by johnnymarin | Mar 27, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
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)
by johnnymarin | Mar 26, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
LOS ALTOS — From the street, you’d never know what was hidden behind the tall fences and lush foliage of a large suburban Los Altos home. After walking through the garden gate, though, you know that Pandemonium Aviaries comes by its name naturally.
Amadeus, the one-legged Amazon Parrot, sings hello. Olivia and Ferguson, big ostrich-like birds called East African crowned cranes, screech a racket. African Greys, macaws, parakeets, rare doves and fancy pigeons each call out in their own language, above the rhythm of hundreds of fluttering wings.
Michele Raffin — a Stanford Business School graduate, entrepreneur, writer and stay-at-home mom — never intended to become a self-described “crazy bird lady.” Twenty-two years ago, she opened up her backyard to rescued birds. Her mission pivoted toward endangered bird conservation and breeding.
“The birds changed me,” Raffin said. In the business world, she said, there’s much pushing and striving. The birds have shown her that it’s more important to connect and help others. “Who I was as a person became more important than external achievements.”
Now, she’s looking for the next generation of stewards to offer a new home for her flock of nearly 400 birds.
Shortly after, she responded to an ad seeking a home for another white dove, then found herself with a half dozen.It all started with an injured white dove — the type released at weddings — discovered on the side of a road. Raffin wasn’t sure she even liked birds, but she doesn’t want any animal to suffer. Thinking it had been hit by a car, she took it to the vet and visited the bird every day until it succumbed to its wounds, which she learned had been inflicted by a hungry hawk.
Raffin didn’t know the first thing about birds, so she met people who could teach her. She befriended a bird breeder in Sebastopol, who gave her some birds that needed a home. At his Christmas party, she met a whole brood of elite breeders and birders. Later, Raffin went to zoo school in West Virginia to learn what she could about bird husbandry.
Her goal was to take in birds that nobody wanted, find them mates, and provide species-appropriate housing. Housed as pairs or flocks, they’re never isolated. “Who wants to be all alone?” Raffin asks.
The death of a female green-naped pheasant pigeon led to an epiphany: The urgent need to restore populations. The bird’s mate started crying and wouldn’t stop, yet when Raffin tried to find him a new companion, she discovered that there were only 32 birds, worldwide, left in captivity. Tribal feuds and land rights issues make it too difficult to initiate conservation in their native New Guinea.
“I had no idea there were so few left,” she said.
Raffin already had a number of these colorful pigeons given to her by zoos, breeders, agricultural societies, and fish and game conserves. So she decided to use them to build a species “bank” — like a crop seed bank — to ensure that there was enough genetic diversity to support a healthy population. If the species became extinct in the wild, these captive-bred birds could help restore it, she dreamed.
In 2009, Pandemonium Aviaries stopped taking in strays and converted to a nonprofit devoted to conservation-driven breeding. It specializes in six species of endangered birds from New Guinea and the Philippines.
Her project has successfully bred birds even after they’ve been pets, and it has shown that captive birds can raise their own.And those green-naped pheasant pigeons? After solving some challenges, Pandemonium now has the largest flock in the world — four generations, with 14 distinct bloodlines. They thrive under Raffin’s care.
But the achievement hasn’t come easy. It takes four hours a day to feed the birds. Pandemonium depends on major donors like Whole Foods and Costco to provide outdated produce. The food — strawberries, blueberries and papaya — must be sorted and chopped, then doled out with seeds and grains, so each flock gets its ideal diet.
Raffin doesn’t treat them as pets, preferring to retain the birds’ knowledge, culture and integrity. A sign in the aviary reads: “You were wild once; don’t let them tame you.”
Carol Stanley, president of the Avicultural Society of America, said Raffin “has brought awareness of the plight of the birds in the wild to the public.”
“Michele Raffin has put her heart and soul into increasing numbers in the endangered species she works with at Pandemonium Aviaries,” Stanley said. “She is focused, tireless and steadfast in Pandemonium’s mission.”
But Raffin never expected to house the birds this long. She had hoped to reintroduce them back into their native environment in New Guinea but it has been mostly destroyed by mining and agriculture.
It’s not the ideal way to conserve, she knows. In the past, breeders tried to establish colonies in their native habitats. But Raffin’s birds were destined to be pets or zoo animals, which is why she created a U.S.-based conservation. And it worked.
Although New Guinea is not safe for her pigeons now, Raffin is confident the nation will someday discover ecotourism, and native habitats will improve.
Her dream is to someday see them fly in the wild.But, until then, they need to go somewhere, she says — somewhere with lots of room to fly. Her organization is seeking corporate or institutional sponsors to continue the conservation effort, preferably someplace warm like southern California or Puerto Rico, where solar panels and heat lamps wouldn’t be needed.
The Amazon Parrot in her native Puerto Rico offers inspiration: Its numbers plummeted to just 13 in 1975 after decades of forest clearing, but have since rebounded after captive breeding and release.
“People do want to protect animals,” Raffin said, “but the best way to do that is to protect their habitat, the environment.”
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 johnnymarin | Mar 25, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
There was a time when photographer Nicolas Tanner could comfortably say he knew very little about pigeons.
“My knowledge of pigeons was from the [HBO] show The Wire,” he said in an interview.
But that changed in the spring of 2011 when Tanner spent a month with a group of pigeon racers in coastal Maine.
“You meet these guys, and you’re meeting their friends, and all of sudden you’re involved in this community that is welcoming because they love what they do,” he said.
“I definitely did not expect to find the sort of community I did. It was very … cute. Not in a pejorative sense, just in a really … in the way they care for each other and the birds.”
The pigeon racers are part of the Biddeford Racing Club. They are a small group of older men who had spent their lives working outdoors all around Maine. They had grown up racing pigeons, attending bird auctions, and raising the birds in backyard coops.
The men Tanner met were rugged in the sense that working outdoors weathers the skin. But they showed incredible, and surprising, tenderness when it came to their birds.
Tanner spent a lot of time with a man named Marcel Letellier, who, nearing 80, was the oldest member of the Biddeford Racing Club. Letellier’s backyard was dotted by three small coops that, to Tanner, were filled with the same brownish-beige birds. But to Letellier, each was distinct.
“He had names for every single bird in his coop,” he said. “He was very closely connected to the inner and outer lives of the birds. He knew which bird was about to give birth and how to handle tiny chicks.”
“Visually that struck me — the juxtaposition between really weathered hands and burly looking men and watching them handle these shiny, often very beautiful, delicate-seeming creatures. And … they’re cooing [to the birds.]”
Pigeon racing relies on the natural abilities of the Racing Homer — a breed of domestic pigeon that has speed and enhanced homing instincts compared to other domestic pigeons. Training begins as soon as the bird is weaned and can fend for itself — about a month after hatching. When the birds are young they are exercised daily within the coop. But as they grow more familiar with their surroundings, they are given a longer and longer leash to fly away from the coop and return home.
For races, competing birds are tagged and taken to a location between 60 miles and more than 1,000 miles away from home. The birds are released from the same location and are supposed to fly back to their various coops. The time and distance are recorded and the fastest bird is declared the winner.
The sport dates back to the late 1800s, after homing pigeons were imported from Europe. The first official racing club was formed in 1872, with the larger umbrella organization — the Federation of Homing Pigeon Fanciers of America — following in 1886. Through the early 1900s, newspapers and monthly magazines dedicated exclusively to the sport sprung up to meet demand.
But between increasing restrictions on the keeping of pigeons and the fading interests of younger generations to take it on, the sport of pigeon racing is a dying tradition. And the Biddeford Racing Club is no different. In 1965, the club had 250 members. Today, just 35 members race their birds every Sunday from May through September.
