by Pigeon Patrol | Aug 2, 2016 | Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
Humans could become better at switching between tasks – such as shifting from emailing to taking a phone call – if they behaved more like pigeons and stopped thinking about what they are doing, research by psychologists at the University of Exeter suggests.
In an experiment that compared humans’ ability to switch between tasks with that of pigeons, the researchers found that while the birds’ way of learning to do tasks associatively caused no decrease in accuracy, humans incurred costs, in that they were slower and made more mistakes when they stopped doing one thing and started doing another.
The work of PhD student Christina Meier and Professors Stephen Lea and Ian McLaren, which was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, has been highlighted in the American Psychological Association’s series of ‘Particularly Exciting Experiments in Psychology’ (known as “PeePs”) this week (June 9).
A large body of research has shown that people are faster and more accurate when they repeat the same task than when they switch between tasks. This experiment showed that pigeons who learnt a task associatively by means of Pavlovian conditioning were able to switch between tasks without slowing down or making more errors.
Lead author Christina Meier said: “We looked at why humans make more errors when they move between two different tasks whereas pigeons don’t. Pigeons don’t analyse what they see. If they experienced a given situation before, the pigeons will repeat the behaviour that had the best outcome for them in those previous encounters. Humans don’t do this, we use rules. We make things complicated.”
Professor McLaren said: “We are not saying that pigeons are super clever. What this research shows is that we can teach pigeons to swap between tasks at no cost to their efficiency, and that they appear to be doing it without what psychologists call “executive control”. We suspect humans have access to this associative solution to the problem too and this has educational implications, skills implications and implications for our understanding of human behaviour.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Aug 1, 2016 | Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
Humans could be more efficient if they learnt from pigeons and stopped thinking about what they are doing, according to scientists.
Switching between making a phone call and writing an email led to more mistakes as humans stopped doing one thing and started another.
Scientists at the University of Exeter carried out research to compare a human’s ability to switch between tasks with that of pigeons.
They found that while the birds’ way of learning to do tasks associatively caused no decrease in accuracy, humans incurred costs – in that they were slower and made more mistakes when they switched tasks.
Previous studies have shown that people are faster and more accurate when they repeat the same task than when they do something different.
The work of PhD student Christina Meier and professors Stephen Lea and Ian McLaren revealed that pigeons who learnt a task associatively by means of Pavlovian conditioning were able to switch between tasks without slowing down or making more errors.
Ms Meier, the lead author, said: “We looked at why humans make more errors when they move between two different tasks whereas pigeons don’t. Pigeons don’t analyse what they see.
“If they experienced a given situation before, the pigeons will repeat the behaviour that had the best outcome for them in those previous encounters. Humans don’t do this, we use rules. We make things complicated.”
Prof McLaren said: “We are not saying that pigeons are super clever. What this research shows is that we can teach pigeons to swap between tasks at no cost to their efficiency, and that they appear to be doing it without what psychologists call ‘executive control’.
“We suspect humans have access to this associative solution to the problem too and this has educational implications, skills implications and implications for our understanding of human behaviour.”
The study, Task-Switching in Pigeons: Associative Learning or Executive Control?, is published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Jul 31, 2016 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Bird Deterrent Products, Pigeon Patrol's Services
To prevent diseases caused due to pigeons, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been contemplating controlling their population with the help of contraceptives called Ovistop.
There are kabutarkhanas at various places across the city, where people feed jawar, millet, and gram to pigeons. There are several complaints of people getting diseases like asthma and TB due to the droppings and feathers of the birds.
According to the civic officials, one pair of birds can produce 48 pigeons a year, which has led to overpopulation of the species in the city.
Shiv Sena corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar had proposed that the BMC should put the pigeons on birth control with the help of Ovistop. According to this method, each pigeon is fed Ovistop, a product made of corn seeds covered in Nicarbazin, which acts as a contraceptive for birds. The pill is touted as being highly effective.
In a reply given to him, the civic administration has said that the matter does not come under the jurisdiction of the BMC’s health department and belongs to the director, food and drugs administration (FDA) of the state government. “However, we have asked the FDA about implementing this method of providing food mixed with Ovistop to pigeons in the city,” said a civic official.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Jul 30, 2016 | Bird Deterrent Products, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeons in the News
A lonely woman who ignored a council order to stop feeding the pigeons in her garden must pay a £640 fine and £1,729 court costs.
Katherine Spiller, 66, said the birds were “a bit of company”, but attracted so many that neighbours complained.
Spiller, from Oxford, admitted breaking a community protection order.
The lonely woman fed pigeons in her garden for 20 years so that they could keep her company.
Pensioner Katherine Spiller began inviting the birds into her garden in 1995 by throwing seed from her bathroom window.
The 66-year-old attracted large flocks of pigeons – which are recognised as a pest in the UK – as well as smaller garden birds to keep her company.
