So much poop

When I bought my condo there was pigeon netting covering the balcony.  It was ugly, but I figured it must be necessary if everyone had it up.  Over the next few years it decayed, and finally I tore it all down.  Never once did I see a pigeon.  For ten years the balcony stayed happily free of both pigeon netting and pigeons.

But not anymore.  This past month pigeons have taken up residence on my balcony and made a gigantic mess of the place.  We have constantly heard their cooing noises and rushed out to the balcony to yell at them.  Being hardened avian citizens of Toronto they are used to humans fussing at them and we had to get awfully close to make them run away.  Apparently they are quite sure that fussing does not lead to actual danger.

After a few weeks of this the balcony was covered in bird poop.  I got increasingly frustrated by seeing a place I love to hang out become coated in it, and realized that the fussing was worthless.

Today I went outside and the pigeon wouldn't move even when I got right up into its face.  When I came within centimeters of the creature it finally flew away, and lo and behold I found the reason for its incredible courage.

Not only am I running a dorm room for pigeons who make a mess and never clean up, I am also apparently running a pigeon factory to produce more of the pests.

Time to fix this mess!

I realized that the pigeons must be on my balcony for a reason - they are hunting for nesting areas.  They clearly want to be secure from the elements and hidden from the birds of prey that hunt them, so I yanked everything off the balcony.  The bike we had stored out there for years is now given away, the chairs are packed into corners or our storage locker, and the balcony is empty, except for the spattering of bird poop stains everywhere.  I will clean those up properly once it isn't freezing out there.

I also have to figure out what to do with the pigeon egg.  Pinkie Pie was sad at the prospect of tossing it out, I don't know if eating a pigeon egg is a good idea, and while I wanted to get rid of it with extreme prejudice, maybe a 'kill em all' approach isn't the best behaviour to model with a kid.  Children make simple things more complicated!

And then I will put up some new damn netting.  We had a good ten years there with no pigeons, but I guess the wheel has turned round again.