Tanner got the chance to watch several Sunday race days. On one of those days, all the birds were trucked up to a location 150 miles away and released at dawn. The distance was short enough that the owners stayed at home. Some gathered together on one lawn, others waited dutifully by their own coop, but all keep their eyes to the skies anxiously scanning for the first set of wings.
When Tanner asked Jim Peck, one of the Biddeford racers, what he thought made the birds find their way home, he admitted he didn’t know. “They just want to come home,” Peck told Tanner. “Just loyal little creatures. That’s 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)
by johnnymarin | Mar 24, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
A purple poppy symbolises all animals who have died during conflict.
To mark the day, a New Zealand War Animal Memorial was unveiled at the museum.
The project is the result of work by the Australian War Animal Memorial Organisation, AWAMO which was set up to honour the animals that served alongside New Zealand and Australian troops abroad.
Since the New Zealand Wars, and through to WW1 and beyond, animals have played a major part helping service men and women.
These include horses, donkeys, camels, dogs, pigeons, the occasional cat and even glow-worms, which were used as a light-source in the tunnels of Arras in the WW1.
The head of AWAMO, New Zealander Nigel Allsopp, said while the focus was often on the cavalry horse, other animals have also played their part.
“The heavy horse like mules, donkeys and Clydesdales carried all the equipment up to the front-line and carried the wounded back”.
He said the pigeons carried messages to make the attacks possible.
Mr Allsopp said one pigeon in the First World War was shot and wounded and fell to the ground, where it was gassed and then wounded by shrapnel from a grenade, but that did not stop it.
“The pigeon was still able to walk the three kilometres back to headquarters to deliver its message and where it died in its handlers arms.”
Of all the animals that served, it is the dog that is still the most active in a modern military.
A New Zealand War Animal Memorial was unveiled at the National Army Museum in Waiouru. Photo: RNZ / Andrew McRae
During the First World War canines were used as messengers and for taking medical supplies out to the wounded in no-mans land.
Nowadays, they are used for security and tracking, but also as explosive sniffing dogs, which New Zealand troops used in Afghanistan.
Alan Inkpen is the Working Dog Capability Manager (Land) for the New Zealand Defence Force.
He said it had been proven that the work dogs do, can not really be replicated by technology and explosive detection dogs were a prime example.
“To try and find the amount of target odours the dog can find you would need almost one piece of equipment each time to find that.”
Mr Inkpen said the most important thing about military working dogs was to reduce the risk to human-life.
It is estimated that in the First World War alone, about nine million animals serving in the military died.
Birds had an important role in war, carrying messages. Photo: Supplied – NZ National Army Museum
Nigel Allsopp said the time was right to mark their sacrifice.
“We obviously never forget the sacrifices of our two-legged heroes, our soldiers, however, it’s time to perhaps to just pause of thought that also four-legged soldiers served.”
He said the animals were not volunteers and were drafted.
“It’s just a way to acknowledge how they helped us.”
The National Animal Memorial at Waiouru is sculptured by American, Susan Bahary, who attended Saturday’s unveiling.
The National Army Museum plans to commemorate Purple Poppy Day each February 24th and it hopes the idea will catch on nation-wide.
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 johnnymarin | Mar 23, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
Maned, or Nicobar, pigeon (lat. Caloenas nicobarica) is one of the most beautiful representatives of the family columbidae, and the last survivor in the same kind of Barbary doves. His business card – the sparkling emerald and azure necklace of long feathers that form around the neck something like a multi-colored mantle.
In the most favorable light, his plumage looks under the bright sun, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. In the shadows, the colors become more subdued, giving the bird more grey everyday.
Homeland ruffed pigeons – small Islands East of India: from the Nicobar and Andaman to the Solomon Islands and New Guinea.
They live in small flocks or in pairs in the jungle, giving preference to the uninhabited Islands of Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. A solitary life on a remote island, where it had virtually no natural enemies, has left its mark on the appearance of the Barbary dove.
This heavy, weighing up to six hundred grams of poultry, growing almost forty centimeters in length, not very fond of flying. And although flocks of pigeons ruffed can often be seen plying between the Islands in search of food, most of the time they spend on the ground.
Nature has given these birds a powerful, sturdy legs, outstanding experienced walkers. Only danger can make ruffed pigeon to leave familiar ground and seek refuge in the branches of trees. During the day, gathering in flocks of several dozen individuals, ruffed pigeons fly from one island to another, leaving their attention and mainland Southeast Asia in search of seeds, berries, fruits, nuts and insects.
A special device stomach allows them to digest the nuts from the shell is so strong that to break it with a hammer.
Unlike other species, the Nicobar pigeons fly with columns, and to navigate in the pack, they help the white tails serving as a kind of beacon for flying back. With the beginning of the breeding season, ruffed pigeons fly into one of the outlying uninhabited Islands covered with dense tropical vegetation.
Like most doves, they are monogamous and choose one mate for life. But a longtime acquaintance does not exclude courtship and mating dance that can last for several days.
The basis of the wedding ceremony, all kinds of bows with bright tints lifted up the mantle. After the official part, the time of mating – the male selects a suitable nest location a few meters from the ground and collects firewood from which the female builds comfortable and stable nest. Delayed egg hatch both parents take turns every two weeks. Hatched Chicks are weak and helpless, and are under guardianship of adults for the first three months of his life.
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 johnnymarin | Mar 22, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Manchester Airport’s £1bn revamp is aimed at making life easier for passengers – but the construction project has attracted some unwelcome visitors.
According to the airfield’s wildlife team, the demolition phase of the Terminal Two transformation attracted ‘feral pigeons’ in search of food among the rubble.
This has meant extra work for the ‘bird scarers’ whose job is to prevent bird strikes on aircraft.
Anthony Clarke, wildlife control manager at Manchester Airport , said: “Part of our job is to look at what’s going on in the environment around the aifield, on areas such as buildng sites. The demolition of Terminal Two created a big dinner plate for birds.
“The first few metres of top soil on a site like that are a good food source. This attracted feral pigeons. It’s something we’ve had prior experience in and it’s petered out now because the buildings are going up now.”
Bird scaring is one of the many jobs carried out by the environmental team at Manchester Airport.
Officers take it in turn to be ‘scarecrows’ and use a number of techniques to get the job done.
These include blasting bird ‘distress calls’ from speakers to encourage birds to move away.
There’s also a long grass policy – with a length of between seven to 10 inches said to deter birdlife.
The team also analyse data to spot trends to help them fight the flocks – sometimes firing flares into the air as a deterrent. But sometimes the more traditional shouting and hand-waving is all it takes.
The strangest wildlife sighting for Anthony was a pink flamingo.
“I got that phone call on a Sunday evening, that was a surprise, it was night time on Terminal Two and we had to use a police thermal imaging camera to track it down”, he said.
Bird scaring is just one part of the vital work of Manchester’s airfield officers – who handle aircraft marshalling, safety audits, runway inspections and more.
“I don’t think passengers fully realise all we do to keep the runways safe. And I think it’s only with incidents like the bird strike on the Hudson River that people think about it”, Anthony said.
“We’ve got a good team on the airfield”, he added. “I feel lucky in that my job isn’t tied to the airfield – it’s about 13.5km around it too. We investigate planning applications – if anyone’s building a golf course – for example.”
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 johnnymarin | Mar 21, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
The illegal Kabutarkhana (feeding place for pigeons) erected by real estate tycoon and local BJP MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha using his MLA fund, was demolished by the Collector of Mumbai Sampada Mehta, on Friday morning.
The kabutarkhana had become a major bone of contention between the Shiv Sena and the BJP. This was the second time the kabutarkhana was demolished, earlier the BMC had demolished it in October. However, this time the Collector office got involved as the seashore where it was constructed falls on collector land.
