Bridge Pigeons

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sjohnny

Bridge Pigeons

Post by sjohnny » Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:43 pm

Last night I went looking for pigeons under bridges with my fishing net (my wife assured me that we did not have bail money so I was on my own if anything untoward happened). There were tons of them but they weren't in the places I could reach. I'm thinking about using pvc or a swimming pool net to lengthen my net but I won't have as much control with a handle that long. I then looked all around all of the signs and buildings in the area and they either have fences around them or are built in such a way to discourage the nesting of pigeons.

Any ideas of other places to try to find free pigeons?

Thanks,
John

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Don
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Re: Bridge Pigeons

Post by Don » Sat Jul 19, 2008 2:00 pm

Much much easier to catch in a nice dark barn or deserted building. You can do it under a bridge but usually to much light around. My net is an old smelt net. Really loose string net, deep net, with a long handle and extension handle (don't know where to get them any more). With a loose deep string net, when the bird is in the net simply flip the bird over the rim and it's caught. Mine is about 15 yrs old and I had to sew it up today.
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JakeDD
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Re: Bridge Pigeons

Post by JakeDD » Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:52 am

I simply took my fishnet and duct-taped my broom handle to it. Fully extended, I can reach about 18' or so. Has worked well in barns and under bridges for me.

DoubleB20
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Re: Bridge Pigeons

Post by DoubleB20 » Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:57 am

We catch them all the time here just west of Fort Worth. The trick is to find bridge structures that are steel with lots of cross-members. I have a fishing net taped to a swimming pool pole - will extend to about 20 feet. We have caught very few with the nets extended full length - too much time delay trying to catch them with that long pole, but it works great to "herd" the pigeons to the end of the bridge and have a partner there to catch them. You can use your hands or a short net - move slowly and it's easy. We catch about 50 in an hour or so. The bridges that have the purely concrete structure hold birds but they just fly away and aren't as willing to be "herded". It's fun, reminds me, I need to catch some more shooters. I always keep an eye out where pigeons might be roosting and then go ask the owner if I can come in at night and catch them, they almost always say yes because its a win-win proposition. Good luck!

sjohnny

Re: Bridge Pigeons

Post by sjohnny » Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:49 am

Thanks everyone.

I think I might try adding something to my net to extend it out some. There were a ton of pigeons under the bridge I tried. I've been looking around for likely barns and stuff but haven't had much luck so far. I found one old nasty barn but I can't figure out who owns the property.

John

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