Dumb Hibbing pigeon policy — from Jonny

[Steve Foss]

Jonny tagged this post on the end of a different thread on the photo sharing board, but it's more appropriate here, and with its own thread.

Heeeeeeere's Jonny!

"I pulled my feeders.....city of Hibbing passed a law a couple weeks ago that if you're caught feeding pigeons....automatic 50.00 fine.......pigeons are creating a problem here in town and the cities fathers came up with this idea....I certainly don't feed friggen pigeons but we all know they still come to our bird feeders...anyway.....no feeders....no birds to take photos......and with nosey neighbors...if they saw ONE pigeon at my feeders...they'd be on the telephone to the law.......guess my birding pics will be in the woods.... jonny "

[Steve Foss]

Jonny, the Mesabi Daily News ain't a great paper, as papers go, but if you call their city desk and tell them what this well-meaning policy has done, it'd be a great story on how people who want to do the right thing but don't think things through can screw it up for a lot of others.

If they don't care, the Duluth News Tribune might. There are many thousands of birders in northeastern Minnesota, and such a story would resonate with EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM.

And, if you want to take the bull by the horns, put yourself on the city council agenda and tell them what has happened. I doubt they realized at the time what the ramifications would be.

[jonny_redhorse]

LOL!sorry about posting on the wrong area..obviously shoulda been here..thanks Steve for correcting it.......Ya...I know there's going to be some "flack" at the city council on this issue no doubt(early yet)......I certainly will be watching to see where it goes(but....some neighbors think the pigeon ordinance is great(actually...I hate em myself(some of the neighbors along with the pigeons lol!)...kind of a "catch 22" thing here)......I smell revolt! jonny

[mcary]

It seems as though Duluth's bad ideas are spreading north. If I remember rightly, Duluth passed a similar ordinance this past winter. Just might add a little extra incentive for the News Tribune to run a story being as we seemingly have a few pigeon haters of our own. As a side note, it would be interesting to see if the legislation actually uses the term pigeon. Because, as any good birder knows, the bird commonly referred to as a pigeon is actually a rock dove. I don't know if true pigeons are common in the area. You could always keep your feeders up and fight it on a technicality

[AQUAJOE]

Can you shoot the Pigeons?

[M.T. Bucket]

Correction: Pigeons USED to be rock doves. The eggheads at the American Ornithologists' Union officially changed the name to Rock Pigeon a couple of years ago.

Pigeons are a never-ending battle. I feed the songbirds in my yard in town as well, but invariably attract a number of pigeons. One of my neighbors threatened to call the city on my for encouraging a nuisance...wouldn't have done much since there is no law here against feeding them. I just kept feeding anyway. I still get pigeons, but I have a few tips for you if this law is going to put a dent in your bird watching:

1) Feed stuff the pigeons won't touch (at least as much). Put out a finch tube with thistle seed, an orange half on a nail, a cage feeder with shelled peanuts, a dish of grape jelly, suet cakes with seeds in them, nectar feeders...if you have to give up your sunflower feeder, you'll probably find that your overall feeding bill doesn't change but you get a better variety of birds.

2) You could also try other bird attractants. Try planting some fast-growing fruit-bearing shrubs (dogwood, nannyberry, cranberry, crabapple) or conifers. Put out a birdbath (may draw pigeons?), build a wren box (house wrens are easy to attract, just build or buy a box to specs and put it in the corner of your yard closest to brush or a garden), or try hanging an onion sack with brushed out cat hair. Goldfinches love to come steal the cat hair during nest building season. If you can get away with it, a small brush pile in a corner of your yard might get you sparrows or juncos (I think I have a song sparrow nesting in my in-town brush pile) and of course planting columbine, trumpet creeper, or petunias will get you a hummingbird or two.

3) Find a neighborhood kid to plink the pigeons for a quarter or two a piece. He can take 'em home and have squab. I haven't found my little hunter yet, and my boy's not old enough for a BB gun, but I have taught my kid how to identify pigeons and told him he can use his hyperactivity or squirt gun to make them feel unwelcome...and he does.