However, the demolition didn’t go well with Lodha, who protested outside the office of the Mehta, along with his supporters. He claimed that kabutarkhana was constructed in 2005 with all required permissions. However, debunking Lodha’s claim, Local Member of Parliament of South Mumbai, Arvind Sawant said, “Lodha is lying, there can be no kabutarkhana construction on the seashore, and Lodha is trying to give it a political colour for his wrongdoing. The action is collector is appropriate and hence the kabutarkhana was demolished today.”
The report of superintendent of City Survey and Land Records, Mahesh Ingale, filed in the High Court further proves that the structure was illegal, “On the direction of the collector, the deputy collector encroachment issued a notice dated February 17, under section 53 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code and a hearing was given to the concerned parties, following which the said structure has been removed.” says the submission.
Meanwhile, the issue also came up in the High Court, where the petitioners for Adarsh Chowpatty Pragati Mandal, which is the High Court appointed committee also raised the issue of illegal Kabutarkhana and mentioned that, how it posed a health hazard for visitors and locals.
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 johnnymarin | Mar 20, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
The locked house of Jheurheri sarpanch Gurpal Singh in Mohali. (Express Photo) The locked house of Jheurheri sarpanch Gurpal Singh in Mohali. (Express Photo)
Kabootran wala sarpanch (sarpanch who keeps pigeons) is how 32-year-old Gurpal Singh, the sarpanch of Jheurheri village is identified when one asks for direction to his home near the international airport. Gurpal was booked by the Vigilance Bureau along with Mansa Additional Deputy Commissioner and two other officials for the land scam on Tuesday.
When Chandigarh Newsline visited Jheurheri village on Wednesday, Harpal’s house was locked. His neighbours said the family had left on Monday evening. Narata Singh, who lives close to Gurpal’s house, said the latter used to keep around 350 pigeons in specially designed cages. When one visited the place where the pigeons were kept, it was also locked.
“The entire village knows that Harpal Singh fed his pigeons with dry fruits. If you go inside the house, you will find packs of cashews and almonds. He owned around 25 acres in Patiala which he bought after his land was acquired for the airport. Harpal was a normal farmer. How can he keep costly pigeons and feed them costly stuff? He even installed CCTV cameras where he kept the pigeons,” wondered Narata.
Narata also said that recently Gurpal gifted four buffaloes, gold chain and a Royal Enfield bike to one of his masters, who taught him the art of training pigeons for competitions. “We came to know that he gifted all these items to one Ballu at Mauran village near Bhawanigarh in Patiala district. Gurpal bought the land in that area. He used to hold competitions of pigeons and spend money on such activities,” said Gurnaib Singh, one of the complainants in the case.
Gurnaib said Gurpal became sarpanch in 2013 and he always courted controversy for some reason or the other. “Gurpal once sold a small piece of land in the village in 2012. When the matter reached the police, I was the one who helped him. Since he was not the sarpanch, no case was registered against him,” he stated. Gurnaib informed that around 17.5 acres of land were owned by some farmers. Though the land was acquired for the airport, Gurpal got the compensation issued in the name of Bhag Singh and Kesar Singh.
“That money belonged to us. He cheated us following which we lodged a complaint against him and the accused officers in 2017. When we last lodged the complaint in 2016, nobody was ready to accept it. But, we are happy that these people have been booked finally,” he added.
Some of the panches were allegedly kept in the dark by Gurpal and his accomplices about the purchase of land in question. Somnath, one of the five panches, said Gurpal never discussed with them that the panchayat was going to buy land in other villages and added that they were never called to the meetings. “He came to me once and asked me to sign on a resolution. When I refused, he said he would lodge a complaint against me,” said Harinder Singh, another panch of the village.
Amarjeet Kaur, also a panch, said she was never told by Gurpal about any purchase of land. Gurpal, along with relatives Darshan Singh, Surinder Singh of Mulepur, Fatehgarh Sahib, and other accused Mohamad Sohel of Sector 79, Mohali, and Swarn Singh of Tiwana village in Fatehgarh Sahib are all on the run.
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 johnnymarin | Mar 19, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
“The town’s got birds in it, and they poop.”
No one disagrees with that assessment by Pine Island Mayor Rod Steele, but how the city deals with the issue is another matter.
Mary and Tom Bollman along with Nathan Tiarks, who own the buildings at 222 and 218 S. Main St., in Pine Island, asked the city council Tuesday to help them pay to get rid of the birds — a flock of pigeons — that roost on the buildings and foul the structures and the sidewalks below with their droppings.
“We had a few before,” said Mary Bollman, who owns a three-story building frequented by the birds. “But nothing like now.”
Bollman said the city should help the building owners because the problem with the pigeons grew worse around 2007 when road work and bridge replacement drove the birds into town.
“We can hardly keep after it,” she said, adding that the pigeon excrement has become a health hazard, requiring the city’s help. “You can slide right by our building sometimes, It’s really nasty.”
Bollman said she and her husband, along with Tiarks, engaged a pest-control expert to remove the birds for $970. The exterminator will trap the birds and poison the ones that can’t be trapped.
“We’ll take any support that we can get,” Bollman said.
Tiarks said the pigeons are creatures of habit, traveling back and forth between the downtown buildings and the city’s grain elevator. He said the goal is to get this group of pigeons out of the city and hope a new group doesn’t replace it anytime soon. “If we just push them down the block, does that really accomplish anything?” he asked.
The flock of about 25 birds leaves a big enough mess that he frequently shovels the excrement up from the sidewalks, Tiarks said.
Steele said the money is a small amount for the city.
“I know just about every city has some bird issues, but this is a precedent-setting decision,” he said. “We’re kind of locked into that forever.”
Steele asked the Bollmans if they thought it was good city policy to hand out money for pest-control issues.
“We wouldn’t have come to the council if we didn’t think it was a good idea,” Tom Bollman said. “I can go up on the roof and shoot ‘em, but I don’t think that’s legal.”
Mary Bollman said the request is similar to the one Rochester made to battle the crows downtown.
However, Steele said the difference was a large group of citizens bringing forward an issue in Rochester compared to two building owners asking for help in Pine Island.
“Where does all this stop?” he asked.
The council declined to make a contribution to the anti-pigeon efforts.
Tom Bollman said he and his wife, along with Tiarks, will pay for the removal of the birds, with or without the city’s help.
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 johnnymarin | Mar 18, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
A hungry hawk feasting on pigeons at the entrance of a Syracuse area bank has been upsetting the staff the past couple of weeks, a bank official said.
Joseph Mathlin, from the M &T Bank’s property management department at the bank’s DeWitt office, reached out to NYup.com recently seeking guidance on how to deal with a Cooper’s hawk “that’s using the entrance of our building as its cafeteria.”
Mathlin said he first was notified about the hawk feeding on a downed bird on the sidewalk at the building’s entrance on Feb. 7. There have been two other incidents since, he said.
“Just looking for a little guidance as to how we can encourage the bird to choose another location to feast,” he said. “Needless to say, the staff at the branch are terrified, and the mess that is usually left behind also doesn’t go over well.”
He said the bank recently put up a large fake owl near the entrance to scare the hawk away.
Jay McGowan from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said he doubts the fake owl will be effective in frightening the hawk, but added it could possibly reduce the numbers of pigeons around the entrance. “It won’t hurt,” he said.
He advised that the bank should just let nature take its course and eventually the hawk will find another place to perch and feed.
An adult Cooper’s hawk is a medium-sized raptor, about the size of a crow. A unique trait of this bird is that it captures its prey with its feet and kills it by repeatedly squeezing it.
