The Great Pigeon Debacle of 2004

[leor]

So I wake up in the morning and find this:



and this . . .



and this . . .



so i'm pretty confused, i walk around the house looking for a pigeon, and mind you i have 3 siamese cats . . .

i can't find any pigeons, i've looked everywhere, so i go about my day.

new day today, i'm at my desk working and i notice the cats keep circling around my server rack, i start to get worried, i check around



below and behind it


again and see nothing,



then i hear some scratching coming from inside . . . !
I look in , and it's too dark to see anything, so i go looking for a flashlight, find one and some batteries, and . . .



Now i can't reach this thing, because it's next to my 150LB UPS that's bolted directly into the case, and I can't reach that far in. The space is about 2 and a half inches wide.

Any ideas? I'm leaving the house for a few hours and will deal with this when i get back.

[Hawkwing74]

Is that what I think it is in there....

What about a broom? Knock the bird out and let the cats take care of the rest.

[gja0548]

Shoot it....lol....BB gun shouldn't be too messy....j/k

[Usacomp2k3]

that's awesome...and how about a kitchen skewer? or fireplace poker

oooh..i know...take a can of compressed air, and blow it upside-down...

[dolemitecomputers]

Are those servers all for folding? Or do you have them running something else?

[gja0548]

oooh..i know...take a can of compressed air, and blow it upside-down...)

Even Better....a really big can.....good luck cleaning the bird crap after that though......

[UberGerbil]

Wow, that's... impressive.

Someone may have a better idea, but here's mine:

First, get the cats out of the room. The last thing you need is to have them underfoot and complicating things.

Get a couple of pillow cases and something like a cane or a hockey stick that you can stick in there. You want to throw a pillow case over it (using the cane or stick) so it can't see what's going on and to reduce its ability to flap. Then try to hook the cane over it and nudge it from behind, ideally into the second pillow case.

Easier said than done.

What will probably happen is that it will fly out of their and circle around the room, banging into things. I'm guessing you don't have a window in that room you can open to the outside, so you may have to turn the lights out and wait for it to settle down on top of something (cover up that gap, and any others, so it doesn't go back in there) or just try to shoo it towards the outside.

Good luck

BTW, the science-geek approach is to pump a bunch of CO2 onto it from above (rembember it sinks) to knock it out long enough to pull it free. I've heard of people doing this with mice and bats, but it sounds iffy to me....

[idchafee]

Is it dead???

[UberGerbil]

Is it dead???

I was assuming it was alive. It looks alive in the picture. If it's just been there a day or so it should be fine, unless the cats did it injury. If it's dead the problem is much simpler, since you can use anything from a fishing line to fireplace tongs to get it out.

[Convert]

He said he heard a scratching sound so I would imagine it’s not.

I don’t know if it’s wedged itself in there to the point it can hardly move but you could try a lasso… Use a stick of some kind to help you guide it over to the bird and pull it out that way. Probably pull it into a pillow case as suggested earlier or something else. Or just grab it once it’s close enough.

[PRIME1]

Do you have a shop vac? that way you could get the bird and the poo all in one shot.

My cat brought in some "snacks" into the garage and left them under a table. It started to smell pretty bad in the garage when we found the left overs

[Jebus]

Heh. Poo.
Create a small lasso with some twine and play rodeo with it. If you can actually lasso that thing in a space that small, I'd be very impressed.

EDIT - Dang, he said lasso right before me.

[just brew it!]

What I want to know is how it got into the house without you noticing. Are you in the habit of leaving unscreened doors/windows open? Do you have a cat door? Maybe one of the cats dragged it in (alive) and it escaped.

Truly bizarre!

From the amount of crap under it, I'd say its been there a while.

Are there any openings around the other side where you could stick the nozzle of a compressed air can into the general vicinity of the bird? You might be able to scare it into flying out the open side. Just banging on the other side of the rack might even do it.

[UberGerbil]

It looks like it has plenty of space to move. Pigeons commonly nest in areas smaller than that (under eaves, inside masonry niches, etc). I'd have my doubts about lassoing it, just because birds flap their wings when disturbed and they're quite slippery.

[UberGerbil]

What I want to know is how it got into the house without you noticing. Are you in the habit of leaving unscreened doors/windows open? Do you have a cat door? Maybe one of the cats dragged it in (alive) and it escaped.

I'd bet a lot that it was the cats. Which is actually pretty impressive, as pigeons aren't easy to catch. It looks like a typical wild pigeon, though it's possible it was a domesticated one and either wandered in (even wild pigeons in urban areas do some strange things) or wasn't wary enough around the felines.

