Pigeon & Bird
Control Products
An officer responded to a 4th Avenue address where the complainant on scene was upset that the gas truck driver was waving his gas measure stick at the pigeons that he was feeding bread to in the store parking lot. The complainant said he stops here once a week and feeds the pigeons and doesn’t think it’s right for them to wave items at the pigeons and make them fly away. The officer noted, “The truck drivers were just keeping the birds from flying around while they refilled the gas pumps due to their being bread all over the parking lot.”
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)
I was at the Pek Kio hawker centre in Cambridge Road recently and, as usual, was greeted by the sight of pigeons on the floors and tables pecking away at leftover food.
This is a problem at not only this hawker centre, but also many others.
And at most of these hawker centres, these birds brazenly strut around among patrons and often fly onto tables with food even when there are people eating at the table.
Patronscannot leave their food even for a moment, to order a drink for instance, for the birds will quickly zoom in on their food.
These birds are not only a hygiene problem but are also potential disease carriers. They would be a risk in the event of another bird flu outbreak.
Bangkok recently highlighted this problem and is taking steps to eradicate pigeons.
We cannot wait till a bird-borne disease breaks out before taking action.
What are the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority or the National Environment Agency doing to ensure hygiene standards and prevent the outbreak of disease?
I am sure anyone with a scoop net would be able to capture many of the pigeons in just one morning as they do not fly away.
Perhaps the town councils can work out a scheme to give incentives for the capture of these birds.
Even if we do not capture many, hopefully, this will scare them away from people and food centres.
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)
It was a quiet morning. I was sitting at the table, eating my mandatory bowl of gruel — I mean, my delicious, fiber-filled, multigrain, plant-protein, good-for-me bowl of cereal — when I glanced out the window and saw that a half-dozen or so pigeons had descended on the backyard to peck away at whatever morsels had fallen out of the bird feeder.
“Oh, I love pigeons more than anything in this world,” I said out of reflex, “except oatmeal.”
I allowed myself a small chuckle at pulling out a “Sesame Street” line that seemed appropriate, when my moment of Zen ended with the pouring of reality’s cold water.
“Those aren’t pigeons,” my breakfast companion said. “They’re doves.”
Tomayto, tomahto … doves are just pigeons from a gentrified neighborhood, I decided. For that matter, I wasn’t eating oatmeal, either.
By then, though, my consciousness had floated downstream and I found myself contemplating the lover of pigeons and oatmeal.
I thought about Bert.
And, consequently, of Ernie.
The BFFs have been living together for nearly 50 years now — not that there’s anything wrong with that — and lately have suffered another oh-so-2018 kerfuffle that has upset their domestic tranquility.
Yep, their sexuality is being called into question.
Again.
This time, it was a former “Sesame Street” writer … who joined the show 15 years after Bert and Ernie appeared on the scene … who admitted that whenever he wrote for the pair, he did so from the perspective of them being a gay couple.
This, of course, brought the usual denial from the folks behind “Sesame Street.” Media members chimed in on various aspects of the long-running controversy — as sincere pleas for inclusivity rang out, conservatives blasted progressives for usurping the identity of a couple of Muppets, and soapbox pronouncements abounded about why it was important for children to see a loving LGBTQ2+ couple on their TV screens.
This bonfire quickly became a conflagration (Too soon? Sorry) when Frank Oz, who created Bert, was asked about the current flare-up and said that the pair were not gay … or straight, for that matter.
“They’re not, of course. But why that question? Does it really matter?” Oz asked. “Why the need to define people as only gay? There’s much more to a human being than just straightness or gayness.”
And, because this is how the world works these days, a full-fledged Twitterstorm broke out — with some of those who found they could identify with B&E as they were discovering their own identity said sure, Oz might have created Bert, but being the creator doesn’t stop the creation from becoming whom it will be.
After all, God created Elton John.
It was back in 1976 that The Artist Formerly Known As Reggie Dwight came out, announcing in that far-from-progressive time that he was bisexual.
“Saturday Night Live,” never one to miss an opportunity for drive-by social commentary, made note of Sir Elton’s less-than-surprising declaration on Weekend Update, following up with the related story that “Speedy Alka Seltzer came out of the medicine cabinet and admitted he was bicarbonate.”
Of course, Speedy Alka Seltzer wasn’t a real person … as opposed to, say, Bert and Ernie.
Earlier this year, the Tony-winning musical “Avenue Q” — a puppet-filled show that offers a somewhat darker take on a “Sesame Street” universe — ran at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre.
Through the puppets Rod and Nicky, it offers its own take on the sexuality question of BFFs who live together forever — only with such a heavy-handed dose of what can only be called in-your-face-ism that by the time Rod announces that he’s gay, it’s not only no surprise, but on the night I attended it drew almost no reaction from the audience.
The puppeteer-actor pulling Rod’s strings, so to speak, milked the audience repeatedly until a mediocre round of applause was deemed sufficient enough to allow the show to continue.
It was an odd moment of live theater; then again “Avenue Q” is an odd show — knowing that it’s shoving homilies down the throats of the dinner theater audience, while simultaneously serving up a self-conscious heaping helping of social manipulation for us to chew on.
“Avenue Q” twisted this concept even further with a throw-away one-liner about the LGBTQ2+ production of “Oklahoma!” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival — which took audience members further out of their comfort zone as to what they were supposed to think about the performance, and the play, they were watching.
Eating my cereal, watching the high-rent pigeons, my mind wandered without necessarily getting lost until I landed upon a question: If we go to a cultural event to be entertained, do we feel intruded upon if served a side dish of political or cultural point of view?
