with.
The pigeons may come back for a day or so looking for their nest/eggs, but they'll get over it, move on and everyone will get to live in peace.

 

[timm]

Thank you lovebirds for the reply. The deed has been done. I popped out on the balcony and waited for the pigeon to fly away which it very calmly did after about 30 seconds.
Then I scooped up the 4 eggs and the nest and put them in a bucket and placed them back of the building in the shrub area. The eggs I guess are now racoon food. better than breaking them I thought. I dismantled the whole shelter area and swept and cleaned the balcony. Interesting no poop in the shelter area or anywhere on the balcony. guess they don't poop in the immediate nest area.
don't feel so bad, as the pigeons had already abandoned two eggs which maybe blew out of the nest when they were away.
As there is still a cut away in the netting at the one side of the balcony I guess I will have visitors during the warm weather. Will just have to make sure to sweep every day.
I will make things up to the local pigeon population by distributing a loaf of bread in the nearby park. There are as many pigeons in this downtown neighborhood as humans I think. they are quite fearless. they routinely strut about in busy pedestrian areas and sidewalks. Others are regulars outside my bedroom window as well.

 

[Charis]

Timm..could you distribute some wild bird seed rather than bread? I know they love bread but it's kind of like giving them cake.

 

[timm]

OK will do. sorry bread is kind of a habit with downtown dwellers as pigeons always seem to be hanging around where people eat lunch and they know the people will feed them crusts from their sandwiches etc which people do because its fun to watch them eat, but I can buy birdseed no problem.
Quick question. Pigeons seem to be in a perpetual hunt for food. they are always pecking at the ground, whether it be sidewalk or grass. what are they looking for? whats their food if people don't feed them.

 

[John_D]

They will peck around in grass - or wherever there may be plant growth - to find grass or weed seeds, which are quite nutritious for them. They may peck on sidewalks sometimes because even a tiny speck of dried paint or whatever that visually stands out from the background may look lke it's a piece of 'something' they could eat.

John

 

[timm]

Thanks John.I'd often wondered what they were looking for in the grass. Sidewalks you figure they are looking for discarded human food that's edible.

 

[John_D]

I've seen pigeons just peck at a part of the sidewalk or other paved surface where there's just a little bit which is a different color, like they can't always tell without touching if it is something to be picked up or part of the surface. Maybe some pigeons have a problem with their vision ... I'd like to know that one myself! Oh, and when they are breeding (which obviously is a lot of the time ) they may also pick up tiny insects or snails from grass - must provide something extra which their diet generally lacks.

John

 

[timm]

update to balcony saga

Well its a good thing I did remove the nest, as within a couple of weeks, the landlord had called in Pigeon Guard to install netting on another of the 7 story verticals,(3 of the 4 south facing verticals now have pigeon netting) and while they were here they visited my balcony and repaired my damaged netting. They would have had a fit if there was a nest with chicks on the balcony.
Heavy snow during the winter of 07-08 had collapsed my netting and snapped one of the two by fours that was holding it up. I dutifully reported the damage but the landlord never got around to fixing it during the summer. So when I rescued the stricken pigeon and let it recover on my balcony last November, I thought screw it, I've already reported this damaged netting and you did nothing, so I will cut a hole in it so the pigeon can fly away when its ready, which is what happened. I was ready to blame all the damage, including the cut hole, on the snow storm of a year and a half ago.
Mind you I would not have been so brash as to cut a hole in pigeon netting that was in good repair. That would be ignorant; but with my initial damage being ignored for more than a year, I felt ok with adding a little to the damage.
If anyone wondered about the hole, they didn't tell me. I came home that day and had brand new perfectly installed pigeon netting, no questions asked.
Funny story about the stricken bird. It only relaxed in the shelter I fashioned for it for about a day and a half and then it was trying to get off the balcony. I lifted the pigeon netting enough that it could squeeze under which it was trying to do anyway and off it flew, however it had a "crash" landing along with several failed landing attempts on balconies on the way down.
Anyway it's only 7 stories, but I could see that it couldn't take off again and was dragging itself across the neighboring driveway to lean against the little wall and take the weight off its weakened left side.
So I went down, fetched it, and brought it back for more R and R on the balcony. Even though I was feeding it and protecting it from the elements, it wanted off that balcony, which is why I cut the hole a day and half later. Just to give it that option as it was flapping around the balcony again as opposed to huddled against the wall.
End of story I came home a day after cutting the hole and it was gone. No trace of it anywhere below either. So who knows where it ended up. It could fly. Its problem seemed to be landing and taking off.
The healthy pair that I discovered at the end of the winter had moved into the shelter that I failed to deconstruct. Amazing that they found the hole in the pigeon netting.
So having perused this board and with my recent experiences with these balcony visitors. I've set up a feeding station in the little park down the street. Small park. I drop the seeds at night when they are not there and by next day when I walk by in the morning, not a scrap of seed left. I add to the pile and still all gone by next morning.
Gonna have to find a bulk discount place or something. They eat like horses.
I may get up at crack of dawn and stroll down with a coffee and witness the feeding. See whats actually happening.
Thanks for all your help.

 

[wolfwood]

Take a cup of coffee (for you) AND another cup of seed (for them). Breakfast company is always fun!