"beccabunga" wrote
An old fashioned remedy: Take a largish oval potato, take several long
feathers, stick two or three in one end of the potato to resemble the
sharp tail of a hawk, stick in the others to make wings. Hang from a
string on a long, flexible pole. The birds see it as a hawk and keep
away.

I seem to recall Monty trying that at Berryfields one year and the
pigeons totally ignored it and ate all his brassicas regardless. Netting
is the only thing I've found that will keep pigeons off, short of
shooting them all.
--
Sue