BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveClifton" data-source="post: 3657493" data-attributes="member: 48420">This story was covered by the PM programme on Radio 4 on Tuesday the 19th December (story starts just before the 37 minute mark-it's still available as a podcast on the BBC iPlayer).I have to say that my initial reaction to the story was pretty much in line with most others-it's easy to jump to conclusions in the absence of any proper explanation isn't it? But having listened to the above radio report, where they interviewed, amongst others, the inventor/supplier of the said spikes, I'm now of the opinion that this really was the least-worst option for those pigeons.The reality seems to be that a common course of action available to complainants is that a pest control firm would be called in to shoot the birds, or perhaps trap them and then take them away to be 'disposed of' (releasing them away from the site would simply result in the birds returning back to the roost site).In this case, the birds can simply go and roost in another neighbouring tree that doesn't overhang the car park, and consequently, they get to stay alive! Moving feeders away from patios and pavements to avoid a build up of mess/detritus would seem reasonable to most people wouldn't it? who would deliberately site them above a car park and have their pride and joy shat on? yet surely this is just another method (of many) by which we 'engineer' where we want the birds to go.You do wonder how many others who have reported on this story actually bothered to speak to any of the people concerned? but then again, why let facts get in the way of a good story...?</blockquote>

Verification