Gawler Pavilion undergoes ceiling work

The historic pavilion housed at the Gawler Sport and Community Centre is temporarily closed to enable the ceiling to be replaced and repair work to be undertaken in the roof cavity.

This unplanned repair work is a result of a recommendation from a contractor engaged by Gawler council to inspect the roof cavity after council staff noticed pigeons causing damage to the pavilion’s ceiling.

“Council’s contractor undertook a detailed site assessment, including cutting entrance holes into the roof cavity and entering via an elevated work platform,” Mayor Redman said.

“This assessment uncovered a high level of contamination due to pigeons roosting in the roof cavity that needs to be appropriately treated.”

The contractor’s recommendation calls for the removal of the suspended ceiling, closing all points of pigeon entry, stabilisation of the roof and ceiling structure generally and reinstatement of a false ceiling.

The pavilion, which was built in 1881, is one of council’s oldest buildings and is a local heritage listed building.

The removal of the ceiling sheets will require specialist treatment associated with the age and condition of the ceiling materials.

“Although this closure will be frustrating for users of the pavilion, the Gawler Central Sporting Association and Council Staff, it is necessary to ensure a safe environment for patrons of the Gawler Sport and Community Centre and our community,” Mrs Redman said.

Council is currently working with the various community groups who have had access to the hall for their many varied activities.

Of the nine groups impacted by this temporary closure, five have already been provided alternate accommodation options.

Council will continue to work with the remaining four groups to find alternate options to minimise the impacts of this temporary closure.

The work is expected to take about six weeks and is funded from within council’s existing facility maintenance budgets.

 

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)

First stool pigeons were used as decoys

The first time I gave any thought to the term was when I watched some of the great old film noir movies about gangsters. It seemed like almost every gang was victimized by one.

I am referring here to that old nemesis of crime, the “stool pigeon.”

The first “stool pigeons” were literally that. In the early days of colonization here and prior to that in England, pigeons were a source of meat (tastes like chicken).

Pigeons by nature are not very large birds. If you shoot one anywhere but in the head, you’ve spoiled the good eating portions — trust me on this one, I know from experience on the farms.

Hunters noted that pigeons are not the sharpest birds going and that they would tend to fly down and check out another of their species. Thus, the clever hunter would use a captured pigeon, usually tethered to a stool or perch as a decoy to lure his wild cousins into range of a net or snare.

This technique came into prominence in the early 1800s when a form of it, “stool-crow,” was used in 1811 as a version of “decoy.”

This came into common usage as “stool pigeon” (crows were not tasty, scratch the “four-and-twenty blackbirds” pie thing) so “stool pigeon” replaced that term.

By 1830, “stool pigeon” had entered the slanguage as a means to describe a criminal who was used as a decoy or informant by the police to capture other criminals.

The term is considered an Americanism although it may have been originally derived from the Old English word “stale,” meaning “a living bird used to catch others of the same species.”

Unfortunately, the use of “stool pigeons” may have led to the extinction of species like the passenger pigeon due to “flock shooting” with large fowling pieces.

Setting all that aside, I derived a certain amount of pleasure from seeing a tough guy gangster played by someone such as James Cagney or Edward G. Robinson snarl about a “stool pigeon” in the gang.

 

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)

Hungry Venezuelan prisoners eating rats and pigeons to survive food shortages

According to El Nuevo Herald, living conditions at the Vista Hermosa prison in Bolivar – a Venezuela state – are so poor, some inmates are falling sick from eating raw rat meat. 41-year-old Alejandro Manuel Mago Coraspe was taken to hospital last week after eating dead rats he found in the rubbish.

“We cooked them, but they were still raw,” Mago told NGO Window to Liberty. “We at them anyway. I think they were poisonous and that’s why I fell ill. I normally kill them myself.”

He revealed to the non-government organisation that he regularly eats rodents out of “need and hunger”. Mago is serving eight months in the prison after attempting to steal a car. Doctors said he is suffering from malnutrition and inflammation in his legs.