From the amount of crap under it, I'd say its been there a while.

Actually that looks like about a day's worth. Ever park under a roost?

The shop vac is an interesting idea, though you end up with more feathers than bird. The crap isn't going to come out with that, btw, it glues itself down pretty good. Which is fine: once it's dried it doesn't smell.

[lex-ington]

Rat Poison!!

Marijuanna??

[Illissius]

woah
"pigeon invades server under cover of night", sounds like a story from the Onion or something. This should get more publicity than just the TR forums (front page anyone?), because it's cool as hell .
Oh, and don't give it to the cats. Getting trapped in a server for a few days and then ripped apart by cats upon release wouldn't be very fun :/.

[just brew it!]

Uh-oh... do I smell a Slashdotting in the works...?

[UberGerbil]

I certainly hope Leor gets someone to help with this. Not to help extract the bird, but to document the process to the limit of its (great) comic potential. Having started this thread with such a complete and engaging pictorial style, we expect no less than the full photographic treatment of its denouement.

[Hawkwing74]

we expect no less than the full photographic treatment of its denouement.

They really were some good pictures Leor, hope to see what happens next.

[Vrock]

Aw, geez...am I the only one who feels sorry for the pigeon? True, I don't live in NY or any big city so I don't have to deal with the feathered rats but still.

Poor little guy must've been damn scared of the cats to hide in there. Can't you take apart your computer to let him out?

[just brew it!]

Aw, geez...am I the only one who feels sorry for the pigeon? True, I don't live in NY or any big city so I don't have to deal with the feathered rats but still.

Poor little guy must've been damn scared of the cats to hide in there. Can't you take apart your computer to let him out?

Trying to scare it out of the rack with compressed air or noise is probably about as humane as trying to take the rack apart to get it out. Maybe moreso... he might accidentally squash it trying to take the rack apart with it still in there.

[IntelMole]

Call animal hospital

</UK joke>,
-Mole

[Vrock]

Aw, geez...am I the only one who feels sorry for the pigeon? True, I don't live in NY or any big city so I don't have to deal with the feathered rats but still.

Poor little guy must've been damn scared of the cats to hide in there. Can't you take apart your computer to let him out?

Trying to scare it out of the rack with compressed air or noise is probably about as humane as trying to take the rack apart to get it out. Maybe moreso... he might accidentally squash it trying to take the rack apart with it still in there.

Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe I'm built wrong, but I empathize more with animals than with people. I hate to see animals in pain and situations like that.

[TheDVDMan]

12 gauge shotgun, 3" magnum slug round should do the trick...

[Niteslayer]

Lets just hope the servers don't catch the SAL-MO-NILA virus from that bird, that would be FOWL...........

[Ricardo Dawkins]

pretty funny thread....good photos...

/me loves animals and computers !

[muyuubyou]

Assuming you don't want to kill it, pass on vacuum cleaners and poisoning

Your best bet is using a glove and beign cautious. Second option is the broom

[FroBozz_Inc]

LOL...The suggestions given are even more hilarious then the story.

that's awesome...and how about a kitchen skewer? or fireplace poker

oooh..i know...take a can of compressed air, and blow it upside-down...

the science-geek approach is to pump a bunch of CO2 onto it from above (rembember it sinks) to knock it out long enough to pull it free. I've heard of people doing this with mice and bats, but it sounds iffy to me....

Do you have a shop vac? that way you could get the bird and the poo all in one shot.

Heh. Poo.
Create a small lasso with some twine and play rodeo with it. If you can actually lasso that thing in a space that small, I'd be very impressed.

Rat Poison!!

Marijuanna??

Lets just hope the servers don't catch the SAL-MO-NILA virus from that bird, that would be FOWL...........

It would have been fun to watch the struggle btwn bird and cats.

Looking forward to more reports from Leor and his bird-eating servers.

Good luck w/ that poo....eeeww! ehehee

[FireGryphon]

This is a classic!

If the bird hopped in there to get away from the cats, maybe just getting the cats out of the room and closing the door will get him to come out. Maybe isolate the room, and leave a plate of birdseed. Come back in 15 minutes and pounce on 'em with a pillow case and set him free.

I can't say I'm surprised that the pigeon got caught by the cats. NYC pigeons aren't scared of anything. They're used to humans, and have few if any natural predators here, so the cats probably caught our guy by surprise.

EDIT: On second thought, maybe you want to put down a nice juicy steak. That bird's gotta be hungry!