This is my post for #freewriters Wednesday prompt bird poop hosted by @mariannewest
Every fish house on the river had pigeons nesting in them. They also had every other kind of bird on the roofs, docks, and boats that were tied to them. People have tried all kinds of ways to keep the birds from sitting on their boats. Whatever they did would work at first, but the birds would get used to it and go back to sitting on them.
It would not be a big problem if they sat with their hind ends over the water but they did not want to sit this way. Nothing is worse than stepping down into your boat and slipping on a fresh slick spot of bird poop, then falling backward and you land in another pile of it, all wet, and stinky.
Back in the 1980s one of the fish house owners was trying to get rid of the pigeons, he was killing the full-grown ones and butchering them to eat. We saw that there were babies and did not know if he had killed the parents, so we took them home to raise. My husband built a cage for them to stay in until they could fly.
When we released them, they did not go anywhere. They roosted on our roof or if the garage door was open, they sat on it. They made a mess of it with their poop.
I was tired of their mess and told a friend who lived on an island, she could have them. The island was 20 miles from our home. The next day, they were back home. My husband had to go to a place that was 2 hours from our home so he took them with him and released them. A few days later they were home. We were stuck with them until they found a mate and moved on.
the picture was taken by me