Same here. And seagulls are amazing critters.
One thing I loved about San Juan (PR) when we visited was the Pigeon Park. People are encouraged to buy treats and feed the pigeons in that place, it probably helps to keep the pigeons close to one area of the town, so it’s easier to keep it clean.
You do realise that there is no such bird as a “seagull” don’t you.
There are Herring Gulls, Black Backed Gulls and a whole bunch of other gulls.
They still shit all over the place and attack people tho’, no matter what they’re called
What would in a fight, a pigeon or a sea gull?
I think most gulls would win against pigeons. They are more aggressive. What pigeons need is a SuperPigeon as hero and defender.
I’d say seagulls would win, too. We have lots of both in Bristol, and I’ve seen a seagull tucking into a pigeon carcass before, and you quite often see pigeon wings on the floor, where I assume seagulls have eaten the rest of the corpse. I’m pretty sure they’re just scavenging, but they clearly have a taste for pigeon flesh…
Who would win in a fight between a sea gull and one of those fucking evil Canada geese?
Well I reckon the gulls would gang up on the goose and give it a sound twatting.
Y’see gulls are vicious bastards and would readily form alliances if there was a meal to be had.
After the fight they’d then turn on each other
I know one anecdote is not data, but definitely the seagull.
A couple of years ago, I was working in an office with a wide ledge outside the window, and a rather plump pigeon settled down on it. I looked up to see a very large seagull land at full speed on the pigeon. And then tuck in.
Being something of a wuss I closed the blinds at this point, but the most of the pigeon carcass was there for a few days. (Apparently seagulls don’t like the taste of London pigeons much.) The seagull was at least twice the size of the pigeon.
A friend of mine uses radio controlled traps to catch pigeons. He has contracts with several municipalities to do this, making some decent money. He gets a few thousand birds in an afternoon’s work. He then turns around and sells the birds to sportsmens clubs who use the birds to train bird dogs, getting a buck a bird. He looooves pigeons!
My single pump pellet gun. (with rifle scope! 
)
Drive pigeons out of downtown?! Aren’t pigeons an important food source for the homeless?
In Soviet Union, homeless are important food source for pigeons.
Pigeons are not flying rats. They will mess thier own nest and frequently have their own poop on their feet but they are not especially dirty. They do not carry Avain Flu or West Nile Virus.
Pigeons are not wild animals either. They are considered feral. Pigeons were domesticated by humans sortly after dogs and long before cats. Pigeons like people and like being near them.
Pigeon breeding helped Darwin figure out his theory of evolution.
Pigeon racing is a sport that is as competitive as horse racing but, unlike horseracing, you don’t have be rich to own and raise pigeons.
Admit it, all those doves are pretty cool in the John Woo movies.
If the woman wants to feed the birds, she should do it at her house, not in the pubilc square. The only real way to get rid of the birds is to cut off their food supply. Killing them with posion does not work.
If pigeons are immune to poison, it further supports my theory that they’re Satan’s minions here to bring about the downfall of humanity (ditto for seagulls, and I guess geese too).
It’s not that the birds, as individuals are immune to poison - it’s that they reproduce so quickly, so long as there are unexploited resources available for them to use, they’ll easily maintain the population necessary to utilize those resources.
i.e. You can’t kill them fast enough to keep them from filling the ranks. So long as there is plentiful food.
Posion is a racket. Sure, pay me buku bucks and I’ll put down posion and for a little while, you won’t see any pigeons. But they’ll be back in a little while since you are still putting down food and sure, I’ll put down some more posion. For my regular fee.
A women near me puts bread out for the birds, but it’s the rats I usually see snacking. There’s apparently a huge warren of them right next to her house. I wonder if she gets them in her basement.
Mine?!?
Like people, or just don’t have a problem with them? Isn’t a major part of why they like towns and cities the suitability of buildings for rock pigeon-like perches?
When I first came to this little town 35 years ago we had a serious pigeon problem. Between an abandon railroad yard, all sorts of old brick buildings with decorative cornices and a Greek Revival courthouse there were pigeons all over the place. The answer then was for the city fathers to organize an annual pigeon shoot in late fall so as to pick up the annual migration of starlings and grackles along with the pigeons. Anybody who owned a shotgun was invited. The county sheriff provided the ammunition and supervised the festivities. From a select perch on the courthouse roof, I got a quartet, four birds out of a squadron with four successive shots (Remington 1100 with the plug removed). It was great fun but we had to abandon it because some of the more squeamish citizens found the sight of the town’s cats disposing of the wounded and the stragglers too distasteful to tolerate.
Instead the authorities went to a secret campaign of poisoned grain in feeders on the city hall roof. Just as effective but not nearly as much fun and not nearly as flavored by some degree of danger.
Pigeons – flying rats, even in a small town setting.