Rats of the Sky
August 4th, 2009 -- Posted in ;P | 1 Comment »It started several weeks ago. It was 6am and I was sound asleep when I heard a persistent moan. Thinking it was just the upstair neighbors going at it again, I simply turned over. But on and on it went and my impatience grew.
Several hours later I woke up and walked past my light well to see a pigeon pigeon-ing around on a small landing at the bottom of my light well. Annoyed, I opened the window and shoo-ed it off.
Over time, the stupid pigeon seem to grow fond of my light well. It provided shelter from the wind and it was hidden. It would visit time and again and I would shoo it away time and again, each time shaking my fist in its wake. Often it would fly up to the top of the well and look down at me and laugh at my fruitless attempts to get rid of it. I couldn’t stand the ridicule and even resorted to slingshot-ing grapes and pennies at it. It would fly away only to return another day. He even brought a female friend there so they could have pigeon sex.
When I first moved into my place, one of the first things I noticed was that there were a bunch of qtips strewn about the landing. My bathroom window opens into the light well, so I imagine that someone had some qtips on the ledge and it had fallen over. Over time these qtips became dirty and grimy. Unfortunately, the landing is several feet down and not easy to clean.
I noticed a few days ago that the qtips seemed to have disappeared. When I looked closely under one of the pipes where the pigeon likes to hang out, I noticed a grimy-qtip nest! EWW! Evil pigeon had created a small nest out of dirty qtips. They are, indeed, rats of the sky.
Upon seeing this, I thought that I needed to move quick to build some sort of persistent deterrent before the pigeon starting calling this home and laying eggs. Yesterday, the bird came again in the morning and I shoo-ed it away again. I went to take a shower and came out again to see it there, chilling under the pipe eyeing me through the window. Typically, the pigeon will fly off at first site but it boldly stood there staring me down. Finally I opened the window and it flew off. Lying in the nest of dirty qtips was an egg!!
If you look closely at the picture above, you’ll see the web of strings I made after I discovered the egg. I’ve since removed the egg but the pigeons are up above wondering where it has gone. They’ve also started landing on the ledge of my bathroom window so I’ve added a piece of cardboard with nails through it (upside-down). The war continues….
