A pair of pigeons seem to have just considered and then rejected the top of my bedroom air conditioner as a potential nesting spot. As I watched their pacing, darting investigations of its surface, I began to fret about the consequences of having unwanted cohabitants such as they. Was there a humane way to discourage them? Would I have to make a habit of looming in the window like some toothy predator, even though most New York birds seem to have decided that any six foot mammal can safely be filed under “patsy” rendering that strategy laughable? Was it ungenerous even to wish them gone? Their own dismissal of my accommodations saved me further unease, while leaving that familiar sting of rejection: what’s so bad about living outside my window?
Don’t think of it as rejection. I’m sure it has to do with the crazy housing market. Who can afford the rents in Brooklyn?
I would have to agree, the rent for that particular AC Unit must have been out of thier reach…
you can get those plastic spike things and put them on top of the airconditoner..
Pigeons used to live under a part on my next door neighbor’s roof at my mom’s house in Brooklyn. You could see them outside my bathroom window. Every winter, my family would take turns throwing snowballs at then, because by the summer, they’d make our driveway horribly messy.
I also had little birds living on the side of and under my A/C. They had eggs and everything. I didn’t want to hurt their babies, so the only thing we could do is throw the nest out after they left. They’d always come back the next year and get around whatever it is we tried to keep them away.
Very funny and lovely statement.
Doves vs pigeons
Are you sure they are pigeons, and not doves? If they are doves, they make the most delightful housemates. We have a pair in our courtyard, who spend much time sitting on our living room windowsill. They form life-long partnerships and are much less aggressive and a little smaller than pidgeons, and are a beautiful dove-grey. You can tell the difference because there tend to be only a pair per location, whereas pigeons move about in packs. Morning doves have a beautiful low cooing sound in the morning… the sounds of mourning in fact, very soulful.
Re: Doves vs pigeons
So funny you should say this, hon because they were in fact, doves. Or at least the female looked to have the sleeker shape and simpler beak that I associate with doves. Because they were sillouetted against my window , I couldn’t determine their coloring. And they did coo.
In any event they aren’t back today. I’ll have to mourn alone