In a landscape where Sofia Vergara can be in love with The Artist Formerly Known As Al Bundy, Joanie can love Chachi, and a Betazoid can love a Klingon — if “Sesame Street” went counter to the original concept of Frank Oz and Jim Henson and said that — yes — Bert and Ernie are more than BFFs, would it be greeted graciously as overdue affirmation, or would it open the door to another avenue for cultural tub-thumpers intent on putting their words into our mouths?
The word from “Sesame Street” is that Bert and Ernie, officially, “remain puppets.”
As do we all.
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)
NEW ULM — Pigeon and poultry enthusiasts from near and far participated in the New Ulm Poultry and Pigeon Association show at the Brown County Fairgrounds Saturday.
For most veteran enthusiasts, it’s a time to renew old friendships and take their favorite birds to a show of about 900 birds, have them judged and visit in a place they’ve been coming to for many decades.
“I remember coming to a national show at George’s Ballroom in 1965. They put cages on top of the ballroom booths,” said Mark Peterson of Amboy. “(George’s Ballroom owner) George Neuwirth was a big pigeon guy. A band would play and he had a big crystal fountain shaped like a pigeon. George didn’t do anything small. He was a showman.”
Don Roscoe of Kasota recalled showing poultry and pigeons at the New Ulm Armory more than 50 years ago.
“I used to hunt in the fall besides go ot shows, but then decided poultry shows, most of which usually happen in the fall, were more fun than hunting,” said Roscoe, who taught geography at Mankato State University.
Staff photo by Fritz Busch Show-goers take a good look at chickens displayed among hundreds at the Brown County Poultry & Pigeon Association show at the Brown County Fairgrounds Saturday.
Art Rieber of Neola, Iowa, said he doesn’t mind driving four and one-half hours from his home, 30 miles northeast of Omaha, to New Ulm. Sometimes, he’ll drive even farther to pigeon and poultry shows, which are also held at the McLeod County Fairgrounds in Hutchinson.
“I can see the Woodman Tower (in Omaha) from my kitchen window,” Rieber said. “It’s about seeing the exhibitors. I’ve known these people forever.”
Doug Grams of New Ulm said he enjoys coming to shows and that his seven grandchildren are also interested in the poultry and pigeons.
Robert Kosek of New Ulm said he remembers selling a case of eggs each week from this chickens.
“They give me eggs year around and I enjoy meeting a lot of interesting people at shows and maintain friendships with them,” Kosek said. “I’ve got pigeon and poultry pen-pals from all over the United States.”
New Ulm Pigeon and Poultry Association Secretary Aaron Dittbenner of Morgan was busy at the show, keeping records of everything that goes on. He admitted he is busy preparing for the show about a week before it begins.
Some poultry breeders enjoy traveling to national shows during the winter months in places like San Diego, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Salt Lake City, Florida, Texas and Vancouver, Wa. Breeders who travel far to shows often use special mailing boxes ship their birds to distant places.
Dominique chickens, also known as Pilgrim Fowl or Dominickers, were transported across the country by early settlers. They were valued for their meat and brown eggs.
Years ago, their feathers were very sought after for pillow and mattress stuffing. In addition, they tend to be calm, personable birds, making them more successful as show birds or family pets.
Also known for their close feathering, the breed survived the Great Depression due to it’s hardiness and ease of up-keep, according to The Livestock Conservancy.
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)
The central government’s Swachhta Hi Seva has left animal lovers and religious communities in a flap. The cleanliness campaign, which was launched across the country on Saturday and will continue till Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, has led to a ban on feeding pigeons at Gateway of India’s “iconic” kabutarkhana.
To ensure that Gateway’s promenade was clean for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interactive televised address on Saturday morning —attended by Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and business tycoon Ratan Tata — the BMC banned feeding of pigeons four days earlier, dismantled the makeshift kabutarkhana, a large barricaded enclosure, and took away water troughs.
Civic marshals were then deployed to stop people from feeding the birds.
Decades-long tradition
The move has rankled local Jain organisations, which claimed that they have been feeding pigeons at the spot for decades. The groups have threatened to stage a protest.
“This is unfair. We have been dropping grain at this spot for decades. The issue concerns the religious sentiments of the Jain community. The BMC must restore the kabutarkhana. Else, we will go on a protest,” said Paras Jain, member of a local temple trust.
Paras said several traders from south Mumbai as well as Jain temple trusts volunteer to supply grain to feed pigeons at Gateway.
Animal activists, too, slammed the BMC’s move. Sunish Subramanian Kunju, founder of NGO Plant & Animals Welfare Society, Mumbai, said, “Birds have become used to getting food at particular feeding spots. If that is suddenly stopped, then they will panic. The BMC must not take such arbitrary steps, and must bring out a clear policy on kabutarkhanas, instead,” he said.
The activists and bird feeders have the backing of local BJP corporator Makarand Narwekar. He said pigeons are intrinsically tied to Gateway’s charm. “They are as iconic as the monument itself. To completely stop feeding is not fair. We have requested the BMC to restore the feeding area and the water troughs. The BMC has agreed to allow feeding at a smaller portion of the promenade. We will ask it to give enough space so that those feeding pigeons will not be inconvenienced,” said Narwekar.
