Will pigeons eat my urban cherry tomatoes?

Hey, urban-garden dopers,

I just moved into a new apartment in NYC, one with a fire escape that gets bright eastern sun. Since my parents grow cherry tomatoes all summer on their outside deck, I feel like it would be doable to grow a couple pots of cherry tomatoes on my fire escape balcony?

The only problem is that a lot of pigeons hang out around/on the fire escape. Are these pigeons going to eat all of my hypothetical cherry tomatoes? Anything, aside from putting up some big cage of wire, I could do to prevent it?

Errrr…do pigeons eat fruit? I have never seen one do so. I have never seen one eating anything that it wasn’t pecking off of the ground. But if you’re having a problem with marauding birds, hang up:

  1. a few junk CDs, or
  2. a fake hawk
  3. a fake snake (red, black & white works best - coral snake colors!)
    They scare the birds. Plain old scarecrows, not so much.

Best of luck growing your urban tomatoes! My father also is a very successful tomato-growing-guy. He starts his indoors. (down in the garage, with a little light bulb for warmth, I kid you not!)

For the record: Pigeons eat just about anything they can fit in their beaks.

They eat cigarette butts. A cherry tomato has got to taste better than that.