Against the plague of pigeons: First successes in feeding - Taubenturm will follow in autumn

Created: 08/18/2022, 16:00

By: Elke Robert

Many pigeons have already left Marienplatz, but are still at the fountain because of the water.

© Hans-Helmut Herold

The pigeon feeding in Schongau has been going on for six weeks and it seems to be working: the first pigeons have left Marienplatz and have accepted other feeding places.

A pigeon fancier advises to take your time.

The Monuments Office still has to approve the Taubenturm anyway.

Schongau – City master builder Sebastian Dietrich recently informed the members of the building committee very briefly about how the city building office could imagine a pigeon house.

In order to bring the pigeons from the area of ​​the old town to the green belt of the city wall, a raised feeding station and a construction with nesting places are to be built there - in the stylized form of a city tower.

The wooden tower, placed between the Frauentor and the Sonnengraben, measures around two by two meters according to the plan, is four meters high plus the roof and offers space for 30 pairs of pigeons.

Stadtbauamt: "We are under time pressure, this should be implemented as soon as possible"

"We are under time pressure, this should be implemented as soon as possible," Dietrich explained to the building committee.

The feeding station should be set up during the summer break if possible, the hatchery as the second construction phase in autumn, the city master builder now specified at the request of the local newspaper.

The Schongauer Taubenturm is, so to speak, custom-made - according to the plans of the local building authority.

A guide for brood and pigeon houses was used as a guide, and a Schongau pigeon fancier was also involved.

The plan drawings are currently with the approval authority, only the monument preservation permit is missing - in coordination with the lower monument protection authority.

After that, employees of the building yard should carpenter the tower.

Taubenturm is made by the employees of the building yard themselves

The wooden structure, including the feeding system, is part of the municipal pigeon management system that the building and environment committee decided in March this year.

The aim is not only species-appropriate feeding, but above all the reduction of the pigeon population, which has risen sharply in Schongau, through birth control, i.e. the exchange of the clutch with dummies.

Although there are only around 150 to 200 animals in Schongau, a pigeon expert currently assumes around 1000 pigeons, according to Schongau's Deputy Mayor Daniela Puzzovio, who is very involved in pigeon management.

Based on the city towers, a wooden tower is to be built for the pigeons, with the feeding station on the right © Stadt Schongau

On July 11, the city began feeding them.

City employees are out and about every morning and in the afternoon a team of six volunteers, on Sundays and public holidays the volunteers generally take over the work.

"I would say it's going according to plan, even if I thought it could be done faster," Puzzovio draws a first balance.

But the pigeon breeder among the helpers warned that you should take your time, otherwise you would lose part of the swarm.

"And if they miss the connection, it's over."

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Feeding is already going on in four places, three more are to follow

From the stations at Marienplatz, Löwenstrasse and at the corner of Christophstrasse, one has now reached the number four feeding place on the corner of the Frauentor.

Most of the animals would have got used to it and moved between station three and four, "only a few haven't gotten it yet and are still at the Löwenstraße station," says Puzzovio.

You still have three more stations ahead of you.

Goal: to get the pigeons out of the old town by mid-September.

However, the deputy mayor knows that just feeding them and giving them water at the same time is not enough, there is still a critical time ahead.

"It's about whether the pigeons will then accept their new nesting sites, that will be exciting." At the same time, the old nesting sites would have to be found and sealed.

In order for the pigeons to be resettled successfully, the animals must still not be fed

In order for the pigeons to be resettled successfully, the city continues to call for the animals not to be fed.

According to Puzzovio, there were still many pigeons around the Marienbrunnen, also to drink water.

but there have been noticeably fewer.

"The restaurateurs are already happy that the pigeons are no longer begging the guests."