by johnnymarin | Feb 25, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Said Charlotte Moore, director of BBC content: “The culmination of the BBC’s ambitious four years of programming to mark the World War One centenary is being honored on BBC One with the world premiere of a very special film from the highly acclaimed Peter Jackson that will bring unheard voices from a hundred years ago to life for a whole new generation to experience”. Tied in with the conflict’s centenary, the aim is to premiere the film at the BFI London Film Festival this autumn, accompanied by screenings in cinemas around the country. It’s sped up, it’s fast, like Charlie Chaplin, grainy, jumpy, scratchy, and it immediately blocks you from actually connecting with the events on screen. This footage looks like it was shot in the last week or two, with high-definition cameras. Trafalgar Releasing will distribute the film theatrically in the United Kingdom, whilst it will be aired on BBC One along with a companion “making-of” documentary. Every school in the United Kingdom will also receive a copy.
“We have made a movie which shows the experience of what it was like to fight in this war, not strategy [or] battles”.
They include a mass participation artwork on 10 June marking the act that gave the first British women the right to vote; Rachel Whiteread casting the inside of a Nissen hut and placing it in a Yorkshire forest where a prisoner of war camp was located; and Danny Boyle creating a “mass participation project across the UK” on 11 November, Armistice Day, with more details announced closer to the time. Created by the arts group Artichoke, it will involve women and girls in processions on the streets of Belfast, Cardiff, London and Edinburgh wearing the suffragette colours of green, white and violet.
The role of pigeons as message-carriers in the conflict will be celebrated in a work where a “large flock of pigeons, each carrying a tiny LED light” is “conducted” at dusk “in a spectacle of flight”.
He added: “It’s not the usual film you would expect of the First World War”.
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 | Feb 24, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
The British Homing World Show of the Year featured more than 2,000 birds in the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens. That was an increase on the 1,700 that entered last year. The popular event is reportedly worth around £10m to the resort’s economy and has also raised more than £3m for charity. This year, the exhibition boasted 120 trade stands. As well as being a social occasion, competitors were also chasing the title of Supreme Champion. Ian Evans, general manager of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association and organiser of the event, said the show had been a great success and regulars were already booking their hotels for next year. “I can’t see it ever moving from Blackpool,” he said.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Feb 23, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
For more than 150 years blue plaques have celebrated notable people and the buildings in which they lived.
But now a pigeon that delivered secret messages during the Second World War has become the first animal to be given the honour.
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.
Her loft in Exeter, Devon, was also bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1942 resulting in the deaths of many feathered comrades.
She lived with her owner, pigeon breeder Cecil ‘Charlie’ Brewer, and the property in Exeter’s West Street had its plaque unveiled at the weekend.
He had been made a special constable in 1941 with responsibility for general control of war pigeons.
Mr Brewer used his skills as a bootmaker to stitch up her wounds and also made Mary a small leather neck support to ease her injuries.
She lived with her owner, pigeon breeder Cecil ‘Charlie’ Brewer (right) and she died in 1950 and is buried with other animal heroes in the PDSA Pet Cemetery in Ilford, Essex
At the end of the war she was awarded the Dickin Medal for distinguished gallantry, the highest animal award for bravery.
She died in 1950 and is buried with other animal heroes in the PDSA Pet Cemetery in Ilford, Essex.
John Monks, of the Exeter Civic Society, said: ‘It’s a remarkable story of dedication to duty worthy of a blue plaque. But it is also a record of the roles humans required animals to play in bad times.’
Mr Brewer died in 1985, aged 90, having raised money for charity by giving talks on his beloved bird.
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 | Feb 22, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
Las Vegas police say that 13 horses, 150 roosters and hens, 400 pigeons, two guinea pigs, and four turtles were confiscated from the home.
Officials confirm that the animals were living in deplorable conditions. Charges are expected to be filed against the owner of the home.
Las Vegas police and Animal Control were alerted to a possible animal hoarding situation at a home near Cheyenne Avenue and Lamb Boulevard.
Red Rock Search and Rescue also assisted in the removal of animals.
While some horses seemed to be healthy, others appeared to be distressed and neglected with matted fur and broken hooves.
Scripps sister station KTNV in Las Vegas also watched as about 100 roosters were taken away in carriers.
Neighbors said this all started when a horse escaped from the home around 6 a.m. Sunday. When police and animal control arrived, they began investigating the house and eventually started seizing animals.
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 | Feb 21, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Jalandhar, January21
The Sher-E-Punjab Maharaj Ranjit Singh Club and the breed Show Club organised the 54th annual pigeon breed show in the city today.The show was open to all pigeon owners. Around 100 pigeon owners from different places took part in the annual breed show.It was held in the morning at Govindgarh colony and MLA Ranjit Singh Beri was invited as the chief guest on the occasion. DIG Olympic hockey player Davinder Singh accompanied him.Jagdish Raj from Ladowali got the first prize by presenting his five fancy pigeons of different breeds, while Jaspreet Kaur from Chandigarh and Ullas from Kolkata bagged the second prize.
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 | Feb 20, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Hyderabad: Having remained stuck in a time warp for long, the hands of four clocks located on towers in the city will start ticking soon with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) working towards restoration and renovation of clocks in the historical towers at Mozamjahi Market, Shah Ali Banda, Monda Market and Sultan Bazaar.
The clocks in these towers had remained defunct for last several years and with complaints pouring in from different sections, the municipal corporation is now gearing up to repair and get them functional.
Among all the clock towers in the city, the municipal corporation has decided to repair and restore the clocks at Mozamjahi Market, Shah Ali Banda, Monda Market and Sultan Bazaar first. The repairs will be confined only to clocks and no civil works will be taken up the towers are heritage structures.