He underwent surgery to remove an obstruction from his intenstines at the Ruiz y Paez Hospital in Ciudad Bolivar. The bones and cartilage of the rats had “obstructed his intestines”.

Mago’s family has in the past brought him food to survive on however they live five hours away by car and cannot visit regularly.

In May last year, a Venezuelan NGO accused the Venezuelan government of feeding inmates raw pasta with feces. Reported by Breitbart.com, “at least 15 prisoners said they were forced to eat raw pasta with human excrement (the agents had applied power used to make tear gas on their noses, forcing them to open their mouths to ingest”.

 

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)

That’s MINE! Feisty toddler snatches food from a pigeon’s mouth after it took the snack from her mother’s hand

This is the hilarious moment a young toddler girl in central China teaches a pigeon a lesson for stealing food.

Mobile phone footage shows a white bird landing on a mother’s hand and pecking on a bag of snacks. A toddler girl can be seen grabbing the pigeon’s neck and taking the food back.

The mother was shocked as the girl put the snack straight into her mouth after.

This is the first time the one-year-old toddler feeding pigeons at a plaza in central China (left). A pigeon landed on her mother’s hand and ready to take the snacks from the bag (right)

The scene was captured at a plaza in Puyang, Henen Province on February 24 when a mother took her daughter to feed the pigeons.

‘It’s her first time feeding pigeons. There were a lot of children at the plaza doing the same as well,’ the mother told Pear Video.

She did not expect her one-year-old daughter to grab a pigeon’s neck with bare hands.

Video shows the girl pulling the bird close to her before snatching the food from its mouth and ate it.

‘We are all shocked when she suddenly did that,’ said the mother.

Behave! The girl would not let the pigeon to eat her snacks and snatches it from the bird’s mouth (left). Quickly she puts the snack in her mouth and eats it straight (right)

The mother told the girl to ‘spit it out’ but it was too late and the girl had already swallowed it.

The video was widely shared among Chinese social media and later picked up on 9GAG and Imgur.com.

Web users commented that the toddler ‘is a savage’ with so much aggression at young age.

‘Pupuka’ joked: ‘Don’t mess with Yukuza!’

However, some web users worried that the girl might catch a bird flu.

‘This is how people get bird flu, she literally eats it from the bird’s mouth,’ said ‘shagoon’.

 

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)

Battle against pigeons at Woodbridge rail station prompts anger in town

Local county councillor Caroline Page has warned that the swallows and house martins that have nested in the station buildings for generations have been forced out by its redecoration and the installation of anti-pigeon measures like metal spikes and netting in the roof.

She said the swallows’ nests had been removed during the redecoration of the station and their departure had prompted the pigeons to move in.

She added: “It’s really sad and actually something needs to be done and it needs to be done now. In 160 years I don’t think they (the swallows and martins) have caused any damage.

“It’s a natural joy that is being taken away from us. It must be done at once. The birds are flying back from Africa now.”

She said the sight of the swallows and martins swooping over the station during the spring and summer was a real bonus for rail passengers – and feared their departure would be missed by many rail users.

Bird experts doubt that the disappearance of the swallows led pigeons to colonise the station – saying the species can co-exist quite happily. However they also doubt the effectiveness of anti-pigeon measures.

A spokeswoman for Greater Anglia, which operates the station, said they were working with the RSPB and local wildlife groups to make the station more attractive songbirds and species like swallows, martins, and swifts.

She said: “We are planning to put up bird boxes and if there are nests we can install for swallows and martins we will do that – we are looking at changing the netting so they can use the station.

“But we have to do something about the pigeons. We have had an infestation of the birds and their droppings are very unpleasant.

“Not only do they look and smell very nasty, they are unhygenic and they are very acidic so they can cause considerable damage to the fabric of the station that has only recently been redecorated.

“We have to do something to reduce the problems they cause.”

Greater Anglia supplied pictures showing the mess that had been left on station furniture and equipment – and said it was impossible to keep it clean all the time.

 

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)