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 johnnymarin | Mar 17, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
In a novel way to tackle pigeons and their droppings inside the CSMT heritage building, Central Railway (CR) authorities have placed nets on the ceiling — towards the entrance of the General Manager’s office — in order to prevent pigeons from sitting on the small parapet.
The birds, especially pigeons, tend to sit on the beam of the ceiling that has little crevices. Right below are wide corridors with Victorian-styled arches made of limestone on one side and teak wood doors leading into the offices of railwaymen on the other.
“In order to prevent birds from sitting on these beams, we have placed these nets so that they do not enter in the first place. Cleaning their droppings is an issue,” said a CR official. This has been done on the second floor where the General Manager’s – top boss of CR – spacious office exists. The offices on this floor would not be shifted unlike those on the ground and first floors.
Sources said that by the end of this month, the process of shifting office space on the ground and first floors shall begin in which nearly 400 rail employees work. Since the Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal asked for setting up a World Transport museum at CSMT, the offices of Central Railway will move to other buildings.
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 johnnymarin | Mar 16, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Enemy searchlights had caught its outline as the RAF Whitley reached Nieuport on the coast of Nazi-occupied Belgium, and the German batteries opened up. But unscathed, the pilots pressed on, heading inland as instructed.
Just minutes later, passing above the darkened fields of Flanders, the crucial moment had arrived. The flaps of the aircraft were lowered and, from a height of between 600 and 1,000ft, a British ‘agent’ parachuted gently to the ground.
This was July 1941, and an extraordinary new development in the intelligence war with the Wehrmacht was in full swing. So important was the information gleaned from this particular mission, it would end up on Churchill’s desk.
A member of a Royal Air Force aircrew holding a carrier pigeon taking part in Operation Columba beside a Lockheed Hudson of Coastal Command around 1942
An RAF pilot takes a carrier pigeon on board his Halifax bomber before a raid in World War Two – the pigeons were useful – among other things – to take home SOS messages if the plane’s radio was shot up (June 1943)
A photo of the Debaillie family in Belgium before they dispatched the pigeon – Marie, the elder sister, is holding a resistance newspaper (left), Margaret is holding the parachute (right) Arseen holds a pencil, Gabriel the British intelligence questionnaire, and Michel clutches the pigeon. In front of them is a chalkboard with the dates of the bird’s arrival and departure, its ring number and the phrase ‘Via Engeland’ to mark its destination. And at the top are three capital V’s – the symbol of Victory
Secret messages were packed into cylinders that were attached to pigeons’ legs
Yet the figure floating down through the Belgian night was no normal operative, vulnerable to capture, to torture or to worse. For this was Operation Columba, a largely forgotten yet essential weapon in the fight against Nazi Germany, and one that played an important role in turning the fortunes of the War.
And the spy it was despatching behind enemy lines? A pigeon.
I first stumbled across this remarkable tale by chance one morning, while covering a quirky news story for the BBC. The boney leg of a dead pigeon had been found in a chimney in Surrey and attached to it was a message which, after investigation, had stumped even the top code-breakers of GCHQ, unable to decipher a seemingly random series of letters. What might this strange relic mean? No one seemed entirely sure. Could pigeons have been used in the Second World War, perhaps? Again, information was scarce.
My interest piqued, I spent a morning in the National Archives in Kew, West London, pulling up any and every relevant file – and one of the bundles that landed on my desk immediately stood out. Marked with the words ‘Secret’ and ‘Columba’, it contained compelling details of an operation, including tiny pink slips of paper that transpired on closer inspection to be messages from ordinary people living in occupied Europe.
They had clearly been brought back to Britain by pigeon. Filled with the day-to-day realities of wartime, the slips offered an intriguing insight into the small frustrations and dark tragedies of life under occupation.
None of them, however, compared with the one labelled Message Number 37. More like a work of art than an official document, it contained tiny, beautiful inky writing, too small to read with the naked eye and densely packed into an unimaginably small space. And detailed, colourful maps. Who had written it? And what had happened to them? There was little to work with as the message was identified with no more than a code-name – Leopold Vindictive.
After three years of searching, I finally found my answer in rural Belgium. The story of this unlikely spying mission began in April 1941. There had been attempts to drop secret agents behind German lines since the summer of 1940, but they were perilous. Some agents died before they hit the ground. Others were captured all too quickly.
So slim were the intelligence pickings that the secret services were even instructed to see if a Yorkshire astrologer and water diviner known as ‘Smokey Joe’ could help. MI6 had agents abroad, but the human networks were a mess.
In 1940, it was even claimed that German troops in Norway were practising the bagpipes and training to swim ashore wearing green watertight suits. And so an unlikely new strategy was devised – of dropping homing pigeons into occupied Europe in the hope they would fall into the hands of sympathisers who would send them home with information useful to the Allies.
Each bird would be placed in a special box with a parachute attached, and a tiny green Bakelite cylinder – about the size of a pen top – was placed around one leg.On the outside of each container was an envelope with a questionnaire, written in Dutch or French, some rice paper for the return message, a pencil, and a bag of pigeon food.
The latest edition of a resistance newspaper printed in London was enclosed, or sometimes a copy of the Daily Mail, to prove the bird had come from England.
Details of the operation were kept secret from the pigeon fanciers who volunteered the birds. So who was behind this outlandish mission?
Today, everyone is familiar with MI5 and MI6, but few have heard of MI14, let alone its sub-section MI14(d). Its job was to understand the German occupation of Western Europe. Working out of a basement room in the War Office in Central London, it initially comprised just two officers: Brian Melland, a former theatrical actor, and ‘Sandy’ Sanderson, who had served with the Highland Division in the First World War. This was the unit in charge of the Secret Pigeon Service.
Operation Columba got under way on the night of April 8, 1941. A Whitley crossed into Belgium near Zeebrugge then headed for the French border, where the pigeons in their containers were pushed out. Two days later, in the bowels of the War Office, at 10.30am, MI14’s phone started ringing. The first bird had made its way home to its owner in Kent. Columba message number one was phoned in.
It had come from a village called Le Briel in northern France and contained real information. ‘Pigeon found Wednesday 9th at 8am,’ it began. ‘The German troop movements are always at night. There are 50 Germans in every Commune. There is a large munitions dump at Herzeele 200 metres from the railway station. Yesterday, a convoy of Horse Artillery passed towards Dunkirk… The Bosches do not mention an invasion of England. Their morale is not too good. The RAF… should come to bomb the brick works as the proprietor is a …’ The next word was marked as ‘illegible’.
The message ended with ‘I await your return, I am and remain a Frenchman.’ At 3pm, message number two arrived, this time from Flanders.
Operation Columba’s most deadly foe proved to be a natural one – it was the hawk. German hawks were flown along the coast from Belgium, France and the Netherlands to catch and kill Columba birds as they headed for Britain
‘There are only a few troops here and no petrol dumps,’ it read. ‘But yesterday some artillery arrived and the men say they are going to Yugoslavia where other troops and wagons are also moving.’
After three months, 221 birds had been flown into occupied territory, many from Newmarket racecourse – home to a top-secret RAF squadron whose job was to carry out ‘Special Duties’ for British intelligence – and released over Flanders, Normandy and Brittany. Forty-six had returned, 19 with messages, of which 17 contained information.
Often people were fearful at discovering a spy pigeon, and understandably so. Many decided it was better the pigeon died than they did. Some villagers even made the choice more palatable by roasting and eating the bird. Others went straight to the local police station or Nazi occupiers in return for a reward.
The people responsible for the remarkable Message 37 were braver than that, and fiercely anti-Nazi. The pigeon and its container had been retrieved in July 1941 from fields near Lichtervelde by an unnamed Belgian farmer. Concealing them in a sack of potatoes, he took them to the Debaillies, a patriotic family of two sisters and three brothers who ran a corner shop.
