Just outside the walls of Chester Cathedral is an area known as the Kaleyard.
There is a gate in the wall that let the monks of the original abbey access their Kale plants.
It dates from around 1275.
Kaleyards is now a public car park and home to this pigeon loft.... a hotel for the local birds.
It's the only place in the city you can officially feed the pigeons.
Down by the river people are always feeding the swans... the feral pigeons do get their fair share.
To add a bit of colour I have added this image... taken on the 16th of April last year.
It's amazing to think two weeks from now the trees will start to look like this.... I hope.
Hoy!! keep the noise down matey... I'm trying to get a bit of kip up here.
The paved area below the loft is covered in... bird shi*... err droppings
Not surprising as there were loads up in the trees above their accommodation.... erected here a few years ago in a non-too successful attempt to control the feral pigeon population.
To control the bird population my guess is the eggs are removed as they are laid.
To control the bird population my guess is the eggs are removed as they are laid.
To see more wonderful birds click on the link below to see.
World Bird Wednesday
World Bird Wednesday
35 comments:
That is one big bird house (LOL)
too funny! i guess it would 'hope' to cut down on bird sh** er dropping elsewhere in the city...
I'd be interested to know if this means there will eventually be more birds in the city. :)
A central location for Pigeon s**t ... well I suppose it was worth trying!
until your last sentence, i was thinking oh goody, this is a great idea. so i guess it did not work as well as they thought it would. a great place for photos anyway.
Well that's a bunch of shi*!
To provide luxury accomodations for them to breed in is a joke, not to mention a waste of time and money! But, if it keeps their shi* from spreading throughout the city then maybe it was worth it. :)
Fun post Andrew!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
It seems like a good idea to try to keep them in one place. That's one heck of a nice house for them.
Great post! It looks so nice with this big house for them, but I can see its a problem with to many of them. Liked the catedral in the background to :)
I think I've got some escapees on my windowsills. I have to clean them every week. I hate pigeons around here, sorry. I don't mind the beautiful ones in the countryside but NOT the disease ridden, fat and getting fatter on McD fries greater Paris ones.
Good thing to invite anyone who is dreadful fear of shit. Oley, I said it.
Another reason to like Chester! Sorry, but I do like pigeons:)
I would enjoy sitting watching the coming and going of these guys but out of bombing range of course.
It forever amazes me to see dates like 1275, your history is so ancient and it is magnificent to see these buildings still standing! It's fabulous to just see your photos of them. So would the monks have grown the kale for the markets in their day? It is such a huge building I imagine hundreds of monks resided there?
What a beautiful pigeon loft too, who supplies the seed for this feeding station nowadays? Ah, on reading the signage in the following photograph I guess it's just a feeding 'area' rather than a feeding loft now.
Yes I might imagine the mess around the bottom of! A good spot for the council water-blaster guy. Do you have that term 'council' or it is something else?
Hope you see the green buds starting soon Drew.
Great shots Andrew, I bet not many places have an official pigeon feeding area.
An interesting concept, allowing the birds to nest and taking their eggs. I don't think I would want that job although there is huge job security in it!
It is so heartwarming to see an actual home for pigeons. Out here they are what we call the homeless birds as they just wander the streets and sleep atop telephone wires. Love that house. I also love that iridescent coloring on the pigeon. Fantastic shots.
How cool, what a neat home for the pigeons. Looks like condo size. The one place where I saw the highest count of pigeons ever was a trip to England. We stopped at the Trafalgar Square. Pigeons were everywhere. I will never forget that sight.
This is so funny. Very creative. Great story. We should do the same for our seagulls on the beach.
Wonderful shots of birds. My city also has similar structure for feeding.
Amazing! Never seen anything like this and I think it's probably a great idea. But the droppings...we have a similar problem with Canadian geese who hang at the local ponds. There is no easy solution. Maybe a geese B&B?
So funny ... a central place to feed the pigeons ... mmmm, sounds like it only created another problem!
I had a good chuckle over your title "B&B for pigeons" - brilliant! Great photos too.
Wow, I've never seen anything like that for pigeons! Definitely for swallows, martins, etc., but never pigeons. Here they normally just use buildings.
I wonder whose good idea it was to build this pigeon hotel? I suppose if it actually does help control the population it is a brilliantly humane concept!
Każda próba zapobiegająca zanieczyszczaniu miasta przez gołębie jest dobra. U nas jeszcze nie ma takiej zielonej wiosny. Pozdrawiam.*** Any attempt to prevent the pollution of the city by Pigeons is good. We have no such green of spring. Yours.
Now thats a smart dove cot, beats me why they go to all that trouble to house feral pigeons
so what is it with pigeons, are we holding on to them incase the government take over our emails and the price of stamps go up even more.
next they will have someone opening a stall to sell pigeon food.
Greetings from Oman!!!
Great images…will be back for more:)
Shantana
Love that hotel for the local birds!!
Great post Andrew - informative & humourous! I love the cathedral. I'd like to see more of that!
Lucky pigeons that call this house a home! Love the first shot with the cathedral in the background.
What an awesome idea! I love the look of the bird house!
An interesting attempt to control the population though, pigeons are a menace in the centro storicos here.
A pigeon hotel - now that is unique! They are a pest I suppose but seeing all the color in the feathers makes one realize how pretty they are. :)
Thanks for sharing Andrew!
Holy (censored) ;>)! That was amazing Andrew. Incredible. Never would have thought I'd find a post about feral pigeons interesting (we call them flying rats) but wow!
Even the part about the Kale was fun. I like veggies and all that, but Kale? -- Amazing (even way back then) that it was a major thing for the monks to grow.
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