Spiky Montreal

Today I visited the place Lucky found me, Place Alexis Nihon, downtown Montreal. Since I had just bought a new camera, I decided to take some pictures.
Here is a pigeon relaxing on a restaurant sign:


Notice something? The spikes??? So I investigated further:



And further:



Here is a pigeon who is not letting go of his rights:


I don't know how I feel about these spikes all over the city...


As I was waiting for the bus, this gorgeous one came to say hello :)


And here is an overzealous male that's how we do it in the city :)


So...any thoughts? I have to say that this is better than poisoning or shooting the angels...but, does anyone have a friendlier solution?

Looks like the McDonalds sign is sprouting whiskers.

Poor little pigeons...it's difficult for them no matter where they live although t it does seem like there is an over kill of spikes in Montreal.
Irina...I don't have any easy solutions. The only one that is long term is education and the city lofts as we have talked. I don' know how you will talk Montreal into city lofts but if anyone can...it's you.

Spikes always make me sad and to see so many makes me even sadder for not only the pigeons but also the people who don't seem to understand how lucky they are to have such beautiful 'urban wildlife' at their finger tips.

There are no words for me to describe how much I HATE those darn spikes.

My neighbor behind my house has them all over the entire frame of his roof. I look at them everyday

Thank God my ferals have learned to stay completely away from them. When he first put them up one of my little rescues lost an eye to them

Only good thing I can say is that they are less harmful than poison, BB guns and glue traps. I'v had to deal with all of that as well.

Louise

I can understand why the pigeons are not welcome in those places, they poop all over the people on the sidewalk right underneath. There is a park right across the street where flocks of pigeons have been fed for years so they are not about to just move. It just makes me very sad to see the city like this, all these spikes... although I am sure nobody else notices. I really cannot think of anything else but trays or some sort of gutters right under the signs, or move the sings somewhere else, maybe right on the outside wall...I will have to look into this. I never even noticed those things until today. I don't know how long they have been there, although I have noticed less pigeons on the sidewalks lately. I will keep you posted.

That little black and white pigeon is very pretty.

EgypSwiftLady wrote:

Spikes always make me sad and to see so many makes me even sadder for not only the pigeons but also the people who don't seem to understand how lucky they are to have such beautiful 'urban wildlife' at their finger tips.

I say this everytime I see pigeons in the city!!!! People look at me with a crooked smile.. and then they realize that I am serious when I tell them that I have 10! I would love to watch ferals in my backyard. They ARE lucky.. :Yes: I agree.

My take is the same as Louise! I can't stand them!!!! But at least its not poison.. or that DREEDED sticky tape....

Does anyone know??? I had my dad put up CD's (hanging ones)) by thier doors and awnings to keep the songbirds away.. it works like a dream.... I wonder if it would work on pigeons???

It would be worth a try and a lot more attrctive than the spikes....but then it's not up to us, which is unfortunate.

I would like to have a few different solutions so I can add it to my proposal for the city of Montreal. How would the hanging CD's work in a case like Montreal? I am afraid I don't quite understand how they work...

http://www.ehow.com/video_4950652_scare-away-birds-old-cds.html


Ignor the commercial at the beginning of the video.
Ignor that the fellow talking calls pigeons nasty. He's ignorant.