Not official kabutarkhana
BMC officials said permission for a kaburtarkhana at Gateway was never granted, adding that feeding of birds at the promenade had become a nuisance. “The feeding area kept expanding, even though there was no official nod for a kabutarkhana. There is no space for tourists who visit Gateway and it was not possible to keep aside so much space for pigeons,” said Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner of A ward, under which Gateway falls. “Since the Swachhta Hi Seva event was to be held there, we removed the barricades and stopped pigeon feeding. We will talk to those who are protesting against the BMC’s action.”
Narwekar said if pigeon feeding is a nuisance to tourists, then the BMC should designate a small space for it. “Stopping feeding suddenly is cruelty.” Another BMC official said on Saturday evening, a group of residents resumed feeding at the promenade. “However, it will not be possible to give back the entire space. We will examine the issue in detail next week.”
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)
Avid young pigeon enthusiast Abigail Mona Redelinghuys (12) is a gr 6 pupil at Southcity Christian School. Her interest in pigeon racing was sparked by stepdad Hannes Nortjé when she was eight years old. After curiously studying Hannes’s interaction with his birds in his loft in 2015, she was given a pair of breeding pigeons by Frikkie Muller while on holiday in Western Cape.
This chain of events soon turned a hobby into a lifestyle. Abigail is currently the youngest member of the NPS Racing Pigeon Club on Lower South Coast. After racing pigeons competitively for almost two consecutive years, Abigail and her ‘blue bar pigeon’ (ring number NPS 2107) took first place at the recent KZN Combined Racing event.
Chairman of the NPS Racing Pigeon Club Deon Kapp visited Abigail Redelinghuys at the loft in Ramsgate to congratulate her on behalf of the club.
This is a phenomenal achievement as the bird had to travel 1 588m per minute (95 28km/h) over a distance of 557km from Boshoff, Free State, to Ramsgate against 1 197 other birds.
Abigail attributes her success to her passion for her pigeons and the support she receives from her family. The club looks forward to watching this young, enthusiastic member’s future progress.
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)
In January, Broadsheet reported on one of Melbourne’s most inspiring residents – the indomitable Parkdale pigeon.
Since at least October 2016 the pigeon has defied the efforts of Public Transport Victoria cleaners to remove its nest on top of an LCD screen at Parkdale Station.
The pig-headed bird has returned time and again to rebuild following the ruthless destruction of its nest, and has now given birth to two new baby chicks.
Pigeons usually stay with the same partner for life, and the randy little critters have been known to give birth up to six times a year, so it’s hard to say how many chicks have been raised at the Parkdale Station nest.
Some call them grey sky demons, but to others they’re a symbol of endurance and perseverance. Keep doing your thing, Parkdale Pigeon. Stick it to the man with your pile of sticks.
See the dedicated work of pigeon correspondent Michael Bell below.
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)
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) – A serious pigeon problem is popping up in at least one Las Vegas neighborhood forcing a family to declare an all-out war.
Sandy Love said the problem began a few years ago but now the pigeon population has ballooned in her neighborhood near Ann Road and U.S. 95.
“Just the pigeons, it’s crazy,” said Love.
“I mean, they are out of control now,” she added.
Love and her neighbors suspect someone is feeding the flying vermin nearby causing them to roost and poop — everywhere.
“This is my pigeon stick and it’s to get rid of all of the pigeons under my solar panels,” explained Love while holding a stick made of bamboo.
Love says aside from from the pigeon poop and feathers, she’s worried about her mother Liz Watson, 84, who suffers from Lupus.
“I do not have an immune system,” explained Liz Watson.
“I have SLE lupus and I’ve had it for 30 years so I have to be super careful,” added Watson.
The Southern Nevada Health District said pigeons can pose a danger to people.
A well-fed pigeon can produce up to 25 pounds of poop every year, according to the Southern Nevada Health District.
The city of Las Vegas introduced an ordinance against feeding pigeonsearlier this month, however a formal vote to enact the ordinance may not take place until October.
A Las Vegas spokesperson said if passed, it would bring the city of Las Vegas in line with similar ordinances on the books in Clark County and Henderson.
In the meantime, Love says she has fortified her home using pigeon spikes, gorilla glue, and a decoy owl.
Authorities recommend consulting with a pest control specialist to tackle additional pigeon problems.
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)
While the media in Mexico are forever filled with chatter about futbol and béisbol, there is another sport dear to the heart of many Mexicans which rarely ever makes the news.
I’m talking about pigeon racing, which has been practiced as organized competition in this country since 1936. Nowadays this sport is most popular in Jalisco and Michoacán. The city of Guadalajara, for example, is home to some 1,100 pigeon fanciers, who put up to 45,000 birds into competition every year.
In Spanish, raising and racing pigeons is called colombofilia, which comes from the Latin word columba, which means dove or pigeon in English and paloma in Spanish. Pigeon fanciers say it is both an art and a sport, because it involves raising and caring for the bird, protecting it from sickness and training it to be a deportista (sports competitor).
In Greater Guadalajara there are approximately 25 clubs and every year they hold two big events: one competition for birds over a year old and another for yearlings, young birds, which are called pichones in Spanish.
Whoever wants to compete must register with a club which sends a representative to your house to take the exact GPS coordinates of your pigeon loft. Then, those of your birds that will compete are fitted with a band containing a radio-frequency identification chip which is registered in a very sophisticated electronic timing scanner which you must purchase.
Let’s say the competition is for yearlings who must fly from Zacatecas to Guadalajara, a distance of about 300 kilometers. Typically, some 25,000 birds may be registered for this. All these birds are driven to Zacatecas in specially modified trucks and are simultaneously released in some remote spot early in the morning.
