Help! - peregrines are eating all my brother's doves.

[ship]

Hi
Yikes - Peregrines are eating all my brothers white (fantailed?)
doves.
We could shut them indoors for a few days, but there isnt much room
and it's not a good long-term solution.
How can we stop it?

Keep Peregrines instead.

Are you serious?
Would keeping a peregrine scare off other peregrines?
What about sticking a stuffed peregrine on the roof of the house?
Or having a loud speaker broadcasting peregrine calls at rather large
volume?
That would probably scare away any wild pigeons, perhaps making the falcons
more likely to prey on the domesticated doves.

I'm not completely convinced by any of the arguments here.
One thing I should explain is that the doves live in a courtyard
and are quite tame. Therein could lie their one chance. The peregrines
are extremely shy - albeit determined. Hence something like loud
speakers
might well scare off the peregrines. Afterall the peregrine nest is a
few miles away
and there would be plenty other food nearer them.

Also have you ever tried eating chickens that have been fed kippers?
They and their eggs taste disgusting - so I reckon it's worth a shot.
A long-shot I agree. But all these doves are very distinctive - and if
the peregrine came to associate white doves with rather a nasty
breakfast you never know - it might encourage it to better tasting
food.

As to the ideas that peregrines have poor taste - does anyone here
KNOW this for a fact? I do know that they die if they eat just rabbit.
Perhaps someone from alt.falconry could comment...

Ship

[BAC]

<snip>

Post by ship
Also have you ever tried eating chickens that have been fed kippers?
They and their eggs taste disgusting - so I reckon it's worth a shot.
A long-shot I agree. But all these doves are very distinctive - and if
the peregrine came to associate white doves with rather a nasty
breakfast you never know - it might encourage it to better tasting
food.
As to the ideas that peregrines have poor taste - does anyone here
KNOW this for a fact? I do know that they die if they eat just rabbit.
Perhaps someone from alt.falconry could comment...

I don't know whether peregrines have a poor sense of taste, but I do know
they do not feed exclusively on pigeons, nor even on birds. They have even
been reported to have scavenged dead fish carcasses, so, if they're hungry
enough, I doubt whether a taste of kipper would put them off.

Nevertheless, I understand the UK Raptor Working Group was working on
evaluating means of deterrence of peregrines and sparrowhawks in the
vicinity of pigeon lofts, but I don't know whether the 'kipper' method has
been under investigation.

There was consideration of the effectiveness of various means of 'loft'
deterrents published in

http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/PIGEONS_RAPTORS_REPORT.pdf

(an interesting read in its own right)

but I regret I don't believe you will find the 'results' very encouraging.