Water pistols and wood pigeons

[spikey]

Now is the time when our damson tree starts thinking about sending out buds, Mrs Spikey and I start looking forward to freshly-baked damson pies, and the wood pigeons start looking forward to eating the buds off the tree.   Wood pigeons being fit for nothing but eating your crops and producing more wood pigeons, we hate the things with a vengeance, and when I come to power, they will be one of the first things to go.

 

Meanwhile, having accepted that any other way of keeping the blessed things off our tree would be either ineffectual or illegal, it occurs to us that the branches of said tree are no more than 5 yards away from, and are below, our bedroom window.  I reckon this would be well within range of a high-powered water pistol/gun/rifle thingy of the brightly-coloured, apparently pump-action, type that I saw an objectionable child wielding in the park last year.  

 

Does anyone have a child possessed of such a device?  If so, I'd welcome a user report and hopefully a recommendation of a good one to purchase. 

[tigerburnie]

I get my own back and shoot them with an air rifle and eat them, very tasty they are too, my grandsons have a Super Soaker, which I can vouch for the range as I have been hit with them, the range isn't that great though. Plenty to choose from here...…………….https://www.argos.co.uk/browse/toys/outdoor-toys/paddling-pools-and-water-games/super-soakers-and-water-guns/c:30354/

[Kingzance]

32 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

I get my own back and shoot them with an air rifle and eat them, very tasty they are too, my grandsons have a Super Soaker, which I can vouch for the range as I have been hit with them, the range isn't that great though. Plenty to choose from here...…………….https://www.argos.co.uk/browse/toys/outdoor-toys/paddling-pools-and-water-games/super-soakers-and-water-guns/c:30354/

I’m with you on that source of protein, the problem of course is the path of stray pellets.

[spikey]

4 minutes ago, Kingzance said:

I’m with you on that source of protein, the problem of course is the path of stray pellets.

 Indeed.  In our case, we'd be shooting towards the highway. 

 

It being illegal for some unfathomable reason to poison the wretched things, our only hope is a water warfare.

[jonny777]

I have used a super-soaker on the local cats, and it was quite effective; therefore I suspect pigeons would also be suitably deterred after a while. 

[polybear]

You could try a life-size plastic Owl in the tree...or maybe a Golden Eagle....

[Coppercap]

Woodies love getting wet - see how they sit out in all this rain while all the other birds are sheltering! They'd probably enjoy getting squirted!

[JohnDMJ]

This link may alter your view:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_fancier's_lung

 

Some types of pigeon are considered pests, vermin or tree rats because of this.

 

Any suitable (plastic) bird of prey, owl, kestrel, eagle would act as a deterrent and are sometimes used in stations for just this reason!

[tigerburnie]

1 hour ago, Kingzance said:

I’m with you on that source of protein, the problem of course is the path of stray pellets.

I'm lucky in having a great backstop with a 3 metre stone wall at the bottom of the garden.

[spikey]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

You could try a life-size plastic Owl in the tree...or maybe a Golden Eagle....

 

Alas, experience tells us that anything hung in or from the tree attracts the attention of the local morons passing on their late-night transit from pub to estate.

[teaky]

A pump action garden pressure spray should do the trick.  Buy a decent one and you can get the pressure quite high and thereby cover some distance.

[PatB]

Does anyone in the UK net their fruit trees, or is that exclusively an Australian thing? As far as I can see, it's the only really practical means of keeping large numbers of birds off over long periods of time, unless you want to spend every daylight hour on super soaker watch. 

[spikey]

7 hours ago, PatB said:

Does anyone in the UK net their fruit trees ...

 

Some folk do, but seemingly very few.  It's a non-starter for us on the grounds of cost: we'd need to hire a cherry-picker on account of the tree's size, shape and position.

 

We're going to wage war with water ...

[Ian J.]

A good place to put a bird of prey deterrent wouldn't be on the tree, but on a nearby perch such as the edge of the roof of your home. Being there it is in a prominent position to be visible to other birds, and is also out of the way of any potential miscreants.

