A few small bunches of fresh, clean, raw, organic spinach.

A few fresh carrots .

A few small containers of wheat grass (sold in the produce department).

Several ounces of unsalted raw peanuts.

Tie the spinach to the screen in the fly pen at beak level. This is irresistible to youngsters. Even if the spinach freezes at night, it won’t hurt the birds. We tied one little bunch (maybe six or seven leaves growing out of the same root stem), making sure the wire we tied it with was looped thru the spinach on the inside of the aviary and twisted on the outside of the aviary, so the wire ends couldn’t scratch or poke the pigeons’ faces. One bunch of spinach kept thirty young birds busy for two days.
The older birds were not particularly impressed with spinach. But small, raw carrot pieces, about the size of peas, barely sprinkled with a little table salt, sent the old birds rushing. To get the older birds moving, we put the carrots outside on the fly pen floor, away from the usual poop areas. The hens ate all of theirs in one day. The cocks are still working on theirs, four days later.
All the birds love wheat grass. Wheat grass is sold, live and growing in shallow plastic containers. Our youngsters perch on the edge of the plastic container until they capsize it. When the chunk of wheat grass falls out of the plastic, the birds attack the roots, the dirt it grows in, and the plastic container. They entertain themselves for two days with a container of wheat grass.
Crushed peanuts are always a hit. I try to give our birds something different to do every day. And I talk to them. We also listen to my favorite music while we’re all inside the loft. (Pigeon owners are allowed to be just a little bit “tetched”)!

• Also try some Also try some Pigeon “Candy” from Foy’s Pigeon Supplies

Loft fly birds ONLY when they are hungry. Fly them after 10 AM, when hawks have already done their AM feeding.

Blue jays are hawk enemies. Feed jays sunflower seeds, whole, raw peanuts. In winter they love raw hamburger meat balls. The more jays you have, the louder the “watch dogs(oops, birds).”

Crows chase hawks. Feed crows dog and/or cat food, peanut butter sandwiches, household food scraps, raw hamburger.

Neither crows nor blue jays hurt pigeons. Encourage both to make your yard their home.

Stay vigilant. Watch the sky in every direction. Keep a noisemaker close by: clanging pan lids, shrieking whistle, etc. Pigeons can out fly hawks; not falcons; not harriers.

Why not encourage a hawk’s enemy to live in your yard?? The presence of crows and blue jays really does deter hawks. Neither is interested in pigeons. I feed our Corvids peanut butter sandwiches, sunflower seeds, and raw peanuts in the shell. They live in a Norway Spruce stand on the “wild side” of the house. The deer live there too. The pigeons live on the other side (the domesticated side, where the cats and dogs and people hang out). In two years, we’ve had only two hawk attacks. When a hawk flies over, the jays screech, and in twos or threes, the crows chase after the hawk. The pigeons flee to the inside of the loft. No one comes out from under cover until the hawk is long gone. It works for us. I consider the money spent on hawk protection a premium payment for pigeon insurance.
While the birds are outside the loft , so are we. We listen for the call of hawks and constantly scan the sky. No music: no sharp, sudden noises. We make sure we loft fly the birds when they are hungry. They come inside quickly when they’re hungry.

A bird inside is a bird alive!

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This is a technique hot air balloonists use before lift off. The theory is that an 11” helium-filled balloon rises at 200’ per minute. A black balloon is easy to see.

I usually pick one up at Drug Mart, just before I am ready to watch it rise.

This takes at least two people: one to watch the second hand on the stopwatch, and one to watch the balloon. A third person could record the data if desired. 15 seconds from release, the balloon will be at approximately 50’. Notice the direction the balloon is drifting, if it is going fast, and if it is being tossed about. In 30 seconds, the balloon should be at about100’. Again notice drift and turbulence. The stopwatch person needs to remember to keep eyes on the second hand and call out each 15-second interval. At 45 seconds, 150’, etc.

  We did this as a Club, with everyone watching, so the “second hand man” called out each interval while the members spotted the balloon’s behavior.

  Everyone was surprised at the wind variations at the different heights. Many factors affect winds, but for sure, EVERYDAY while the sun comes up and while it is going down, the winds increase at ground level. Large open parking lots and fields heat up to increase wind speed also.

Then think about that little one pound bird navigating all those wind changes over miles and miles of varying terrain to get home as fast as it can!