"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

Jack Black said:
That's interesting Frank, I might try the CDs to try and deter the pigeons lofting in my neighbour's attic from dumping down the side of my house! 🤨:thumbsup:
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I'm not certain that pigeons are smart enough or wary enough to be startled by the lights. They are astoundingly stupid birds.
 
knarfeng said:
I'm not certain that pigeons are smart enough or wary enough to be startled by the lights. They are astoundingly stupid birds.
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They are really stupid birds Frank! :D They're very nervous though, and from what I read they are scared by reflected light. Many years ago, I lived in an apartment, and would be woken at dawn by pigeons nesting in the guttering below my window. I'd get out of bed, bang on the window, and the pigeon or pigeons would fly away. This worked for a while, but then banging on the window didn't work, so I'd have to open it. Eventually, this didn't work, and the pigeon would be sat there still making a racket. I got a length of stick, and waved that at the pigeon, which worked for a while, but eventually, I opened the window to see a stupid-looking pigeon staring up at me, unmoved by my stick-waving. I tapped the pigeon on the head, and it flew off. I was never woken again, and it was only after the problem was solved, that I realised that the bird waking me up every morning was the SAME pigeon! 🤨 Had I know that, I'd have cracked it over the head the first time it sat in the gutter! 😖😂

One of my grandfathers used to race pigeons, and was convinced that they were actually intelligent birds because they found their way home, often from hundreds of miles away. And all without a map and compass! :rolleyes: 🤣 :thumbsup:
 
knarfeng said:
I'm not certain that pigeons are smart enough or wary enough to be startled by the lights. They are astoundingly stupid birds.
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When we lived in Arizona, we had these two big picture windows on the back of the house. On a regular basis, pigeons would fly into them head first, which would always make an incredibly loud BANG throughout the house. Some would hit the window so hard we’d find them dead on the back patio, while others would be standing there looking dazed for several minutes. A couple times there was a dusty outline of the bird, wings spread, left behind on the window. Stupid birds, indeed.

One year we had ducks who apparently decided our pool was their own personal toilet. Surprisingly, all it took to scare them off was an inflatable alligator pool float. 😁
 
btb01 said:
When we lived in Arizona, we had these two big picture windows on the back of the house. On a regular basis, pigeons would fly into them head first, which would always make an incredibly loud BANG throughout the house. Some would hit the window so hard we’d find them dead on the back patio, while others would be standing there looking dazed for several minutes. A couple times there was a dusty outline of the bird, wings spread, left behind on the window.
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Sadly enough, small forest birds behave just like that. When we come to our country house, we usually find some of them lying dead around the house right under the windows. Poor little things...
 
Many years ago, there was a TV show called Bird Brain of Britain, which very surprisingly concluded that pigeons were the smartest birds in Britain.
 
Oops! Forgot to hit the post button earlier!
btb01 said:
When we lived in Arizona, we had these two big picture windows on the back of the house. On a regular basis, pigeons would fly into them head first, which would always make an incredibly loud BANG throughout the house. Some would hit the window so hard we’d find them dead on the back patio, while others would be standing there looking dazed for several minutes. A couple times there was a dusty outline of the bird, wings spread, left behind on the window. Stupid birds, indeed.
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I also get it all the time Barrett, they hit the windows with such force, I'm surprised they've never broken :eek: I was talking to a window-cleaner a while ago, and he told me a trade-term for the outlines, but I forget it I'm afraid :rolleyes:
btb01 said:
One year we had ducks who apparently decided our pool was their own personal toilet. Surprisingly, all it took to scare them off was an inflatable alligator pool float. 😁
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LOL! :D Didn't that happen to Tony Soprano?! :D :thumbsup:
screened porch said:
Many years ago, there was a TV show called Bird Brain of Britain, which very surprisingly concluded that pigeons were the smartest birds in Britain.
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Really? Maybe they took evidence from my Granddad! :D :thumbsup:
 
screened porch said:
1985.
Though the pigeons lost out to the "tits" in the end.
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Fascinating stuff Jer :cool: Maybe like TV programmes, pigeons have got less intelligent over the years! :D I don't think these street-rats had to do much to get fed :rolleyes:

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Racing pigeons are selectively-bred, with the 'best', (the fastest birds, with the best homing instincts), changing hands for thousands. I remember, as a youngster, seeing one picking up scraps with the 'street-moochers', and asking my granddad if I should go and get it. He told me that if it couldn't find it's way back home, it wasn't worth feeding! A couple of times a week, he would fly pigeons from the south coast of England, or even from France, and it was very rare a pigeon went astray. I'm not sure there's any intelligence involved though (I really don't know). My experiences are like Frank's, that generally, they are very stupid birds. I regularly see them sat in the road, blinking, as a car advances towards them, and they frequently sit there so late, it's the end of them. I don't know if wood-pigeons are more intelligent, but they are certainly cleaner, and more attractive. I've eaten woodpigeon, but I'd as soon eat a rat as one of the filthy urban pigeons I see :thumbsup:
 
Jack Black said:
Fascinating stuff Jer :cool: Maybe like TV programmes, pigeons have got less intelligent over the years! :D I don't think these street-rats had to do much to get fed :rolleyes:

TW8PKQc.jpg


6is19d9.jpg


Racing pigeons are selectively-bred, with the 'best', (the fastest birds, with the best homing instincts), changing hands for thousands. I remember, as a youngster, seeing one picking up scraps with the 'street-moochers', and asking my granddad if I should go and get it. He told me that if it couldn't find it's way back home, it wasn't worth feeding! A couple of times a week, he would fly pigeons from the south coast of England, or even from France, and it was very rare a pigeon went astray. I'm not sure there's any intelligence involved though (I really don't know). My experiences are like Frank's, that generally, they are very stupid birds. I regularly see them sat in the road, blinking, as a car advances towards them, and they frequently sit there so late, it's the end of them. I don't know if wood-pigeons are more intelligent, but they are certainly cleaner, and more attractive. I've eaten woodpigeon, but I'd as soon eat a rat as one of the filthy urban pigeons I see :thumbsup:
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I also recoil from the idea that pigeons are smart. I'd have to be pretty hungry to eat one.
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btb01 said:
When we lived in Arizona, we had these two big picture windows on the back of the house. On a regular basis, pigeons would fly into them head first, which would always make an incredibly loud BANG throughout the house... A couple times there was a dusty outline of the bird, wings spread, left behind on the window. Stupid birds, indeed.
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Last spring (robin mating season) I heard what sounded like knocking on our upstairs sliding glass door. Hearing it for the third day in a row, I hurried upstairs to see a Robin sitting on our balcony's railing looking at his reflection in the glass door. After a few seconds he flew at the glass. Bouncing off he returned to his perch until he apparently had recovered enough to attack his reflection once again and again and again. He was good for about 4 or five rounds per day and then the knocking noise would cease, but only until the next morning, when he'd return for a rematch.
I have never witness any of the above bird-brain behaviors from the brilliant Red Sparrow. :)
 
A few years ago, the Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources built a new office building. Birds were crashing into the windows with regularity. Dead birds littering the ground wasn't the impression MDNR wanted to make. Some almost transparent decals were applied to the windows and it mostly stopped. Doesn't seem like the decals would do anything, but they apparently break up the reflections or something. "Anti-strike", "anti-collision", "anti-bird" decals. Something like that.
 
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