Anyone have tips on catching pigeons at night? Have done it a few times but
This time I would like to keep them alive and well so will have to take a gentle Approach

Did it when I was younger and sold them to dog trainers. Plan to get pooped on! Hat and sweatshirt were a must with a change of clothes kept in the truck. Birds were dropped into a feed bag hanging from my belt and later transferred to a metal cage.

Dave

Hit them with a strong light and then flush them (well thrown rock) and then when they try to fly, flash the light in their eyes and wiggle the light back and forth so their eyes can't adjust and they will bump into any obstacle and fall to the ground. Keep them blinded by the light and snag them with a fish net.

We used to climb the Barn beams with a flashlight and grab them ...we put them in pillow cases and lowered them with bale twine.

Tarp them in open front sheds/pole barns or landing nets and a good light. Yard lights are not your friends the will fly at night with enough light so shut them down if you can, we have advertising semi trailers along the interstate here always a good place to close them up in at night.

Barns, Silos, grain elevators, and under bridges are all good places to find them. Get permission from the owners or expect a visit from the local law. Been there.

My grandfather would climb across beams, grab the pigeons, lock their wings together and drop them to the floor, where he would gather them up afterwards. He kept the pigeons he liked and used them to lure other pigeons in through drop traps. He ate the other pigeons.

If I can reach them by hand, I use as little light as possible, grab them and put pigeons in a light weight, entirely wire cage. Once the cage is pretty full, I transfer them over to 3' square pigeon crates. I can carry 9 crates with the tail gate down, using ropes to hold them in, so I can safety transport 540 pigeons. The trick is not to get them to hot.

If they are high up, I net the pigeons. My longest net will reach about 25 feet. If they are fairly low. I use 2 lighter nets to pincer them. The nets should be deep, with a good bag, so the pigeons can't struggle out. If there was an Olympic pigeon netting event, I would have excelled at it. I net pigeons almost every day.

If there is light outside, the pigeons can be harder to catch. In building with good numbers, where the pigeons enter in the evening , through limited holes, like windows, it is worth setting up the building during the daylight. We used to take sheets, hang them over the windows with a few nails or screws and bunch the sheet up on the heads. We tied strings to the bottom of the sheets, so we could pull them down after dark.

I have got my best numbers of feral pigeons by trapping them. I once caught 547 pigeons off of one Cassanos pizza place in 2 days in 3 6' by 4' traps. I netted $1367.50 with just a few hours of work. I love catching pigeons.

Keith

That's how we used to do it too. Great entertainment for a couple of high school kids and the farmers loved having us over. Afterwards the farmers wife would have cool aid and cookies for us but we ate out on the porch as Alex the dog is right, we did get pooped on.

I climbed to the top of the hay bails with flashlight in hand.Got hundreds of pigeons with a buddy of mine.I kept my share and used them to train my springer.
One night as I was getting pigeons,I kept hearing something right above my head.Shined my light above myhead,and there were hundreds of bats.I got down as quick as I could and called it a night.
Tom

We used to catch them by hand at night in an old abandoned brewery. Would not do it today, I consider them dirty disease carriers that poop over everything. My buddies used to keep them in coops, fly them, and even eat the eggs raw.

Come on Tom...They don't bite....until they bite! lol

My dad used to flip the light switch in the barn off and on a few times, than just grab them out of their roost. I sure miss mom's pigeon soup!