[Compound2632]

They appear to be very robust birds. Bradley has a tale about a collision between a Stirling Class F 4-4-0 and a wood pigeon out on the Weald of Kent. The bird hit the safety valves hard enough to cause the engine to lose steam yet flew off unharmed [D.L. Bradley, The Locomotives of the South Eastern Railway (RCTS, 1963) - I read this about a quarter of a century ago so may not have the details quite right, but that's the gist as I remember it]. 

 

So if one can survive contact with a jet of high pressure steam, I doubt it'll be deterred by a mere water pistol. Standing under the tree waving your arms around and shouting may work.

Edited February 19, 2020 by Compound2632

[sb67]

7 hours ago, PatB said:

Does anyone in the UK net their fruit trees, or is that exclusively an Australian thing? As far as I can see, it's the only really practical means of keeping large numbers of birds off over long periods of time, unless you want to spend every daylight hour on super soaker watch. 

 

We net a cherry tree and fruit bushes on our allotment, pain to do but worth it when we're eating fruit crumbles later in the year 

[Kylestrome]

The trouble with the bird of prey solution, is that it might scare away all the small birds and excite the local crow population into frenzied mobbing activity.

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, Kylestrome said:

The trouble with the bird of prey solution, is that it might scare away all the small birds and excite the local crow population into frenzied mobbing activity.

 

@spikey's already mentioned the frenzied mobbing activity of the local human population, or part thereof.

[Giles]

Our next door neighbour has a plastic owl on his roof to deter the feral pigeons - but they're quite happy to cosy up to it......

[Joseph_Pestell]

43 minutes ago, sb67 said:

 

We net a cherry tree and fruit bushes on our allotment, pain to do but worth it when we're eating fruit crumbles later in the year 

 

We had our fruit bushes in a wire cage (former chicken run). Great crop levels.

 

Cherry tree is more difficult. We netted one year but a small bird still got in and then expired in its frenzy to get out again. So SWMBO decreed no more netting.

[jonny777]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

They appear to be very robust birds. Bradley has a tale about a collision between a Stirling Class F 4-4-0 and a wood pigeon out on the Weald of Kent. The bird hit the safety valves hard enough to cause the engine to lose steam yet flew off unharmed [D.L. Bradley, The Locomotives of the South Eastern Railway (RCTS, 1963) - I read this about a quarter of a century ago so may not have the details quite right, but that's the gist as I remember it]. 

 

So if one can survive contact with a jet of high pressure steam, I doubt it'll be deterred by a mere water pistol. Standing under the tree waving your arms around and shouting may work.

 

 

Believe me, wood pigeons may be robust; but they will get the message eventually if you are persistent. It took a while to get rid of the pair who had ideas on building a nest in our yew tree, but a regular tennis ball thrown up towards the branches had them flying off temporarily each time, until (after a week of that) they flew off as soon as I came out the back door each time. One day they never came back. 

 

You can't expect one squirt to have an effect. Patience over a number of weeks will be needed, or maybe a stuffed dead cat nailed to one of the branches. 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

15 hours ago, Kingzance said:

I’m with you on that source of protein, the problem of course is the path of stray pellets.

 

15 hours ago, spikey said:

 Indeed.  In our case, we'd be shooting towards the highway. 

 

It being illegal for some unfathomable reason to poison the wretched things, our only hope is a water warfare.

They can be trapped very readily. You want a cage trap with large mesh that will let the songbirds fly in and out 'advertising' the food available. Agricultural suppliers stock such things. Put it on a bird table so the hedgehogs don't get caught.

[Kylestrome]

2 hours ago, jonny777 said:

....... or maybe a stuffed dead cat nailed to one of the branches. 

 

Yes, do make sure it's dead before you stuff it. 

Edited February 19, 2020 by Kylestrome

[davefrk]

I've seen a tree netted by using long poles with the net attached to the ends and then swung over the top of the tree, might work for you.

 

Dave.

[polybear]

I recall a net going over a tree in the John Wayne film "Hatari" - pretty impressive stuff.  Only then they had to go in and catch Baboons - bvgger that for a game of soldiers.