One of the brothers, Michel, was a pigeon fancier. The Debaillies summoned two family friends, Hector Joye, a former soldier with a love of military maps, and a Catholic priest, Father Joseph Raskin, who had worked as an intelligence gatherer sketching German military positions during the First World War to aid allied reconnaissance. Brothers Arseen and Gabriel drove along the coast and through the neighbourhoods around Bruges, taking notes.
Joye gathered intelligence on a chateau occupied by German troops. Raskin tapped church-goers for information.
After a few days, the priest set about transferring the maps and the wealth of information to the two tiny sheets of rice paper. He worked through the night of July 11 using a magnifying glass and a fine-tipped pen until all the space was filled.
The rice paper was folded and placed inside the cylinder attached to the pigeon’s foot. Then the group did something contrary to every rule of spycraft: they stood for a family portrait in a courtyard behind the shop. At first sight, it could be any other family picture, but look more closely and you can see that Marie, the elder sister, is holding a resistance newspaper, Margaret is holding the parachute. Arseen holds a pencil, Gabriel the British intelligence questionnaire, and Michel clutches the pigeon.
In front of them, is a chalkboard with the dates of the bird’s arrival and departure, its ring number and the phrase ‘Via Engeland’ to mark its destination. And at the top are three capital V’s – the symbol of Victory. Climbing up on to the roof, Michel then released the bird. At 8.15am the pigeon rose high into the sky, circled to get its bearings, then made for the Channel and home. By 3.30pm, it was back at its loft in Lattice Avenue, Ipswich, with the canister arriving in the War Office on July 13.
A British Army carrier pigeon, VC Pigeon, (pictured) was shot by a German sniper during the First World War and is now on display at the Royal Signals Museum in Blandford, Dorset
Homing pigeons played an important role in both world wars – their homing ability, speed and ability to get to high altitudes meant they were often used as military messengers
Between April 1941 and September 1944, a total of 16,554 pigeons would be dropped in an arc from Copenhagen in Denmark to Bordeaux in the South of France – only one in ten made it back alive
The pigeons that survived more than proved their worth, helping to pave the way for D-Day and victory
Melland pulled out the first sheet of paper, nine inches square, and the closer he looked, the more astonished he was. The transcript came to a remarkable 5,000 words and took up 12 pages. It was gold dust. It indicated hidden German emplacements, munitions depots and fuel dumps. It highlighted a telephone exchange and nearly a dozen factories playing a role in the German war effort.
There were precise battle damage assessments of recent British raids in Brussels. A map showed a château that was the central communications installation for German High Command in the whole sector. Message 37 rapidly made its way around Whitehall and was shown to Churchill himself. It represented more than just a collection of useful facts. It summed up a spirit of resistance, confirming to Britain’s leaders that some of those living under the tyranny of Nazi occupation were willing to risk their lives to help.
Mary, a carrier pigeon, was hit by shrapnel, wounded by pellets and attacked by German war hawks as she flew over the Pas De Calais
The message was signed with the codename ‘Leopold Vindictive’ and asked for a response on the Dutch and Belgian BBC radio news. On July 15, only three days after Michel had set the bird free, the Belgians heard this on their radio: ‘Leopold Vindictive 200, the key fits the lock and the bird is in the lion’s cage.’ Sadly, the Leopold Vindictive story does not have a happy ending.
The group of amateur spies gathered more intelligence but future pigeon drops failed to reach them. In growing frustration, they trusted a chain of resistance contacts but the Germans closed in. They arrested and tried Raskin, Joye and Arseen Debaillie. On October 18, 1943, in Dortmund, all three were guillotined.
But still Operation Columba pressed on. Between April 1941 and September 1944, a total of 16,554 pigeons would be dropped in an arc from Copenhagen in Denmark to Bordeaux in the South of France. Only one in ten made it back alive. Some were lost on planes shot down before they had a chance to be released. Some lay unfound in a field.
The Germans responded of course. Rewards were offered and punishments were draconian. An MI6 agent reported that a notice displayed in one Belgian town offered 625 francs to anyone who delivered a British pigeon. Rumours began to emerge that the Germans were planting false pigeons to trap people.
Marksmen were stationed on the coast of northern France while a Columba report from the Loire Valley said that pigeons fell into enemy hands after a German observation post spotted the RAF flight passing overhead.
But Operation Columba’s most deadly foe proved to be a natural one. It was the hawk. German hawks were flown along the coast from Belgium, France and the Netherlands to catch and kill Columba birds as they headed for Britain.
Yet the ones that survived more than proved their worth, helping to pave the way for D-Day and victory.
And for the French and the Belgians living under Nazi occupation, there was something else besides: the hope that these remarkable birds, released up into the freedom of the skies, would race back safely to their homes and help free their nation from tyranny.
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 johnnymarin | Mar 15, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Literally. The stately Constanta Casino in Romania once hosted the family of Russian tsar Nicholas II, who became familiar with its large art deco rooms, lavish staircases and shell-shaped windows overlooking the Black Sea.
But now, this is what remains of the old casino – a crumbling, and rather spooky, abandoned manor.
Photojournalist Jakub Kyncl got special permission from Constanta City Hall to visit the old casino, which he said faced an uncertain future as the local community couldn’t afford to restore it to its former glory.
“There are hundreds of pigeons inside as well as family of cats eating deceased pigeons,” Mr Kyncl told news.com.au.
“Bird feathers and faeces are all over the building. A bandana over the mouth was a very good idea.”
The Art Nouveau building has had a fascinating history since it opened as a casino in 1910. Soon after the Russian royal family visited in 1914, it was converted to a military hospital with the outbreak of World War 1.
A devastating bomb attack at the hospital in 1916 left 10 people dead.
By 1917 it was operating as a casino again – until the outbreak of World War II, when it was again hit by a bomb.
Another blow came after the war, when Romania’s strong anti-gambling laws effectively ended its days as a casino.
It was given a new life as a restaurant, bar and meeting venue, but by 1990 it was abandoned and left to rot.
In January, the building was short-listed for a list of the seven most endangered buildings in Europe.
A submission to the Europa Nostra heritage foundation noted the main danger to the building came from the corrosion and rusting of metal.
“Sea storms and winds have shattered most of the windows facing the sea,” the submission read.
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 johnnymarin | Mar 14, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
BENGALURU: Man is a gregarious animal – we were taught this line in school, but I only understood the true meaning of this sentence a few days back. My first connection with animals was at the Nandankanan Zoo in Bhubaneswar, which has the unique distinction of housing the most bored animals on the planet.
The tigers and lions would stare at people like they were high on opium. The snakes never stepped out of their quarters, even though lines of visitors slithered around their cages. Peacocks rarely spread their wings out to dance, considering Odisha is largely a humid place. The only ones having a ball were monkeys, who stepped out of their enclosures and attacked people for groundnuts.
My connection with animals came from books and movies. Famous Five, Secret Seven, Chacha Chaudhary, and Raja-Rancho. My parents never allowed us to have a pet – it was assumed that pets were for rich people. What we had instead, was a white stray dog named Tipu that was fed unfinished rice and curry. Flashforward to decades later, and I live in a street filled with IT employees and party animals.
The predictable schedules, wide roads, and a lack of traffic makes my locality a haven for all kinds of birds and animals. The one creature I miss the most is the tiny sparrow. While researching for this article, I found out that sparrows were targeted and executed by the Mao regime in China. Turns out, there were huge ecological repercussions from the act, since sparrows also ate a lot of insects. With large malls and skyscrapers, I can’t even remember the last time I saw a sparrow.
