by Pigeon Patrol | Jul 23, 2015 | Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
Those artificial, screeching bird noises atop the Briggs Building have gone silent, but the reason remained a mystery to the city manager as of Friday morning.
In early March, Hollister officials responded to problems with too many pigeons at the Briggs Building that were leaving droppings all over the structure. The city paid $2,200 for equipment that continuously emitted loud, automated bird calls meant to shoo away the pigeons.
“There’s pigeon droppings everywhere. It’s not sanitary at all,” City Manager Bill Avera told the Free Lance in March. “We talked with some different folks and this seemed to be the most humane way to get them out of there.”
The city installed the boxes in early March. But the hope at the time was that eventually, the speakers could be turned on intermittently while keeping pigeons out of the parking structure.
In the past two to three weeks, those previously constant bird sounds suddenly stopped. When informed of the pause in bird screeches, Avera said on Thursday he went to check out the equipment atop the Briggs Building.
The equipment was there, yet Avera did not have a ladder and could not gain access to the machinery, however, so he had to find out whether someone turned it off or if it may be broken.
Katie Helland contributed to this report.
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 22, 2015 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Bird Netting, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News
A South Broadway bridge has gained a reputation with pedestrians for all the wrong reasons: piles of bird feces and decaying pigeon carcasses.
Hundreds of pigeons have made their home in the railroad overpass between the Newtown Crossing apartments and Tolly-Ho restaurant. They roost in the support beams, they defecate on the sidewalk, and many lie dead in their own filth, left to decay or be torn apart by strong-stomached scavengers.
Pedestrians often must skip, hop and jump to make it to the other side without stepping on something undesirable.
“I hate that bridge,” said Bryon Speach, who walks under it two or three times a week. “People don’t really walk under it unless they have to.”
Urban County Government officials hope that will change by the end of summer, when the city’s Division of Environmental Services plans to erect a metal barrier to keep pigeons away.
“Thank God,” said Clarence Johnson, who works at St. Joseph Hospital up the street. “They need to do something.”
Johnson normally drives to work, but when his car broke down, he was forced to walk down South Broadway under the bridge to the hospital. Johnson said he noticed the pigeons when he drove, but he didn’t know how much bird poop and how many dead birds were on the sidewalk.
“I didn’t know it was this bad,” he said. “My wife won’t go under it at all.”
Five years ago,
after a string of complaints, the city’s Division of Parks and Recreation tried to deter pigeons from roosting on the beams by putting metal sheets on the bridge’s underbelly. That kept pigeons from defecating on the sidewalks, but the sheet metal began to buckle and bend under the weight of dead pigeons and feces; some of the metal sheets eventually fell onto the sidewalk.
“Recently, (the metal sheets) have just not been working at all. They were just kind of overwhelmed by pigeon debris, honestly,” said Jennifer Myatt, an environmental outreach specialist with the city’s Department of Environmental Quality and Public Works. “At some point there was just too much, and it was coming onto the sidewalk.”
Since then, the Division of Environmental Services sent workers wearing hazardous-material suits to remove the metal sheets and clean the beams.
“It’s much cleaner now probably than it’s been in a long, long time,” said Susan Plueger, director of the Division of Environmental Services.
Workers now clean the sidewalks every two weeks.
Plueger said the city will probably put up large metal sheets between the bridge’s support beams. Those sheets, unlike the previous ones, would be completely blocked on the sides, leaving no room for pigeons to perch.
“We want our solution to be permanent,” Plueger said.
City officials initially had said they would use pigeon spikes — small, pointed poles that are meant to keep pigeons from perching — but they changed their minds after learning that pigeons can find ways to land around them.
Gary Potts, a member of the Lexington Racing Pigeon Club, suggested using chicken wire to block the pigeons from perching, but he emphasized that pigeons are persistent.
“If there’s a place to land, they’ll land,” Potts said. “Unless they cover the whole thing, the birds are going to get up in there.”
The large amounts of feces and dead pigeons are unpleasant, Potts said, but the area probably isn’t dangerous for pedestrians.
“People don’t have to worry about it,” he said. “They’re just as healthy as any other birds.”
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 21, 2015 | Bird Netting
A ‘feral’ killer seagull has been butchering Plumstead pigeons before feasting on their dead bodies, it is claimed.
Residents near Plumstead Common claim the violent bird has been picking off an average of four unfortunate pigeons per day.
Aine McGrillen raised the alarm on the Plumstead People Facebook page, saying: “We are trying to figure out if it is just one feral seagull or if this is a group of them. Is this usual seagull behaviour?”
She wrote: “It killed one in Barnfield Gardens car park this morning, then flew off with it in its beak. Imagine if that dropped on your head!
“I guess it is just nature doing its survival thing. It is quite tense when you watch it just hanging out with the pigeons, casual as anything and then he picks his mark and swoops in.”
Other neighbours claimed the bloodthirsty bird has a voracious appetite and has been menacing the bird population for several years, once “munching” through 10 in one night.