Back in Guadalajara, the pigeon owner anxiously waits for his or her bird to arrive. When it does, the chip is recognized by the electronic scanner and the exact time of arrival is registered.
Next, the scanner must be carried to the club and its information transferred to the club’s computer. The computer then divides the exact distance flown by your bird by the amount of time it was flying and determines, on average, how many meters per minute the bird flew.
These calculations are important because the lofts at which these birds are arriving are scattered all around metropolitan Guadalajara, so the distance each flew from Zacatecas is slightly different. One bird’s average speed may differ from another’s by a fraction of a second.
I learned all this from Juan Jorge Padilla, a Guadalajara-based veterinarian who specializes in pigeons and doves. “How did you get interested in these birds?” I asked him.
“I was five years old,” Dr. Padilla told me, “and lived next door to a neighbor who raised pigeons. Well, they grabbed my attention because — unlike chickens — they could fly and they always came back. So my father bought a pair of pigeons from our neighbor and I started caring for them.”
“How do you train a pigeon to become a deportista?” I asked.
“Well, first you must understand that these pigeons are twice as big as ordinary ones. It’s like comparing a thoroughbred horse with one that pulls a hay wagon. For training them, you start off by letting your pigeon fly around at home so it gets to know its own rooftop. Then, when it’s three or four months old and used to being on its own for at least an hour, you take it on trips five kilometers away, to the north, south, east and west, so it begins to develop its sense of orientation. You let it loose and it starts to fly and it comes back to its loft.”
“What if a hawk spots it?”
“Yes, this happens — or they are shot by a hunter and they come back missing feathers, or a tail, or they don’t come back at all. Some of mine have returned wounded and you can tell what happened to them. An injury from a BB gun and a wound from a hawk’s claw are very different. But you stitch them up, you heal them, and they survive.”
I asked Padilla how far homing pigeons have been known to fly and he told me a story related in The Book of the Racing Pigeon by Carl Naether. It seems that in February of 1930 a blue-blooded racing pigeon bred at Elmont, Long Island, in the United States was sold for breeding purposes to a mining engineer in Caracas, Venezuela.
In May of that year, Miss 1303, which was her name, escaped from the engineer and in August 1931 she was found in her old loft, in fine condition, even though she had flown more than 3,000 miles from South America to Long Island.
The story of Miss 1303, however, pales in comparison with a report by John Frazier Vance, writing in Scientific American. In his article What Brings Them Home? Vance says that an experiment was carried out on August 15, 1931 at Arras, France, to see if a homing pigeon could find his way back to Saigon, Indo-China, 7,200 miles away.
The bird, which is unnamed, is said to have arrived at his home loft on September 9, only 24 days after takeoff.
The more I heard about raising homing pigeons, the more I came to understand that la colombofilia is a rather expensive hobby. However, Juan Jorge Padilla told me the first prize for a competition in Guadalajara might be a mere 5,000 pesos, with 4,000 to 1,000 pesos going to the following four winners.
“You can definitely make more money raising canaries,” he told me, “but your emotional connection with the canary will never be anything like what you feel for una paloma. The pigeon you can hold, you can caress; you witness the birth of its babies, you suffer if it comes home hurt.
“We say this bird is tame, but the moment it’s on its own it must become wild, it must find its food and water; it must ride out storms, navigate in fog; it must avoid cats, possums, mountains and dangerous air currents. It must survive.”
“It can fly up to 120 kilometers per hour with a favorable wind,” Padilla continued. “but a hawk could catch up with it if the pigeon is tired. Then, at the last moment, the bird must have nerves of steel and execute a ‘barrel roll’ like those performed by fighter pilots to escape those sharp talons.
“That’s why you don’t really care if your pigeon wins, but what satisfaction you feel when it suddenly appears on your roof after a flight of hundreds of kilometers! You raised that bird from a little hatchling, as if you had personally trained a marathon champion from babyhood on.
“This satisfaction, seeing it arrive, maybe seeing it win, simply has no price! It is unique and it holds a special place in your heart and in your soul.”
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)
Laksi district officials on Thursday sanitised the house of an old woman who for decades had been feeding a large flock of wild pigeons and ignoring neighbours’ complaints about the mess they caused and the risk of disease. “Auntie Pigeon”, as she is known in the area, was also warned to stop doing it or face fines or even imprisonment. Laksi district chief Khajeerat Jaynakhom led a team to clean up the bird droppings and left over food that begrimed the two-story terrace house and its surroundings on Kosum Ruamjai road after a neighbour finally made an official complaint. They also disinfected the area. Mrs Khajeerat told 70-year-old Dueanchai Pengpreecha to stop feeding the birds because she was in violation of public health and cleanliness laws. She would be liable to a fine of up to 25,000 baht or even a jail term of up to three months if she persisted. The law prohibited people from feeding animals in public places in a way that would trouble neighbours, the district chief said. Ms Dueanchai agreed to cease and desist. The district chief had her signed a written promise to do so. “Auntie Pigeon” said she loved animals and had fed dogs and pigeons at her house for decades. She had not known that she was breaking the law. The number of visiting pigeons had soared dramatically in the past few years and she had to increase the amount of feed she provided, and scatter it on both the ground and upper levels of her house, she 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)
A pair of falcons perched high above the Melbourne CBD skyline have gotten birdwatchers excited for an impending hatch after laying four fresh eggs – with the action all happening via webcam.
Viewers tuning into the livestream have been given renewed hope after the webcam was taken down last year after two chicks were witnessed dying after a suspected poisoning.