We have a lot of pigeons though, and I have mixed feelings for the species. Pigeons have adapted fairly well to urban landscapes, making AC outlets their foster homes. My flat has three balconies, and pigeons have colonised two of them – marking their territory by leaving their droppings on my dried clothes to show me who’s boss. While the status of a cow has been elevated from ‘Aye, shoo!’ to ‘Go Mata’, I don’t think the cows in my locality are aware of this change. They still walk about chewing newspaper and polythene, lying about on the side of the road as crows play hide and seek all over them. There are hardly any bulls around, and I wonder if it’s because they didn’t get any promotion in the last fiscal year.
The cats in my locality behave exactly like cats, and chose not to step out while I was taking the census for this article. I glimpsed upon a few here and there, but when they saw me, they stopped licking their paws and magically vanished. My biggest disappointment however, is reserved for dogs. I have found that dogs that live near shawarma shops and chicken centres lead a more fulfilling life than dogs outside temples and mosques.
I found a white stray dog that reminded me of Tipu, and befriended him. While going to work, I used to feed him biscuits and pat his furry head. Fat and lazy, Tipu was clearly used to affection and adulation. However, I was shocked while returning home a few days ago. I was walking back, and Tipu started barking at me! As it usually happens with dogs, word spread around quickly, and very soon I had a pack of dogs barking at me till I reached my building. I tried to make eye contact with Tipu, but he avoided my gaze, as if to say ‘work is work, bro!’.
At first, I was disappointed. Dogs were supposed to be man’s first friends, and here I was experiencing a brutal betrayal by a bitter Brutus. But when I reached my home, I realised there was no point
getting emotional about these things. We human beings aren’t too different – we work all day for food, hunt on prey at work, protect our territories, and give out mating calls to the other gender. We are all animals here, in this concrete jungle that feeds on fire in the belly.
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 johnnymarin | Mar 13, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
They are the scourge of British streets and dubbed ‘rats with wings’ for their unhygienic habits.
But scientists believe an army of urban pigeons could be recruited to help prevent the spread of disease and toxins by acting as constant ‘biomonitors.’
The feral birds have an unedifying reputation as pests, but their ability to spread out and occupy all parts of a city could be harnessed to keep track of toxins and diseases which damage human health, say experts.
Rebecca Calisi-Rodriguez, of the University of California, believes pigeons are a perfect tool for monitoring dangerous pollutants because they live off human waste and are therefore inhabit same areas as city dwellers and are exposed to the same contaminants.
The California team said pigeons could serve as ‘the proverbial canary in the coal mine’ because they ‘walk on the same pavements, breathe the same air and eat the same food as humans.’
“Pigeons have existed for ages in close proximity to us, eating the same food, drinking and being exposed to the same water sources, soil, air, pollution,” said said Dr Calisi-Rodriguez, associate professor of neurobiology, physiology and behaviour.
“They have a very small home range, spending the their life within a few neighborhood blocks. And because they are alive they process these chemicals in their bodies.
“This offers up the opportunity to not only find toxin hot spots in our environment, but to understand HOW these toxins affect biology.”
There are 18 million feral pigeons in Britain so scientists would have a huge supply of birds which could act as biomonitors.
In a recent study, the team set out to find out if pigeons could highlight areas which were high in lead pollution.
Although lead has been banned from products for decades – because it harms brain development – it is still present in the many cities, often in old painted street furniture, or children’s play equipment.
Ass Prof Calisi-Rodriguez’ studied the blood levels of pigeons and children living in New York between 2010 and 2015 and found that both birds and humans inhabiting the same neighborhoods experienced similar patterns of lead in their blood.
The team has also received funding to start screening pigeons for other toxins including, pesticides, fire retardants, BPA, and other heavy metals. They are even monitoring the genetic make-up of the birds to see how stress affects DNA.
“Birds, like us, are vertebrates,” added Ass Prof Calisi-Rodriguez. “We share a lot of the same evolutionary history, and our bodies have many similarities in terms of tissue form and function.
“For example, like humans, pigeons lactate. They produce crop milk in their crop sacs to feed their chicks when they first hatch.
“The process is controlled by the same hormones that control human milk production, and both types of milk have essential nutrients the babies need to survive. So as you see, what we learn in birds can have far-reaching implications.”
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 johnnymarin | Mar 12, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
From fledging time, two groups of homing pigeons were protected for most of the time from wind exposure. Instead, they were subjected to artificial odorous winds. One of the two groups was subjected to an odorous wind of olive oil from the S and an odorous wind of a solvents’ mixture (“synthetic turpentine”) from the N. The other group underwent the opposite treatment (odorous wind of olive oil from the N and odorous wind of synthetic turpentine from the S). The birds of the first group, released from two points 21.0 and 26.5 km W of the aviary flew in a northerly direction when olive oil was applied to their nostrils and in a southerly direction when synthetic turpentine was applied. Under the same conditions, the birds of the second group flew in the opposite directions. These results support the olfaction hypothesis of pigeon navigation (Papiet al., 1972).
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 johnnymarin | Mar 11, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Iranian security agencies are worried about the presence of pigeons at the Macca Masjid. Iranian President Dr Hassan Rouhani will visit the historic mosque, along with his delegation, and address a gathering of namazis on Friday.
The police have deployed sharpshooters and armed guards as part of the security arrangements for his visit. But, security personnel are worried about pigeon droppings.
Iranian security agents who visited the mosque to oversee the security arrangements noticed that there were bird droppings and twigs on the first row, where Dr Rouhani is likely to sit while he offers prayers. The agents pointed it out to the mosque authorities, who assured them that they would look into the issue.
The Macca Masjid, a symbol of Iranian architecture, is home to a thousand pigeons. The birds have been living in the mosque’s minarets and lintels for years. There are pigeonholes on the roof as well.
A 70-member group consisting of the Iranian delegation, local public representatives and officials will offer prayers at the mosque on Friday.
Officials have requested the minorities welfare department and the Macca Masjid authorities to arrange for a shamiana (tent) outside the mosque.
“Inside the mosque, we will tie a cloth to cover the first two rows.
“We have been told that the President of Iran will be addressing a small gathering,” said an official from the minorities welfare department.
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 johnnymarin | Mar 10, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Toronto social media users are this week extolling hawks for appearing en masse and publicly eating less lovable urban wildlife: pigeons.
Reddit and Twitter users have posted pictures of hawks swooping down on busy Toronto streets like Gerrard St. E. and College St., to devour the less fortunate birds that comprise their meals.
As one Reddit user put it: “Seriously I love anything that will get rid of the damn rats-with-wings,” lovingly referring to the predators as “skycats.”
Mark Peck, who looks after the ornithology and bird collections at the Royal Ontario Museum, said he too has noticed more hawks enjoying the city this week — hunting, nesting and trying to attract mates.
“The last few days with the warmer weather I’m seeing more and more birds doing courtship displays,” he said. “I think this warm weather has got everybody’s hormones going a little bit so the hawks are starting to think of the breeding system.”
Peck said both Cooper’s hawks and red-tailed hawks, historically forest and rural birds, have been “moving in” downtown for about two decades.
They choose Toronto, he said, because the city has a strong ravine system and bird feeders — ideal for predator birds to swoop down on smaller, prey while they feed.
This week was a bit unusual, Peck said, because it’s still early for hawks to nest in the city. Ample food and warm weather seem to have encouraged them to do just that.
On his way to work this week, Peck noticed a red-tailed hawk had returned to a nest on an exterior air-conditioning unit near Bloor St. W. and Spadina Ave., which he has been observing for three years. He didn’t expect to see the nest occupied until mid- to late-March.
The fact that the hawks are adapting to city life, and are doing so in a way that is visible to humans is “all good news,” in Peck’s view.
