My nemesis appears

[dorchadas]

Evidence of his foul presence:

Or perhaps I should say...fowl presence?

A pigeon has decided that it wants to just hang out near our back door, in the rafters of the roof above our back stairwell. It's not nesting there, as far as I can tell, since there's no nest in our planting pots nor up on the rafters. It's just found its favorite spot and sits up there often, and of course, wherever a bird habitually sits, the ground below becomes a toilet. There's a ton of bird poop all over our back stairwell now and it's too cold for me to easily go out and clean it up.

I've taken to using a paintroller poll to just periodically go out and poke the pigeon when it's sitting up there in the hope that if I make staying near our door too annoying, it'll give up and hang out somewhere else. Watch this space to see if that happens.

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

If you can reach the roosting area, at some point adding several strips of bird-scare tape may discourage roosting there.

Re: Thoughts

[dorchadas]

I was going to use some wire netting but if this works, it seems a lot easier to put up there. Thanks!

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Bird scare tape is cheaply available in rolls online or in garden stores. If you have a ladder, it's easy to tape down where you want it. If working with a pole, you might manage it with glue on one end of the tape. Strips 1-3 feet long usually work, so they can flap around. This article discusses multiple methods of pigeon deterrence:

https://web.archive.org/web/20200627052437/https://nymag.com/strategist/article/how-to-get-rid-of-pigeons.html

[omnipotent]

What a nuisance but hey, animals gonna animal.

I hope you can encourage your newfound tenant to find another home. Good luck!

[dorchadas]

Yeah I'm not mad at it--it's probably just trying to find somewhere out of the wind--I'd just really prefer that it hang out somewhere else.