Peregrine Nation

[muckefuck]

As I was leaving work last night, I heard an ear-piercing screech coming from the roof of the School of Business. It reminded me of the recording they play above the businesses adjoining the Howard El stop to frighten away pigeons; at first, I didn't know whether it was canned or real. But then I saw a smallish bird-of-prey-shaped silhouette on the edge of the rooftop. It was simply sitting there screeching as if demanding attention. After I'd been regarding it for a short while, a woman came by and asked if it was an adult or a juvenile. She assumed it was one of the brood which had nested on the Public Library downtown. (Click here for their rather lame Falcon Cam.) "I haven't seen any pigeons in my neighbourhood since they moved in," she enthuses, "it's great!"

Earlier the same day, I'd come across this article about an attempt to curb Hollywood's pigeon population by leaving oral contraception in rooftop feeders. The article mentions that supports find it "more humane" than "electric shock gates, spiked rooftops, fatal poisons or other mitigation methods." Do you suppose those "other methods" include falcons? Is introducing natural predators too red in tooth in claw for delicate California sensibilities or it could simply be that falcons don't like the habitat? Most importantly, I wonder which the birds themselves really find crueller: Occasionally getting eaten or trying year after year to bear young, only to fail each time.

(Naturally, mollpeartree, the problem has been exacerabted by soft-hearted enablers like the "Bird Lady [who] gained notoriety after city officials and neighborhood groups pleaded last year for her to stop dumping 25-pound bags of seed in 29 spots around Hollywood." I'm amazed that there was nothing they could charge her with. Even if pigeon-feeding is legal, couldn't you nail her for littering?)

Comments

[fengshui.livejournal.com]

She might have been doing it in empty lots or something. Littering is probably only illegal on public property. If she was dumping in empty lots and the like, the property owner might have a case, but why would they waste their time pressing it?

Also, I could see the City Attorney figuring it's not worth the time in court, nor the publicity from filing the case.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

If it discourages her and others from further dumping, then I would hardly consider it a "waste of time". After all, how much time is it going to take to keep all those feeders stocked with hormones?

Seems the publicity could go either way. Pigeon hate runs deep and wide. Just publicising this woman's actions could be enough to get locals to confront her in order to curb her actions.

[bunj.livejournal.com]

Just this year I've started noticing peregrines soaring over Grant Park from my window at work. It will take a lot more of them to make a dent in the downtown pigeon population, though.

Now all we need is something that eats geese. Maybe more coyotes? They could also help with the burgeoning bunny population in the city.

By the way, according to the Trib the city actually traps rabbits and releases them in the suburbs. Why bother? If you don't want to kill them (because I'm sure there are people who object to killing fluffy little bunnies, no matter how damaging or how populous) then please don't spend my tax dollars on such a pointless program.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Hey, the perches on my birdfeeder were too close together for pigeons to use! It was patronized exclusively by aggressive sparrows instead.

I say "were" because I stopped filling it when we got the cat. There was a danger that her heart might actually burst from hatred and unfulfilled bloodlust if I kept attracting sparrows to the back yard, right where she could see them out the window. And then a squirrel or something knocked it off the post, so it's broken now anyway.

[intagliosfera.livejournal.com]

Red-tail hawks are our local predators here in L.A. They do their best, but we need a heck of a lot more of them to make a dent in the pigeon population.

Now, if the coyotes could just sprout wings...