“It allows people to see (nature) and engage with them,” Peck said.
In other words, the birds are saying, “Stop looking at your phone and look at the world around you.”
He added the hawks are nervous birds, and are unlikely to bother humans or their pets.
That doesn’t mean they’re shy about eating in front of humans though.
“Birds are getting more comfortable with people, so they’re eating them right in front of people these days,” Peck 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)
by johnnymarin | Mar 9, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
They have been maligned as “rats of the sky”, a filthy menace blighting our cities. Could it be, though, that far from spreading illness from above pigeons may save us from it?
That is the contention of scientists who believe that feral pigeons could be a frontline weapon against a genuine airborne risk: pollution.
Stored in the feathers of each pigeon is the accumulated grime of the cities we share with them. As they peck at our discarded soggy chips and splash through the puddles of our gridlocked streets, they pick up a record of the pollution to which we are also exposed.
Rebecca Calisi-Rodríguez, from the University of California, Davis, has conducted studies showing that the lead levels in pigeon feathers correspond to the lead levels in children living in the same area. They also correlate to the amount of traffic in the vicinity.
Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin, Texas, she said she thought that the birds were a perfect tool for sampling the polluted urban environment.
“Pigeons have existed for ages in close proximity to us, eating the same food, drinking and being exposed to the same water sources, soil, air, pollution,” she said. “They have a very small home range, spending their life within a few neighbourhood blocks. And, because they are alive, they process these chemicals in their bodies. This offers up the opportunity to not only find toxin hot spots in our environment, but to understand how these toxins affect biology.”
She is not the first to have the idea. In 2016 as part of a pollution awareness project, racing pigeons equipped with backpacks were released into the London skies to take readings across the capital. She has taken it further, though, conducting large-scale trials on pigeons in New York, looking to see how readings taken from them corresponded to the pollution affecting the humans who walked among them.
Dr Calisi-Rodríguez said that her research showed there was no need for pedigree pigeons. Instead, even the mangiest club-footed pigeon could inform us about our urban environment and its effect on us — simply by looking at the chemical signature accrued in its body.
“Birds, like us, are vertebrates. We share a lot of the same evolutionary history, and our bodies have many similarities in terms of tissue form and function. For example, like humans, pigeons lactate,” she said. She argued that this made them surprisingly good avian proxies for humans.
“What we learn in birds can have far-reaching implications,” she said.
Once, we relied on canaries in the mine. If she gets her way, this far more quotidian bird could be their modern equivalent.
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 johnnymarin | Mar 8, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Brobson Lutz remembers his first squab with perfect clarity. It was the 1970s at the now-closed French restaurant Lutèce in New York City. “I came from North Alabama where there was a lot of dove and quail hunting and I knew how tasty little birds were,” the fast-talking Southerner recalls. “I’m not even sure if I knew then if it was a baby pigeon or not. But I became enamored with them.”
When he returned home, however, the New Orleans-based physician found pigeon meat in short supply. The bird was occasionally served in the Big Easy, but to satiate his need for squab, Lutz had to get creative. For a time, he says, he would call Palmetto Pigeon Plant, the country’s largest squab producer, and try to buy in bulk. “I pretended like I was a restaurant chef on the telephone to buy some from them, because they were only wholesale,” he says.
Eventually, Lutz decided to take matters into his own hands—and onto his own property. He bought some land along the Mississippi River, retrofitted a building into a pigeon loft, and bought a few pairs of breeding birds. “My initial plan was to go commercial, and I had a restaurant that wanted ‘em,” he says. But he’s found out he’s gotten a quarter of the production he expected. “I don’t know if it’s too hot here in the summer or if they’re not happy here or something, I’m lucky if I get from one pair six babies a year.” It’s enough to fill Lutz, but not enough to share his passion for pigeon meat with his fellow Louisianans.
Squab, once among the most common sources of protein in the United States, has fallen out of favor in the last century. The speedy, handsome, tender, and tasty pigeon of yesteryear was replaced in the hearts and minds of post-World War II Americans with the firsthand experience of the city pigeon, whose excrement encrusts our cities. It was replaced on the plate, too, by the factory-farmed chicken. But thanks to foodies like Lutz, squab is making a slow and steady comeback in French and Chinese restaurants around the country. Trouble is, the bird’s unique development needs mean farmers struggle to meet the growing demand.
Allen Easterly of Rendezvous Farm in Virginia sells his squabs in the Washington, D.C. area. He says most people are ignorant of the pigeon’s culinary value—and that many seem to wish they could stay in the dark. “At the farmer’s market, people say, ‘What are squab?’ And you say, ‘Young pigeons.’ And they go, ‘Ew,’” he says. “They’re thinking of the city birds pooping all over statues.”
Pigeons may be reviled in the United States today, but as any squab enthusiast will tell you, for most of human history, the 310-ish species in the pigeon-dove family were revered. The little birds were a common theme for Pablo Picasso, who named his daughter Paloma, the Spanish word for dove. And physicist and futurist Nikola Tesla sought solace in his avian neighbors. One night in 1922, his favorite pigeon flew into his window looking distressed and eventually died. He reportedly said, “I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me.”
Since at least ancient Egypt, domesticated pigeons have served as a messengers. Their enviable speed and pristine sense of direction made them an important communication strategy well into the 20th century. Even when telegrams and eventually phone lines criss-crossed the continent, pigeons were often more reliable. During World War I, homing pigeons were used to discreetly deliver messages across enemy lines. One bird, Cher Ami, famously delivered a life-saving note to Army headquarters, despite being shot through the breast and blinded on her flight across the battlefield. She was awarded a French military honor, the Croix de Guerre, and her one-legged body (Cher Ami’s right limb was also lost in her fated journey) sits taxidermied in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
The pigeon’s descent into the proverbial gutter is hard to chart, but its fate appears to have been sealed by 1914. That year, the last of the wild passenger pigeons, a little bird named Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo. The birds were once so plentiful in North America that a kit (that’s the collective noun for a group of pigeons) in the midst of migration could black out the sun. As they traipsed across the Midwest and Eastern United States, snacking in farmer’s fields along the way, hungry humans would pull the babies from the nest and cook them for a quick meal. But deforestation and overhunting—people not only stole the babies, but shot the adults from the sky—drove them to extinction in just a few centuries.
For those who remembered the passenger pigeon’s prime, squab remained a popular dish. The birds merely morphed from a kitchen staple to a rare treat sourced from local farms or shipped in from faraway poultry plants. But these days, pigeon is a dish best served defensively. For the generations after World War II, who have grown up on factory-farmed chicken at the expense of other birds, the pigeon is a nuisance, not a source of nutrition. In the 1960s, prices for pigeon meat dropped as demand for pest control skyrocketed. In 1980, Woody Allen dubbed the same New York City pigeons Tesla adored “rats with wings” in his film Stardust Memories.
While it’s true that city pigeons shouldn’t be eaten, rumors that they are a particularly diseased bird are just that—rumors. Pigeons are no more likely to carry avian disease than any other bird, but we have made these feral birds moderately dangerous by feeding them our trash. Unlike farm breeds, which are carefully controlled and fed a special diet, city pigeons clean up our forgotten pizza crusts… and likely ingest rodenticide, battery acid, and lead along the way.
Around the same time that enterprising businessmen began putting up spikes and spreading poisons in pigeon-dense parks, the chicken, previously a fragile and finicky bird prized primarily for its eggs, became the nation’s leading source of poultry. In 1916, just two years after Martha the passenger pigeon died in captivity, scientists began work to develop a “broiler” chicken, bred specifically for meat production. The hope was the bird would grow big and grow fast. After years of tinkering, the Cobb company launched its breeding program in the 1940s and other poultry producers soon followed. By 1960, the National Chicken Council reports, the per capita consumption of chicken was around 28 pounds. In 2018, the council projects we’ll each consume about 92.5 pounds of the bird.
