Paphos Life

You could go into Rambo / sniper mode, Lloyd, and arm yourself with a .22 Webley air rifle with a carefully aligned telescopic sight. Aim for the head, so the target is dead before it knows what hit it.

If these are the big fat Wood Pigeon variety, then a brace will make a fine roast dinner for two after plucking. They taste halfway between chicken and rabbit, quite nice!

If Doves, well, they are not much bigger than a blackbird really. Throw them into a field for the magpies to eat, or pluck four to share as a roast between two people.

If you are vegetarians and don't like the idea of using a rifle to kill pigeons and doves, the next best thing would be a highly trained Kestrel or Sparrow Hawk. All that would be left after their strike would be a pile of feathers, which the other garden birds soon grab to line their nests. Not even the bones remain after a hawk's meal...

Regards- AL

Morning.

Alan they will not let you use a gun here, they would lock you up!!

Locally, Lloyd, they are buying these Hawk kites pidgeon scarers you have seen them hovering over roofs in and around town, they seem to work, worth a try.




https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hawk-Ki ...

The pigeon scarers are a great idea in principle, but we have seen a fair few in tatters recently, or wrapped round poles. Someone locally put an ornamental owl on their roof as a scarer, only to see a pigeon on top of it one morning!

Lloyd, we had a Huge problem with them at our complex in Tala. The main roof areas were cleared by keeping the roof spotlessly clean after took over the running of the complex from the original developers. Prior to that i eliminated them using 'bird free fire gel' - from pigeonstop in the uk, which was 99% effective - the cleaners used to spend 2 hours clearing our balcony before we arrived, down to 5 mins.

Ian

I think Al has the right idea using falcons but wonder if there are any in Cyprus? Maybe this would be a good business venture for someone although I do believe there is a lot of training involved!
I have spoken to a couple of falconers here, one is a mediaeval falconer who hosts events in the local castles and both tell me they use the birds for pest control very effectively.

We are starting to get a problem with winged rats on top of our small complex in Universal, and I have just bought a hawk kit from a place on the Mesogi Road for €79.50 which is about triple the Amazon cost but instantly available. Our Russian neighbour told us that the Russian community is paying up to €300 for the same thing! Having sussed out the price and availability yesterday, we rushed up to buy one today before she told all her friends where to get them from for nearly a quarter of what they pay currently.

Which place was it?

On the right heading out of Paphos called Plantfix. They have a couple of the kites out the front so easy to spot. If you have your camera with you there was a ginormous lizard sunning itself on one of the very large earthenware pots at the front. Had a proprietoral air about it so probably there every day.