Jim Neal Posted August 25, 2023 Report Share Posted August 25, 2023 (edited) The site manager at our village school is at his wits end with the feral pigeons that congregate on the roof and tower. Apparently the guano is over a foot deep in places 🤮 He asked me if there is any viable active control method I could think of. Obviously shotguns are out. The only shooting I guess is possible would be a low power (?) air rifle but a bit dodgy safety-wise; you'd only be able to shoot in the direction the photo is looking towards, and obviously upwards with no backstop, which takes you over the newer school building roof and to the playground some 200yds back. I don't think it would be wise or achieve anything trying to do that, plus you can't retrieve the birds very easily but that's not really a problem with 50+ red kites visible in the sky at any one time round here! I'd personally look at preventive measures such as meshing the slats on the tower and fixing spikes on perch points, but he seems keen on some sort of culling so I said I'd see if I could maybe locate a local falconer, or at least someone familiar with the sport, to see what they think. Can anyone help? Thanks Edited August 25, 2023 by Jim Neal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd90 Posted August 25, 2023 Report Share Posted August 25, 2023 Where is it Jim?  Traps are decent if you got someone who comes regular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShootingEgg Posted August 25, 2023 Report Share Posted August 25, 2023 A falconer would be a good way to disperse and remove some, but you'd not get them all gone, I'd imagine as soon as the hawk was gone the pigeons would be back in. Sub 12ft air gun would work but as you say not exactly great backstops. I think netting and spikes is definitely something they should consider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted August 25, 2023 Report Share Posted August 25, 2023 what about elecronic measures...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultrastu Posted August 25, 2023 Report Share Posted August 25, 2023 Bait the birds down to the ground with some grain and shoot them with an airgun with a nice safe wall backstop somewhere .do it early on a Sunday morning when people are asleep . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisjpainter Posted August 26, 2023 Report Share Posted August 26, 2023 A falconer would be a great teaching tool. The kids would love it and it's a great way to teach them about wildlife management, predation and avian biology at a really accessible level. Serious cool points if your school's got a falcon on its list of staff members! How effective it would be in the long run is a matter for debate. If the problem's really that bad, the bird would have to be there 24/7 really and there are still no guarantees. In Dorchester town centre there are two churches with spires within very close proximity to each other. Pigeons love one and there are peregrines nesting on the other. Not much deterrent going on there! Netting works, but it doesn't look great and you'd need a heck of a lot of it. There's also the danger of it not deterring the birds but actively trapping them, which is a slow death and the caretaker won't thank you for adding 'untangling dead and rotting pigeons' to his job description. As @Ultrastu suggests, you might have to resort to Sunday morning shootings with an air rifle, at least for a while, to bring the numbers down rapidly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rim Fire Posted August 26, 2023 Report Share Posted August 26, 2023 A Falconer would have to come every day to work as a deterrent so unless they would pay i cant see that working as been said shooting is the permanent way to stop them  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Neal Posted August 27, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2023 Ok thanks everyone for your input. Really appreciated.  I think I’ll advise as I stated above, I’m not going to get involved in shooting, it’s not really my bag and I don’t have time…. thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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