Watchers have been sitting nervously, keeping track of the falcons who are trying their best to incubate the eggs on top of the 33-storey 367 Collins St skyscraper.
Talking to ABC News, Birdlife Australia volunteer Dr Victor Hurley discussed why he believes the dead chicks didn’t get past the point of infancy.
Mr Hurley said they’d had trouble with adult falcons catching pigeons who had ingested bird deterrent-type chemicals which have been known to be used to eradicate feral pigeons in the city.
‘The peregrines feed almost exclusively on other birds, so they see this pigeon lame and they pick it up and it’s covered in this fairly caustic gel which the peregrines then ingest themselves,’ he said.
Birdwatchers in Melbourne are ecstatic at the news of four eggs being laid by a peregrine falcon after two of its chicks tragically dying last year after feeding off a poisoned pigeon
The tragedy was made more potent after Dr Hurley claimed he had been told by Melbourne City Council that these chemicals were illegal in the city boundaries but peregrine falcons were known to hunt up to 10kilometres from the nest.
While it is currently unclear whether the two falcons seen on webcam are the same from last year, Dr Hurley says they look remarkably similar.
‘You’ve probably got a pair surviving at a site, on average, maybe three to four years, and then one of them dies and they get replaced, or another one comes in and kills the resident and takes over,’ Dr Hurley said.
The falcons have generated so much discussion that a dedicated Facebook page has been set up, named the 367 Collins Falcon Watchers.
It’s founder, Leigh Stillard, who started the page to support the work of the Victorian Peregrine Project, believes that the more people watch the footage and post images the more awareness and knowledge on how to treat this ‘remarkable creature’ can be told.
The falcon and its eggs can be watched on a live-stream from on top of 367 Collins Street in Melbourne’s CBD
‘We hope one day we will see many more bird of prey families living in the Melbourne CBD,’ he said.
According to Dr Hurley, if the falcons continue to incubate undistracted the recently laid eggs should hatch in around 30 days.
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)
As the band-tail pigeon swung in over the gravel pit, I shouldered my Remington Wingmaster shotgun, swung my aim through the bird and fired. It folded and came down hard, and my Lab mix quickly retrieved it. My first shot at a wild pigeon had scored. “Not bad,” I thought to myself, “nothin’ to it!”
I wondered why so many bird hunters had told me that band-tails were a challenging bird to hunt?
I then ran off 21 straight shots without drawing a feather, chewing on humble pie the whole time.
Band-tail pigeons were once much more popular to hunt in the Northwest than they are now. The season was closed in Washington from 1991 to 2001 to let the population recover from over-hunting.
Over that 10 year period most hunters forgot all about them.
These backwoods relatives of the city pigeon are common in the wet forests of the Pacific Northwest. It is a sociable bird that gathers in large flocks as it makes its yearly migrations in the fall and spring.
They are a pastel gray-blue in color, and they can be told from their city-dwelling cousins by the long tail with a wide, pale band at the tip. A white neck crescent is also obvious when the birds are close. They have a black-tipped bill and yellow legs. Their call is a soft, owl-like coo.
And, they fly really fast. Even seasoned scatter-gunners will find them difficult to hit with any regularity.
They are also a wild mountain-loving bird that eats honest, wild foods, and they taste much better than any common pigeon could ever taste.
The band-tailed pigeon is the closest genetic relative of the extinct passenger pigeon. Like the passenger pigeon, band-tails were also hunted hard over the decades, which led to the closures. While the birds are now recovering, they still need protections.
For that reason, the season is short, eight days in total, and the bag limit is two per day. The season runs from Sept. 15-23.
Hunters in Washington will need a small game license, a state migratory bird permit, and a migratory bird authorization with a band-tailed pigeon harvest record card to hunt them.
The band-tails of the Northwest migrate along the Coast and Cascade mountain ranges from British Columbia to California. Hunters ambush them by positioning themselves along saddles that the birds pass over, rock quarries that offer grist for the birds, feeding areas, and mineral springs.
According to Eric Holman, a wildlife biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Region 5, the birds have a fruit and seed diet.
“They are fond of elderberries and cascara berries,” said Holman. “They also like cherries and other fruiting trees.”
“Look for places where they are going for food,” said Holman. “Try pass shooting as they come and go from the feeding areas.”
This heavy diet of fruit in the summer leads the birds to seek out mineral springs to gain extra nutrients. Therefore, mineral springs are great places to hunt for band-tails.
They also tend to sit on the very tips of tall fir trees, especially single trees that give the birds a good view of any approaching threat. Looking for these perched birds is a great way to find the flocks.
Holman reports that hunters take only about 100 to 200 band-tails per year.
“It used to be higher,” he said. “When it reopened in 2002 we would get six to seven hundred a year, but it’s been tapering off.”
He feels the newness of the hunts created some initial excitement when it first reopened, but the extra regulations may be putting some people off.
Either way, the birds are fun to hunt, taste surprisingly good, and offer bird hunting with almost no competition.
These are tough, wild birds, and they are hard to bring down. You had better hit them hard or they will just keep on flying. Forget the game loads, too. Try high-brass loads of shot sizes 5 and 6.
Band-tails have excellent eyesight, and if you raise your gun too early, or let your dog wander, it will spook the incoming birds. Stay well-hidden, and reduce movement if you want any quality shots.
They also have a whole repertoire of dirty tricks. They will sweep over your head from behind, sliding right over you in good range, and they are gone before you can shoot. They will turn on a dime right before they venture into range. And, they can duck and dodge better than a mourning dove.
