Saturday, February 24

Not a Norwegian Blue and still quite alive

I like early mornings, it's the muezzin from H'san Arafe mosque, who's up a little before me. The minaret's loudspeakers have become louder lately and many of the neighbours complain. I don't mind, in fact, i like the sound.
Soon afterwards, it's the really early birds. Followed by
the sound of my machineta; espresso at just the right temperature. The sound of the "Ha'aretz" thrown over the fence and downstairs' rotweiler barking at the Ha'aretz messenger. Sometimes the next sound will be me, swearing at said messenger, as the newspaper landed, once more, directly into the open garbage can. Going downstairs (three floors) then up the stairs, finally i sit down, coffee, newspaper, a nice breeze coming in from the sea. I love the early morning hours. The pigeons are the last ones to wake up. The have their steady over-night places, on the ledge of my neighbours' house and my rooftop.
And that's where insult starts: I do NOT like bird droppings on my head, in my coffee, nor on my newspaper.

The pigeons are not impressed with my repeated requests and continue with their vile practice. I like pigeons, i like most animals. Unlike some of the neighbourhood boys who use them for shooting practice, and the local cats and even free running chickens, who see them as fair game whenever the pigeons leave their secure high spots and eat from the fallen ficus fruits, seeds and other nice (from their pigeony point of view) things on the ground.

Jaffa pigeons have 7 lives and their survival skills are way beyond imagination. Wounded or not, they keep on going. I hate bird-shit in my coffee.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

CITY SLICKERS
In order to prevent the supplier of the newspaper to drop the paper in the garbage can the solution might be to put the lid on, you dont want to feed the nightly rabbits do you?
A lot of communities fight pigeons because their left-overs do not only destroy buildings, it also is a cocktail of all different illnesses and kinds of parasites like fleas, lice, ticks,.............
You could order the most strange and often reasonable expensive items which only help the producer over the rounds.
Lets do it simple, use the things found at home and which have proven
to be valuable, get yourself for example a wine bottle ( no do not throw it at the bird, read the rest first) take an old sock, black ones are best and put it over the bottle.
Place this artificial cat near the spot where the birds are roosting, move it daily and store it once and a while, the silly things are not that stupid.
An other idea might be an artificial bird of prey, if there is no garden around to push in a spade ( the thing to be used is the handle) you take a large container and make yourself this T-piece of the handle and stick it into the soil.
Do not know if you are familiar with jute potatoe sacks, take one and and drop it over the spades handle, all birds of prey will avoid your place because to them there is another one sitting on your balcony, pigeons and all other feathered things may react the same.

The reaction of the Rottweiler is logical, he/she is an Arutz Sheva reader.

yudit said...

ours being a communal garbage can belonging to all of the building, it's not really under my control.
Actually most of us close it, but after it has been emptied out by the waste municipal disposal people, it's usually returned open, around 4. 5 in the morning. Now i COULD go up early and close it. but....

As to the pigeons.... they like my roof, as well as the neighbours' house My laundry, hanging to dry in the wind, doesn't scare them.
they even had the audacity to shit in that as well....

Anonymous said...

To know the enemy you have to transform yourself into one of them.
.......................................
...................... and give yourself another excuse to have an extra glass of wine.

Anonymous said...

Norwegian Blue is a parrot, a breed of pigeon, an intense blue colour?

yudit said...

just a montypythonesque manner of speaking, as the pigeon n the photograph is really wounded, but keeps hanging around

Anonymous said...

When living in a neighbourhood like yours one automatically switches over to the absurd humor of the Pythons, in a more "normal" world like ours Blackadder is more appropriate.