Great Western Coffee Shop

From the Salisbury Journal (http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/14100383.Pigeon_poo__so_bad__under_railway_bridge_it_s_like__walking_the_plank___say_pedestrians/?)

Under the bridge adjacent to Redruth station used to be like this but somebody has started cleaning it now every morning, assumingly the council! It used to be very hazardous walking through as very slippy.

Walking the plank always ends badly. I'd guess the user of that idiom doesn't get crapped on every time he goes under the bridge. There's also no choice when walking the plank.

Figurative or literal, a poor choice of phrase.

Taunton station overbridge is also well known for its pigeon problem. Various deterrents have been tried over the years. Netting, spikes, bird of prey audio (local scrotes took potshots at the speakers, disabling them), actual birds of prey, even lethal force. But still the flying rats are there.

I have to say, nature-lover that I am, those pigeons under that bridge in Taunton have tempted me to take a twelve-bore to them to solve the problem - and to shot-blast the metalwork at the same time. :P ::) ;D

And they're using a hawk at Waterloo - from the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46135173)

Blimey!

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Hawk_-_RNAS_Culdrose_2006_%282409940192%29.jpg)

Image by Tim Felce (Airwolfhound) - Hawk - RNAS Culdrose 2006, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27818152

Pigeons are a menace, the urban ones are a health risk, and the rural ones devour crops.
Wood pigeons are at least good to eat, I would not eat an urban feral pigeon for choice, having observed what the pigeons eat.

I can see the merit of a bird of prey to kill or frighten away pigeons at Waterloo, but am surprised that it was used at Kings Cross.
Would not the OHLE at Kings Cross be dangerous to birds of prey ? They would appear to be big enough to cause a flashover, which would kill the valuable bird, and might damage the overhead.
Or perhaps the clearances are sufficient for hawk to rest on the OHLE without danger ?

I think they know their own weight, and would never try to perch on a wire - they need a larger diameter to grip or else they would swing round and dangle underneath! Big outdoor substations with substantial linking bars might pose a risk, but I've never heard that is the case.

Just been looking on line for pictures of birds of prey on power lines.
You are correct, they very seldom perch on small wires.
These birds like high places, and frequently perch on the poles that carry power cables, but very seldom on the actual wires.
The odd bird of prey is blown up by flashover on national grid overhead lines, but not many.

There would seem to be some risk if the bird lands on earthed metalwork but within flashover distance of live conductors, but I have not heard of it happening with railway OHLE.

If it’s a network rail structure then they are required by law to ensure reasonable deterrent to the birds that would keep the footpath clean. A local council won a case against them but I can’t seem to find the link.....

In Matcham v Wandsworth Council and Network Rail (2007), the claimant recovered £20,000 compensation in an out of court settlement. She slipped upon wet pigeon excrement whilst walking under a railway bridge in Battersea. On the evidence, it was accepted that there was a long history of complaints from residents about the problems caused by pigeons roosting under the railway bridge and falling onto the pavement. The claimant had sued the Highway Authority, which was responsible for cleaning the streets on a regular basis and also Network Rail as it was responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the railway bridge.

source - https://www.railpro.co.uk/railpro-magazine/magazine-archives/catch-the-pigeon

This is the root of the problem. We have pigeon poo in towns and cities because we're messy ourselves. Local authorities seem to be aware of the problem, for instance Bath has special designs of litter bins along with slogans telling people (in various languages) not to feed the birds, and I know a cafe owner in Gloucester who was instrumental in persuading the council there to adopt gull-proof rubbish bags for commercial waste left for collection, but changing the habits of the human population is difficult.

Birds of prey at least provide something interesting to look at while tackling the problem. It strikes me that you used to see huge flocks of starlings in big stations, but very rarely now. I think they've suffered a general population decline, I'm not sure why, but urban pigeons have taken their place. With bigger poo!

That escalated quickly  :o

I seem to remember when I was young and lived in the sticks that there was a Min of Ag scheme to encourage pigeon control because of the loss of food (this is before the last of rationing came off). If you presented the Min of Ag man with a pair of pigeons feet you got sixpence (old money) which was a reasonable proportion of the price of a shotgun cartridge. Can you imagine the furore trying to introduce a scheme like that today! Maybe when we are hungry after Brexit?

As we diverged a bit, onto pigeons in general.

Last spring in the local pub, a farmer secretively passed a note to his neighbour.  I heard later, that it read "I will be sowing field beans next week"
An enquiry as to why this news required a note rather than a simple spoken remark produced the following.

"I avoid talking about sowing beans, because the pigeons on the pub roof might overhear me"!