Another case of intolerant neighbourhood

In my email I found this today:

Quote :

To view the thread go to:
http://forums.manhattanbirdclub.com/post?id=3688082

Subject: Pigeons of Egypt Beach

Neighbor built an addition as a result the pigeons who have always been here on the coastline of Mass. are sitting on his roof , because I have a birdfeeder in the backyard. He is harrassing me constantly with noise all night (he and his girlfriend are not working)and has said he will keep it up as long as I keep feeding the birds. I always fed them for years never a problem till he built this giant addition with this enormous high roof that overlooks this property. Anyways, one of the arguments they go on and on about is that these birds carry disease. This may end up in court at some point and I need to know where I can get it in writing that these birds do not carry any disease,any ideas? Thanks He also is shooting and killing the birds when he can . He shoots from his house to over to his addition.

Maybe someone wants to give advice here on this thread. I am passing this on because I just cannot believe how heartless and cold some people are, how full of hate towards probably any living being that does not bring any profit.

I myself made a very difficult decision today: I removed all feeding pots from my balcony in order to not evoke anything similar as above. I am very sad and my day was just awful today not being able to feed "my" feathered friends. But lately there were up to 20 pigeons on my balcony which creates a lot of noise of course. Too many - what possibly could get me into trouble one day and I don't want to receive any letter from a lawyer from some bloody neighbour who hates pigeons. People in Germany love to send lawyers because of any chicken-feed because most people have a defense insurance (I don't).

So I have to refrain everything to "our" pijjie family including our two youngsters Pina and Peppi who can feed at least in the living room where they still sleep during the night. The rest of the family I will continue to handfeed when there are no others around.

But I am truly sad :(

I am so sorry, Petra, this is happening to so many members. It is as if some people have a free floating hatred that needs a focus, so they pick on pigeons and those who care for them.

I struggle with the same issue.
Petra...your heart must be breaking.

Oh no, Petra, what a difficult decision to have to make! My heart goes out to you.

It feels awful, but you're thinking about the wellbeing of all those pigeons in the long term. It is better than to run the risk of someone taking drastic action against them, or preventing you from having contact with any of them, including the little ones that are so attached to you.

As for the e-mail, there is some good info online. Here's one:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/epi/epi-pigeon.shtml

I am so sorry Petra.
I can understand your decision, as hard as it must be.

My backyard flock has grown to about 50-60 birds.
We have new neighbors so I am being as discreet as possible when I go to feed them.
They, on the other hand make quite a commotion.

Thank you for posting the information about the situation in Mass.

As I already wrote to Charis privately - I thought I had found a solution for the problem of being able to feed "our" pijjies but the experiment went totally wrong.
Today we had sometimes 25 pijjies on our balcony despite the fact that I had no food outside. Each time when I tried to feed one of "our" pigeon family members I was nearly knocked over by the ones from the flock. I had to stop. They all were so aggressive today that I did not know what to do any more. They were fighting the whole day again and again although no food was outside. It was awful.

I am really at the end of my ideas and do not know what I should do. It is really nervewrecking because on one hand I am terribly sad to look into their eyes, knowing that they are hungry and not being able to give them what they need. You know how pijjies can look at you. It can be heartbreaking. But the noise is simply excruciating and the droppings become a problem too because a lot of course lands on neighbours' balconies which might cause a real problem. You know how people are.

I don't mind personally to wipe and scratch off the poop they leave on my balcony but I cannot play for the others. I really don't know what to do any more. If I stop feeding entirely for a couple of days - they (the foreigners) might eventually learn, I hope. Then I can feed ours again at least by hand. The whole situation is really causing me pain .
Any ideas or advice from you would be greatly appreciated...

Quite a few weeks ago I received a letter from the managing agents, on behalf of the directors of the freehold company (most of us own our apartments, but they are on a long lease - like 70 years - as we don't own the actual land). They told me to stop feeding pigeons forthwith or legal action would be taken.

The problem was that when I prepared to put food out in the morning there would be 40 - 60 pigeons swooping over from the roof across the street. In fact, there would be quite a lot outside even before they saw the twitch of a curtain, and I cannot dispute that they could be quite vocal at first light which in the summer months, of course, was very early.

So, I had to comply - mostly. They continued to turn up for a while, but I had over a week at Cynthia's at one point, and the mob did by then realize that signs of activity here no longer meant breakfast was served.

I do, however, have my little bunch of regulars who roost outside, used to hang out during the day and sometimes attempt to nest. My Capuccino is one I feel I have a special bond with, so when at home working or on those weekends when I am home, I can leave the door open on a chain wide enough for Cappy to trot in to get pigeon mix from his special food pot in the lounge. He usually waits on the windowsill when he knows I'm home and he wants to come in. Now and then, another bold one might venture in, but they are not all as calm and 'at home' as Cappy and panic easily at movement.

Now, it's not usual to have pigeons around for much of the day, Once they are awake and alert in the morning, most go off until evening, only the odd one or two (and Cappy) popping over during the day. I still leave a big water 'fountain' for them, well used in dry periods.

When my 6 - 8 regulars come back, I wait until it is barely light, then slide handfuls of pigeon mix or peanuts under the door so the few can at least have a good supper. They are not likely to be visible from anywhere else, and (mostly) gray pigeons in twilight, well, you get the picture.

Of course, when I'm away for a few days, they just have to make do, but they must be finding just enough from foraging to get by. If I'm at the office I can't always be home in time, either, especially once the clocks change later this month. But, I'll do my best for them and have no intention of seeing them go hungry once winter sets in. I shall try to ensure that where there's a pigeon there's a way!

John - thank you so much for your report. This gives me hope that the situation might be eased with time and a couple of tricks. Yesterday it was just awful - but today a few lesser pijjies came to the balcony so maybe in a few days I can go back to the old habit of handfeeding ours only.
My - I would have never thought that the pijjies could become such a problem and this only because of a minority of stupid asses...