In Southwest Washington, hunters should look to the tree farms. These actively managed lands tend to draw plenty of birds, but most private timberlands now require a permit to hunt them.
Still, they provide most of what the birds want, and hunters with permits should find them there in good numbers.
Hunters can look for DNR and BLM lands along the migration routes, too. A good pair of binoculars will help you spot the flocks as they move.
If you want a fun wing-shooting challenge, give these birds a try. However, unless you are a better shot than myself, prepare to be humbled.
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)
Late in the summers of my childhood, black specks would fall out of the sky, floating in through my open bedroom window, snagging on the net curtains. Though we lived a good half mile from the nearest field, the charred shreds from stubble-burning made no distinction between town and country. Sooty showers rained down on suburban sensibilities year after year. Though people complained, nothing changed, for this was an age when farming sat in the social and political ascendancy.
A quarter of a century after a nationwide ban on stubble-burning began, the cereal fields are left to simmer under a weakening sun. Many hot weeks ago, the combines came and the harvest was taken off. Gold expanses of spiky stalks were left in regimented lines with bleached debris beneath. But, even now, on warming afternoons, the dusty plenty of July wafts from the roasted aftermath of the crop. There is spilled wheat in the chaff, barley grains exuding malted odours beneath stiff-straight stems, and from every “bare” field, a toasty flavour on the nose.
And still the harvest keeps giving. Early in the morning, wood pigeons, the white-collared workers of the tractor tramlines, are gorging in conspiratorial huddles among the barley stubble, paying little attention to the bike soughing alongside on the dirt track.
Off the bridleway, a flock of greylag geese in a slow bustle, some heads up, some heads down, are paddling through the wheat sticks. Big birds, big appetites. Holding a bumpy line beside the hedge, I swivel my head to the right and count. Fifty-two, fifty-three geese. They are not plucking at straws; they are finding something to eat.
I have half an eye on the thick tussocks at the base of one hedge, where there are whipped whirlpools of grass with black holes at their core. A rat spurted out of one the other day in front of me, a blur of thrusting snout and spider-fast legs. It trailed a pale tail that appeared to have levitated to the horizontal. I find myself glancing down now, checking hole by hole, filled with a mixture of excited expectation and revulsion. Human antipathy towards this gleaner of the fields runs very deep indeed.
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)
A law prohibiting the deliberate feeding of eagles, ravens, crows and seagulls is moving forward following Thursday’s Ketchikan City Council meeting.
The council also approved a memorandum of agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers adding $8.50-per-hour to the base wage for journeyman metermen and electricians.
The bird-baiting ordinance passed in first reading. Two people spoke in opposition during public comment. Martha Thomas is co-owner of Sourdough Tours, which started baiting eagles at its property near The Plaza mall this summer.
Thomas said the ordinance starts the city down the wrong path. It began with a complaint about eagles.
“Now you guys drafted this ordinance. You’ve included seagulls, ravens and crows,” she said. “But again you haven’t talked about the pigeon. My neighbor didn’t like me feeding the pigeons so are you saying he can go up to you guys and say, ‘You know what? Let’s do an ordinance against the pigeons. You know what, I don’t like my neighbor. She’s got too much garbage in her house, let’s do an ordinance against that.’”
After Sourdough Tours started eagle baiting, residents in the nearby Cedar Point condominiums complained to the city about increased eagle feces; and others expressed concern about safety.
That and worry over “copycat” tours adding to the problem prompted the council to move forward with an ordinance. It’s based on one adopted in Homer, and calls for a $500 fine for each violation.
During council discussion, the only member to speak against the ordinance was Julie Isom.
“I hate the idea that a company is actually feeding the eagles for profit, but I’m not going to support a law against it,” she said.
The bird-baiting ordinance passed in first reading 6-1 with Isom voting no. It will come back for a second vote.
Also Thursday, the council heard from city employees who asked that raises for some Ketchikan Public Utilities employees be extended to all city and KPU staff. City employees submitted a letter and petition with that formal request.
Public Works Department employee Clayton Hancock addressed the council.
“The issues of competitiveness in the job market and retention of skilled labor are problems that are citywide, not exclusive to one department as highlighted by the fact that there are more than 20 positions vacant throughout the city,” he said. “The city council has informed us they want to commission another wage study before addressing the issue at hand. However, an exception was made for power linemen. The employees are requesting that the city council treat all employees the same.”
During council discussion later, members agreed that the piecemeal approach is not ideal. Here’s Mark Flora.
“Not to say that these folks aren’t worth their bump, (but) we had a room full of people who made it pretty clear that the way this process is unfolding is exactly the kind of thing that kills morale and drives wedges between people,” he said.
Flora also expressed concern about how to pay for wage increases.
But, the council unanimously approved the MOA. With that wage increase, they hope to attract and retain workers. In mid-August, the council approved a $2-per-hour wage increase for KPU journeymen linemen and apprentices, for similar reasons.
The council also held a public hearing Thursday on a community development grant for Women In Safe Homes to potentially take over and renovate the former Ketchikan Regional Youth Facility. Several people spoke in favor of that proposal.
The hearing is a required part of the state’s process to qualify for the grant.