Kirsty Wilson wrote: “It was doing it a couple weeks back and killed about 10 in one night.
“For 3-5 days every morning when I’d leave for work at 5 I’d see him there, then when I returned still be there, just munching away at the pigeons! Never seen such a sight before.”
And Emma Ledgerwood chimed in: “It’s been doing it for over two years and kills at least four pigeons a day.
“It’s awful to watch for the pigeons’ sake but I suppose it’s all nature’s ways of keeping the population down.”
But Gordon Guthrie had little sympathy for the pigeons. He wrote: “Seagulls are carnivores. What is worse when you’re at the seaside and they pinch the kiddies’ ice cream or stalk you for chips.”
This is not the first time a killer seagull has made headlines. Last October a Hyde Park bird was accused of drowning pigeons in the Serpentine before devouring them.
Amateur photographer Johanna van de Woestijne, 57, told Mail Online: “It was one of the most violent things I have ever seen. After it happened I felt I had witnessed a murder.
“I’ve seen him hunting pigeons on two separate days, both times he picked them off, dragged them into the lake and drowned them.”
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 20, 2015 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes
He is used by the All England Tennis Club to keep the courts free from pigeons.
His handler is Imogen Davis, of Avian Environmental in Brigstock.
Speaking to the Northants Telegraph after last year’s tournament, which was won by Novak Djokovic, she said: “Rufus is a lovely character, he’s very friendly and is happy to be passed from hand to hand for photos.
“He goes to Wimbledon all year round so it is his playground and he sees it at its busiest and its quietest times.”
Family firm Avian Environmental has been keeping the courts of Wimbledon pigeon-free since 1999.
It also helps control birds at the Royal Marsden Hospital and Westminster Abbey as well as Northampton Saints ground.
Imogen said: “We’re getting busier as people are starting to learn that it’s not good to eradicate an entire species.
“Using birds is an environmentally friendly way of controlling pests, it’s nature at its best.
“We have eight birds so we can tailor our services to different purposes.”
Although Rufus and Imogen do their work before play gets under way they did get to meet Andy Murray last year.
Imogen said: “He’s so lovely, it was really sad how he went out.”
Avian Environmental got the contract to keep Wimbledon pigeon-free after Imogen’s mum gave them a call.
Imogen said: “My mum was watching Tim Henman against Pete Sampras and they had to keep batting the pigeons away from the baseline, which was interrupting the points and not what the players wanted.
“She gave them a call and went along to give a demonstration and we’ve been to 14 or 15 championships since.
“Grass seed is like caviar to pigeons and they’re not fazed by humans so we go along to stop them from roosting because once one starts to roost somewhere you get lots.”
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 19, 2015 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, UltraSonic Bird Control
THE pigeon pest is back in Newent, and some traders in the town are fed up.
Anne Haines, who runs florists Flowercraft of Newent in Broad Street with her daughter Emma, is so incensed she has written to Newent Town Council pleading with them to do something – like a cull.
“The pigeons just make a huge mess, on the canopy, the walls and pavements,” she said.
The problem isn’t new. Last year Mrs Haines had to replace her canopy, that protects her flowers, at a cost of £750 because it was covered in mess and rotting through.
Peter Curtis of the Buttery Tea Rooms is opposite Flowercraft and sees first hand the problem – but he isn’t affected.
“It’s not a problem here. Probably because they have nowhere to perch or roost. But the flower shop and the pharmacy opposite is covered in pigeon poo. It’s a right mess and can’t be very nice for them,” he said.
Newent Town Council’s clerk said she would be approaching the district council for advice on how to deal with the problem.
Councillor Roger Beard of Newent Town Council said he will back moves for the town’s pigeon population to be controlled.
“Pavements are covered in detritus in certain areas. The big problems is that their population is increasing and it’s not being controlled,” he said.
If tourists are to be encouraged to the town, said Mr Beard, then the streets will need to be clear of pigeon mess.
A district council spokesman said: “It is the responsibility of the building owners and landlords to put in place pigeon-proofing measures. The district ouncil’s pest control team is happy to advise on the different types of preventative measures available and assist where possible.”
But some traders believe the birds are “part of the countryside” and the authorities will never get rid of them.
Gloucester city has a similar problem with seagulls and the search continues for an effective solution.
Councillor Paul Toleman (C, Westgate) is unequivocal in his views on these ‘feathered rats’.
He said: “They are dreadful winged vermin and are an absolute nuisance in the city.”
Gloucester City Council has tried many methods to manage the problem, he said, but thus far the seagulls continue to return.
“I understand there have been considerations for a hawk to scare them off. I don’t know if it would do it. They are a serious problem. But the council we has made other efforts and have made sure all food outlets use gull-proof bags, because food is one the reasons they come here,” he said.
The key, he believes, is to stop the birds nesting. But it will all cost money.
Now is the wrong time to tackle the seagull pest in the city because the birds have nested and chicks born, he said.
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)
Those artificial, screeching bird noises atop the Briggs Building have gone silent, but the reason remained a mystery to the city manager as of Friday morning.
