Scaring the Scary Pigeons

City-dwellers know that pigeons can be really annoying. Even more so if they've decided to take up residence on your balcony.

In a recent one-hit wonders post, I mentioned that we were having this problem, though I understand if you didn't realize I wasn't joking there.

The truthiness of the "facts" about myself given in a one-hit wonders post can range anywhere from "absolutely, positively true" to "if you thought this was even remotely true, you'd unfriend me on Facebook."

So anyway, yes, this was a true story. Two pigeons seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time walking around our balcony. I spent the Sunday that I was writing that post continuously distracted by watching them waddle. We did not want this to continue.

Checking around the Net, the most often recommended solution was to use some fake owls to keep them away. It seems they're not perceptive enough to notice that the owls aren't moving. We went to Canadian Tire and picked up a couple of the owls that are in the picture above. I know I was scared by them! So surely the pigeons would be too.

And it worked!

We have not seen a pigeon on our balcony since putting them out there.

Supposedly, if you don't move the owls around a little bit, the pigeons do wise up and realize "Heeeeeeeeeeey, these things are fakes!" So about once a week, we go out there and reposition them.

We even had a crow land on our balcony railing and immediately fly off, landing on the balcony above ours.

Scared by the owls? I don't know. But it was cool to see.

I whole-heartedly endorse what the other web sites are saying. If you have a pigeon problem, plastic owls are the way to go.

It's no wonder it works, though. Looking into that face, wouldn't you be a little intimidated?