Despite the public vitriol and stiff competition from chicken, a few folks, motivated by the pigeon’s gastronomic promise, have preserved the squab-eating tradition. Scott Schroeder is the owner and chef of Hungry Pigeon, a restaurant in Philadelphia. Trained in French cooking, he started eating squab early in his career, and has only become more enamored of its taste. “I really fell deeply in love with them in a way,” he says of squab carcasses. “The breast in particular tastes like a mixture of duck and steak at the same time, which to me sounds really good.”
There are two reasons for this unique flavor. First, pigeons are an entirely dark meat bird, meaning they have a high concentration of myoglobin, the oxygen-storing protein that gives dark meat its unique color and taste. Where myoglobin is concentrated in a chicken’s legs, it courses through a pigeon’s entire body, allowing for a more succulent, if iron-intense, eating experience. The second factor is the age at which a pigeon is killed. Like veal, the prized meat of young cows, farmers kill squab when they’re young and their meat is tender. By trapping them just days before they take their first flight—typically around four weeks old—farmers ensure that the meat around a baby pigeon’s wings are never used and therefore never hardened.
In France, squab is often pan-roasted, with a cream-colored crispy skin. In Chinese cuisine, the squab is usually fried, so it’s served up whole and bronzed like Peking duck. In Morocco, squab is commonly served in a pastilla, an elaborate and pastry-centric take on the pot pie. While the first two preparations require a young, supple bird, the pastilla can use adult pigeon, too, as the slow-cooked process is enough to soften the more mature meat.
In the United States, the taste for pigeon meat remains rare, but the meat itself is rarer still. Schroeder recently had to remove squab from his menu at the Hungry Pigeon. His supplier—”a really nice Mennonite man named Joe Weaver who is the opposite of Purdue Chicken”—stopped selling the birds and the chef hasn’t found another source of squab at a reasonable price. While a generic whole chicken costs around $1.50 a pound, a one-pound squab is typically 10 times that; depending on who you buy it from, prices for a whole pigeon can trend north of $25. “A hundred years ago, everyone was eating them,” Schroeder says. “Now, you can’t find them, unless you’re filthy rich.”
Tony Barwick is the owner of Palmetto Pigeon Plant, the largest squab producer in the United States. When he isn’t dealing with calls from pigeon fiends like Lutz masquerading as restaurateurs, Barwick manages farm’s 100,000 breeding pairs of pigeon. Each month, he says, the Sumter, South Carolina-based business aims to sell 40,000 to 50,000 squab. Barwick’s birds can be found in “white tablecloth restaurants” and Chinatowns from New York to Los Angeles. “I’ve been backordered for 15 years,” he says.
Though Palmetto’s monthly output may sound big, it’s nothing compared to pigeon’s peers in poultry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn’t even track the nation’s pigeon population, instead focusing primarily on chickens, chicken eggs, and turkeys. “We’re a minor species,” Barwick says. “I don’t know how many squab are produced in the United States, but… let’s say 22,000 a week. There’s one chicken company in Sumter, South Carolina, they do 30,000 an hour in just that plant.” After a poignant pause he adds, “In a hour what our entire industry does in a week.”
Barwick acknowledges that part of the pigeon’s problem is its bad reputation. But from an agricultural perspective, the real bottleneck is the bird’s long babyhood. In the avian universe, most species develop quickly. Chickens, ducks, geese, and many other birds, are all precocial animals, meaning the newborns are mobile and reasonably mature from birth. While they still need to be protected, an infant chicken can start waddling—and, crucially, eating everyday food—from about the moment it cracks through its egg.
The pigeon, however, is an altricial bird, meaning the babies are helpless at birth. While it’s possible that scientific manipulation could eventually turn squab into mass-produced meat, this fundamental facet of the pigeon’s development makes things difficult. “A human baby is altricial,” says Barwick. “So is a pigeon… It’s born with its eyes shut, which means their parents have to regurgitate feed to them.” Because the young are helpless, family units have to be kept relatively intact, and birds can’t be forcibly fattened up. In the beginning, baby pigeons won’t eat scattered bird seed, instead relying on so-called “pigeon milk,” which is gurgled up from mom or dad’s craw. This is why, on average, a pair of pigeons only produces two babies every 45 days. By contrast, a single female chicken in an artificially-lit environment can produce as much as one egg everyday, which, if they’re inseminated and incubated, can turn into new chickens.
Pigeon problems aren’t just a matter of maturity, however. They’re also a matter of pure poundage: Pigeon don’t weigh much. In four or five weeks, a squab tops out around a pound. In the same amount of time, a factory-farmed chicken will hit five pounds, thanks to selective breeding for broiler birds and other mass-production techniques like growth hormones. “It’s like oysters,” Schroder says of squab. “There’s just not a whole lot there.”
Still, it’s clear that some of squab’s inconveniences are also a part of its charm. Because it’s hard to produce and familiar primarily to foodies, it’s treated with more reverence than a chicken. While this keeps squabs out of the mouths of the masses, it’s actually great for business. After a severe decline in the 1960s and 70s, Barwick says demand for pigeon is back—even if most Americans remain oblivious to this particular source of protein.
“Most of our squab we sell into Asian markets in the United States,” he says. “They love squab.” In China, young pigeon meat pairs well with special occasions including weddings and holidays like Lunar New Year. Barwick says that the domestic squab industry started to bounce back after England and China brokered a deal to return Hong Kong to China. Hong Kong residents emigrated to the United States en masse in the 1980s, he explains, and brought their penchant for Peking duck and roast squab with them.
In more recent years, upscale restaurants have started to sell more squab, too. “We have these celebrities [like Julia Child, Alice Waters, and Emeril] who love squab and they’ve really pushed it, so we’ve seen domestic demand start to grow again and it’s that TV effect,” Barwick says. The unique taste and, of course, the relative scarcity of the bird, make it a mouth-watering menu item—for those who can afford it.
The combination of increased demand, a stagnated supply, and the bigger budgets of these white tablecloth establishments have all conspired to raise the price of the bird. While it’s easy to track down a host of midtown Manhattan restaurants, where one or six courses might be squab, finding the little bird in Chinatown is much harder. I found five Chinese restaurants in New York City that had squab on the menu, but only one actually kept it stocked—$18.95 a bird, head and all.
In many ways, the squab’s spotty history is not unusual. At the turn of the 19th century, horse meat was all the rage. And during the Gold Rush, miners relied on turtles as a steady source of protein. What food appears unethical or unappetizing has always changed with the shifting sands of supply and demand.
What’s peculiar about the pigeon is our over-familiarity with the bird. We’ve all seen cows, pigs, and chickens, but few Americans encounter them on a daily basis, let alone share their stoops and streets with the critters. For devotees of French cuisine, the love of pigeon meat has actually enhanced their respect for the squab’s urbane cousin. “I like their resiliency and that they survive our environment,” Schroeder the chef says. “To me, they’re such an iconic bird.” But for the majority of people, negative encounters with the city bird means, even for a reasonable price, this particular meat will never make it on the menu.
Still, Barwick says Palmetto is planning to increase it production by nearly 50 percent. Over the next three years, he says, Palmetto intends to add 40,000 new breeding pairs. This increase may not be enough to substantially lower the price or convert chicken-lovers to the ways of the pigeon, but it’s sure to provide pigeon devotees some relief. “Squab is perfect for one,” Lutz says, his Southern accent speeding up to deliver this final determination. “If I went with someone, I’d make them get their own. I wouldn’t share it.” If all goes well, he’ll no longer have to.
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)