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)
A 26-year-old bird trader, Rana Das, was allegedly lynched on Wednesday in Narkeldanga over allegations of stealing pigeons. Four persons were arrested. Das and his cousin, Somnath Mali, were accosted by 15-16 people between 6am and 7am. The mob alleged that Das, who sold exotic and common birds, had no licence for the business and demanded Rs 15,000. They also claimed that Das had stolen pigeons from them. “Soon, the argument turned violent. The mob tied up Das and Mali, and thrashed them with rods and sticks. They then dragged the duo – both residents of the Narkeldanga slum – towards Gurudas Halt railway station,” claimed a local, Kartik Mali. Das was declared dead on Thursday morning, but his cousin remains in a critical condition at NRS Hospital. Recommended By Colombia The incident sparked tension in Narkeldanga early on Thursday. The agitation soon spread to neighbouring Manicktala after locals from Basakbagan blocked the Maniktala Main Road-Narkeldanga North Road crossing between 11.40am and 12.35pm, demanding the arrest of all those involved in the incident. As the area was shut for traffic, RAF officials were kept on standby, in case the situation got violent. However, the local police managed to bring the situation under control. Asesh Biswas from GRP (Sealdah) told TOI, “We have arrested four persons – Chinu, Rakesh, Amit and David – in this regard. A murder case has been initiated and search is on for the others.” Police said an initial probe has revealed that the four suspects were friends of Das. “All of them sold birds illegally. David also worked at a hotel in Topsia. The accused have previous cases of rioting and causing hurt registered against them,” another officer 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)
Herds of rustled cattle, millions of stolen bees and a flock of pinched pigeons are only a handful of farm crimes that film producer Geoff Morrison displays in his new documentary series.
The series, titled Farm Crime, tells the stories of farmers across the country who have been victims of crime. The documentary sets a serious tone, underscoring how crime negatively affects a farmer’s well-being and their livelihood.
“I think when I started reading up on these stories, the first thing that surprised me was that there is a large market value for these products,” said Morrison of Big Cedar Films.
“When I think of that one theft involving maple syrup in Quebec, it was enormous in scale, something like $18 million. People were laughing at it, but it was actually serious. It’s incredible someone could pull that off.”
Morrison partnered with CBC to air the series online, releasing a set of six 15-minute episodes each week. They include cases of stolen cattle, blueberries, bees, pigeons and oysters. As well, he profiles a farm that saw a thief butcher stolen animals on site.
Like the maple syrup theft, he said these cases were hardly taken seriously. Mainstream news organizations weren’t reporting on them and, if they did, they were treated like a joke.
“It was clear to me that coverage from big or national publications was light,” he said. “It was somehow hilarious that all these bees were stolen. The local papers did take it a lot more seriously.”
When selecting farmers to profile, he said he wanted people who were comfortable sharing their stories. As well, out of the six provinces he visited, he profiled one farmer per province to showcase agriculture’s diversity.
“At the end of the day, they are good human stories of people willing to share what they’ve gone through,” he said.
The case involving oyster thefts in Prince Edward Island sticks with him the most. Morrison said the oysterman was robbed while tending to his sick wife in hospital. With the help of others, they managed to catch the thief, who was later prosecuted.
“That’s a standout case,” he said. “They handled it well, even with the terrible circumstances they were facing.”
For many of the farmers he profiled, he said crime has had long-lasting effects on them. Some change the way they do business and they feel less secure.
In the case involving stolen pigeons, Morrison said the farmer has lost his sense of security and isn’t entirely comfortable with people on his property.
“That moment of having his pigeons stolen still comes back to him,” he said. “It’s not unique for any victim of crime to feel that way.”
Morrison said he hopes the series makes people, especially those living in cities, more aware of farming and how crime can severely affect farmers.
“I hope they get a greater appreciation for the hard work that goes into growing food and agriculture products,” he said. “These crimes need to be taken seriously and we need to respect those victims, like any victim of crime.”
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)
Australian readers – and enthusiastic bird-watchers who have visited Australia – may well be familiar with the crested pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes), an attractive little bird common across the southern half of the continent.
There are two things distinctive about the species. The first, not surprisingly, is the prominent crest on its head. The second is the loud, high-pitched, repetitive whistling sound it makes when it flies.
Ornithologists have long been perplexed about the origin of the noise, which is audible from a considerable distance away, because it is does not emanate from the bird’s beak.
Now however, a trio of researchers from the Australian National University in Canberra have solved the mystery. The noise is produced by a highly modified wing feather.
In a paper published in the journal Current Biology, Trevor Murray, Jochen Zeil and Robert Magrath reveal that the crested pigeon has a very unusual eighth primary wing feather which produces high note when the bird starts to fly.
The researchers acknowledge that noise-making feathers are not uncommon among the world’s bird species, and some research estimates they evolved independently more that 70 times.
However, Murray and his colleagues are the first team to demonstrate that the adaptation, in crested pigeons at least, is specifically a means of non-verbal communication.
The pigeons use the noise produced by the modified feather as an alarm signal, warning other birds of the presence of predators. The sound changes in accordance with wing beat frequency, increasing in pitch as the flight urgency develops.
To make their finding, the team recorded the sound made by the oscillating eighth primary feather – a tone at 2.9 kilohertz – and played it back to birds in conditions where no other possible danger cues were present. When the sound was made, the crested pigeons all took flight.
A control experiment using noises produced by the seventh and ninth flight feathers did not produce the same results.
Murray and his colleagues note that non-verbal noise by birds was mentioned by Charles Darwin in his book on sexual selection. He called it “instrumental music” but made no suggestion about its possible purpose.
“Our results therefore indicate, nearly 150 years after Darwin’s book,” they write, “that modified feathers can be used for non-vocal communication, and they reveal an intrinsically reliable alarm signal.”
