Pigeon fancier next door

Morning, sounds as if you have a lovely garden attracting all sorts of wildlife and can understand how the pigeons next door are spoiling the enjoyment, in particular the mess they are depositing, especially when you have children around. Depending on how reasonable your neighbour is, I would have a quiet word with him explaining that the increase in flock is causing a mess which is a potential health risk to you and your family and suggest it would be better if he had a large aviary in his garden where he can let the pigeons exercise in between racing days (if that is the reason for keeping them) so they are not being a nuisance to neighbours. If the diplomatic method doesn't work and the problem is continuing I would chat with your local council (Environmental Health) and see if they can't send him a polite letter pointing out the responsibilities he has for his pigeons and any breaches of the law as it would come under the environmental health risk I think. As I say, better to try resolve issues directly with your neighbour but then again, not everyone is amenable to compromise ! I don't really have a suggestion to keep pigeons from entering your garden; we had a lot of wood pigeons in our last large woodland garden but then again they were wild and didn't belong to anyone. Hope your neighbour can either reduce the numbers of pigeons he keeps or construct an aviary large enough where they could fly but not cause a health hazard to neighbours. Sounds like you are a very reasonable and tolerant person so wish you the best of luck !

I'm not sure Hazels suggestion of an aviary would go down very well as every outing seems to be a training session for serious racing pigeon fanciers. When I lived nearer to the York area I was friendly with a number of pigeon fanciers sand almost every day some birds would be in a basket and taken for release miles away for a training flight. and the rest of the time stayed in the loft. It could be that this is breeding time for racing birds and numbers will reduce when the best birds are chosen, serious breeders get rid of birds they do not consider to be good.

The chat didn’t go down too well. He said my garden is big enough for it not to bother me. In his opinion.

His garden is about the same size as mine (approx one acre) but his is full of mature trees. His birds prefer mine as it’s more open and mowed lawn. As such the pigeons prefer mine to scavenge the floor.

I’m not sure calling environmental will help. He will know it’s me now and I really don’t want it to turn into some neighbourhood dispute.

I had hoped a fake bird of pray might be suggested but that would just effect all visitors. :(

Sorry your chat didn't go well with your neigbour and as Pete says, hopefully he will whittle down the amount of pigeons he keeps to his best racing ones; if you can bide your time for now and put up with the mess it is probably the best option to keep the peace with your neighbour although if things get worse then you also have rights ! Good luck and hope things work out for you. Thanks for the update and at least you tried the dimplomatic way.

Thanks for the help everyone

oh thats what I was looking for. I did wonder if they would scare other birds/rabbits etc. but may give them a try.