However, over the past two decades the former librarian and administrator has amassed complaints from fed-up neighbours who can’t stand the birds which defecate on their property and dominate the garden walls like a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
Spiller has also caused a flap among shoppers in Oxford city centre where she has also been spreading the seed.
As a result, dozens of pigeons would descend daily onto the street near picturesque and historic Magdalen College as well as other locations across the city.
Following a growing number of complaints, Oxford City Council stepped in 12 months ago and ordered her to stop.
Despite this, the “habitual bird feeder” was put before magistrates again after ignoring the order between August and October last year.
Magistrates in Oxford were shown dozens of pictures of the birds sitting on the roof and ledges of Spiller’s terraced house as well as sitting on her neighbours buildings.
Jeremy Franklin, representing Oxford City Council, told magistrates that neighbours had reported her continuing to put out bird seed.
Mr Franklin added: “The defendant is an habitual feeder of birds, mostly pigeons, which congregate around her house in large numbers, causing a certain amount of distress and antagonism to the neighbours.
“The warning notice required the defendant to cease dropping bird seed or foodstuffs that would encourage birds, vermin or other animals in her garden or anywhere and to keep her garden free from weeds and plants providing shelter to vermin and other animals.
“Despite the imposition of the notice, the defendant was found to have breached it by continuing to feed the pigeons.”
Mr Franklin said the city council might have to take further action to stop Spiller from feeding the pigeons unless she could change her habits.
He added: “Those charged with dealing with this problem are at their wits end.”
A spokesman for Oxford City Council said after the hearing that neighbours were unable to use their gardens in the summer months because of the birds perching and defecating in the gardens. He added that a nuisance was being caused by bird flying into windows.
Spiller had sent a letter to the court, admitting she had failed to comply with a community protection notice and the court clerk revealed it was “very, very rambling” and mainly consisted of “poems that have been written by Ms Spiller”.
The panel of magistrates handed Spiller, who did not attend the hearing, a fine of £640 for breaching the community protection order handed out in February last year. She was also ordered to pay a £64 victim surcharge and £1,729 prosecution costs.
Speaking from her home, the keen poet said: “The birds like being fed but now you can’t feed them in town. You can’t even feed the ducks.
“There was not the same law in place at the time when I first began feeding them in 1995. I think it is a wicked law and it makes it hard on the pigeons.
“They could be an amenity for people who lack a bit of company. I don’t have a partner or children so the pigeons were my only company, and people do look for company in the pigeons.”
Spiller, who wrote a poem in 1997 entitled Pigeon Woman which reflects on her own experiences of feeding the birds, added that she would remain hopeful for the future that the law on feeding the pigeons would change.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Jul 29, 2016 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Bird Netting, UltraSonic Bird Control
FEATHERS have been ruffled after peregrine falcons were encouraged to nest at Beverley Minster.
Garden bird lovers and pigeon fanciers have criticised the church for allowing the RSPB to install a bird box on top of the minster.
The box was installed this month after a pair of peregrines were spotted in residence at the minster.
But Beverley resident Annie Cox, 69, who lives near Beverley Minster, claimed the falcons are preying on song birds.
She said: “When we moved to Minster View we were delighted to wake to the dawn chorus.
“It was wonderful until summer, when falcons were introduced to control feral pigeons around the minster, we had blackbirds raising their young and variety of small birds – even the endangered sparrow.
“I’m disabled with severe osteoarthritis and had great pleasure watching birds at the feeder in the front garden. Now there are no birds to eat the seed.”
Mrs Cox said she has put up net curtains so she cannot see piles of feathers in the garden.
She said: “All that is left are piles of feathers and one pair of blackbirds and wood pigeons in our garden.”
Mrs Cox said she was distressed when she found out peregrine falcons were being encouraged to nest at the minster.
She said: “Falcons and other raptors have no place in towns and should be returned to their natural environment in the countryside where they can live on rabbits and rodents rather than decimating the small bird population, which is already at risk.”
Local pigeon fanciers are also upset about the peregrine falcons preying on other birds.
John Baker, who keeps racing pigeons, said: “It is very nice to see peregrine falcons flying, but they eat pigeons and song birds.
“They pluck them alive and pull them apart.
“Churches are not their normal habitat and I personally think the vicar is out of order letting this happen. Is he not supposed to love all creatures?”
Minster Vicar Reverend Jeremy Fletcher said: “I am not an expert, but I think sparrowhawks have much more impact on garden birds.
“The peregrines adopted the minster towers last year as a place to roost and hunt from. They came of their own accord.
“It appears peregrines are protected so if you have them you can’t do anything about that, you are required by law not to affect them.
“One of the reasons it is good for us is having peregrines at the building scares off feral pigeons, which cause damage to the stonework.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