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)
If you’d looked to the skies in Oxford, UK, during the summer of 2016 you could have been forgiven for thinking you had spotted the world’s first bionic pigeons.
The birds in question would have been members of a very special cohort trained to wear custom-designed head sensors to track how they navigated using eye movements. The results are now revealed in a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
Because pigeons’ eyes are fixed, they monitor their surroundings mainly by moving their head, according to lead researcher Fumihiro Kano from Kyoto University in Japan. Indeed, 90% of pigeon gazes are accompanied by head movements.
This means that head movement can be used as a proxy for where they are looking, and hence provide clues to their behaviour.
“Eyes are the window to the mind,” Kano says, explaining that gaze tells us a lot about how animals behave and think about the world.
For many years, he has been studying emotion and cognition in great apes (including bonobos, chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas), Japanese monkeys, human infants, children and adults.
In 2016, he and colleagues published a study showing that apes understand when beliefs are false.
For his latest project, he thought it would be interesting to record gaze in free-moving animals, teaming up with primate biologist Dora Biro from the University of Oxford, UK, to do so.
Homing pigeons (Columba liviai) were ideal species to test in motion because they tolerate wearing custom-made masks and sensors on their head and fly back to the home loft so the data can be retrieved.
It took Kano three months to develop the special mask. Every day he rummaged through a local craft store, experimenting with different materials to create something that fitted to the pigeon’s head as stably and comfortably as possible.
The result was a device hand-made with cloths, wires and elastic bands, which he stitched and soldered together himself.
“The most important thing was to design the mask so that it did not interfere with the bird’s breathing when flying,” he explains.
The pigeons were habituated to the head units, which were continually modified until they were comfortable and the researchers were satisfied the birds could walk, take off, and fly normally while wearing them.
The masks bore an inertial measurement unit to track the bird’s head movements using a gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer. The pigeons also wore tiny backpacks containing a state-of-the-art GPS tracker, microcomputer and battery.
Altogether, 22 birds were released from a novel site for 172 solo flights, followed by 172 paired flights and 44 repeated solo flights.
The team was delighted with the outcome. Kano says the birds’ heads were extremely stable during the flights, and the data showed every detail of their movements as well as the GPS recording of the return path.
During solo flights, the pigeons undertook detailed scanning of the landscape, moving their heads “far more than necessary for manoeuvring flight,” says Kano.
When they approached landmarks such as a main road and railway line – linear structures that pigeons tend to use for constructing routes – they reduced their head movements, suggesting “that they indeed ‘see’ them to navigate.”
When they were flown in pairs, they reduced their head movements, “indicating that the flock-mate is a key visual cue that they need to pay attention to,” Kano says.
He suggests the method could be applied to understanding how pigeons use attention in the natural environment, and even to develop bio-inspired drones. Next, the team is keen to add a tiny camera into the sensor to get a bird’s eye vista of the world.
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)
Kolkata: A youth has been lynched in Kolkata for allegedly stealing a flock of pigeons. Police have so far arrested four accused but the rest are still at large.
The lynching took place near the railway tracks at Kankurgachi on Wednesday (5 August) morning and the youth Rana Das alias Chotka (26) was declared dead at NRS Medical College and Hospital at Seladah.
According to his elder brother Rabi Das, a gang of youths from their Narkeldanga neighbourhood accused his brother of stealing pigeons from a household in the locality. As compensation for this, they demanded Rana to pay Rs 15,000.
But with Rana expressing inability to pay such a hefty sum, the youths dragged him to a spot near the railway tracks at Kankurgachi and tied him with iron chains to a pole. They then started hitting him with iron roads.
Rana soon succumbed to the torture. Hearing about him being beaten up, family members and relatives rushed to the spot and rushed him to NRS Medical College. Doctors declared Rana brought dead.
The bereaved family then lodged an FIR at Narkeldanga police station naming 12 youths. But with police making no arrests till this morning, people of the locality blocked the Maniktala Main Road for about an hour.
The public outrage eventually made police swung into action and arrest four suspects ~ Rakesh, Amit, Chinu, and David. A manhunt is on for the remaining accused.
Police said that all the suspects are associated with crimes in and around Narkeldanga-Kankurgachi area. A few of them had been arrested in other cases in the past.
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)
Los Angeles – What: Forever 21 has reportedly hired a contractor who has been trapping pigeons at its Los Angeles headquarters, prompting PETA supporters to plan to descend on the building on Friday to urge the retailer to stop trapping the birds immediately and instead take steps to make the area unappealing to them.
When: Friday, September 7, 2 p.m.
Where: Forever 21 Headquarters, 3880 N. Mission Rd. (at the intersection of N. Mission Road and Baldwin Street), Los Angeles
The pigeon problem appears to be related to a food truck that visits the company’s parking lot. PETA has attempted to work with Forever 21, offering myriad suggestions for peacefully coexisting with the birds and discouraging their presence, including simple measures such as keeping trash contained and secured and dumpsters locked, as well as barring workers and patrons from feeding the birds—but so far, it has refused to take these steps. Trapping initiatives actually backfire, because the resultant spike in the food supply accelerates breeding among survivors and inevitable newcomers, and populations then increase.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that trapping initiatives cause animals immense suffering, as they can quickly succumb to stress, exposure, or injuries sustained in frantic attempts to escape.
“Forever 21’s decision to trap pigeons who are simply trying to eke out an existence is cruel, and such initiatives can tear wild families apart, leaving orphaned young to starve,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on the retailer to nix this methodically cruel trapping and put into motion humane coexistence measures instead.”
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)