In the past, a couple of firms were entrusted with the task of maintaining the clocks but due to different issues, including non-payment of monthly charges etc, the repair works were pending since long.The municipal corporation is roping in private firms involved in maintenance of the clocks as maintenance has been a major challenge for the civic body all these years.
However, learning lessons from the past, the municipal corporation this time is making the installation and maintenance of the clocks for a period of two years. The works will be taken up with a cost of about Rs.15 lakhs, said an official from GHMC.
Apart from technical aspects, pigeons have also made the maintenance of the clocks a task for the municipal corporation.
At places like Mozzam Jahi Market and Shah Ali Banda, the pigeons flock the hands of the clocks. As a result, the hands either got damaged or stopped functioning. To fix the issue, this time efforts are being made to wrap pigeons net to obstruct the birds from entering the towers, he said.
On the repairs of clock towers at other places, he informed that measures were being taken up by Heritage Cell. While, the Charminar clock repair will be taken up under Charminar Pedestrianisation Project, the one at Fateh Maidan Club is also due for repairs, he added.
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 | Feb 19, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
The special pigeon that delivered top secret messages during the Second World War was bestowed a mark of recognition usually reserved for people and places that have significantly shaped Britain’s history.
Last week, Mary the pigeon became the first animal to be given an English Heritage blue plaque to commemorate where she lived.
The prized pigeon lived in West Street in Exeter, Devon, where the blue plaque was placed on Saturday.
Mary was dropped behind enemy lines where she was repeatedly attacked by gunfire.
She then delivered secret messages across the English Channel to her home.
Her time with the National Pigeon Service saw Mary awarded the Dickin Medal in 1945 — an honour bestowed on hard-working animals during war time.
Mary escaped her loft in Exeter uninjured despite being bombed on three occasions.
The tenacious pigeon was attacked by German hawks stationed in Pas-de-Calais but escaped — returning home with wounds to her neck and right breast.
She recovered and was put back in service two months later.
Mary returned with the tip of one wing shot off and three pellets were removed from her body on a second flight — but recovered and returned to service.
During her final trip, her neck muscles were damaged by shrapnel.
Mary’s owner, pigeon breeder Cecil “Charlie” Brewer, made her a leather collar and took her out of service.
Exeter Civic Society unveiled the blue plaque at at Brewer’s home and shoemaker shop of 63 years.
It is the civic society’s first blue plaque to commemorate a heroic animal and its owner.
In 1922, the year of his marriage, Brewer and his wife Ena moved to the road and set up a workshop to breed and train homing pigeons.
He was made a special constable in 1941 with responsibility for general control of war pigeons in the area and decorated in 1945 for war services.
Mary of Exeter died in 1950 and is buried with other animal heroes in the PDSA Pet Cemetery in Ilford, Essex.
She is commemorated in Northernhay Gardens, Exeter, as well as in the mosaic under the Exeter St Thomas railway bridge and on the animals war memorial in Hyde Park.
Charlie Brewer died in 1985, aged 90.
To be awarded an official English Heritage plaque, the proposed recipient must have died at least 20 years ago.
This is to help ensure that the decision about whether or not to shortlist a candidate is made with a sufficient degree of hindsight.
According to English Heritage, plaques are as much about the buildings in which people — and animals — lived and worked as about the subjects being commemorated.
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 | Feb 18, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
Local January 1892 news included an irreverent reverend, passenger pigeon innovations, and a mix-up between Paris, France, and New Paris… in Ohio.
RAILWAY WOES: About all it takes to bring the trains late into Richmond is a slight snowfall that would not even stop a kindergartner, AND THERE YOU ARE! Because of this we suggest the depot should add more woodstoves so there may be no more human extinctions – not from freezing while waiting – but from rapid advancement of old age! – The Eds.
CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNTRYSIDE: Yesterday while Mrs. Jane Lusk, wife of farmer Frederick, with a jug of whiskey and $300 she had just withdrawn from the bank, somehow got it misplaced. It has since been learned Marion Duff and Tom Young stole both jug and money. When arrested, they were drunk. The money was returned. The whiskey won’t be.
IN HAMILTON, OHIO: Evangelist Edward Best yesterday stood at his open window and loudly prayed to the Lord to curse and destroy his neighbors with cholera and smallpox. The man of the cloth was immediately arrested and fined $10 and costs for disorderly conduct. When appealing to the county judge, he — as clergyman — was sternly rebuked to make appeal to the highest court above and to adjust to how he does the Lord’s bidding down here below.
UP IN THE AIR: The Evening Item is in receipt of the annual report of Postmaster General Wanamaker, in which he recommends a governmental postal telegraph service. Just why the Feds should go into the telegraph postal business any more than by delivery express or business freight, he does not say. We in Richmond vote for a passenger pigeon system because, by the way the Postmaster’s brain works, it is something this government-funded idiot might actually endorse. – The Eds.
DISCOVERED ‘EM: Our brother the esteemed Palladium, in yesterday’s dispatch, with regard to brigands robbing a train in Warsaw, Poland, posted the location as Warsaw, Indiana, a place to which it was not heretofore thought brigands would ever extend themselves. It is expected that next our Pal the Palladium will locate the news of Paris, France, at New Paris… the one in Ohio! – Eds. (The Evening Item and the Richmond Palladium were friendly rivals until they merged on Jan. 8, 1939, and the former competitors became one.)
ON EARTH: Our recent comet, it is now believed, is identical to the one seen in 371 years B.C. and again in A.D. 337, at the time of the death of emperor Constantine. It will never appear again to the present generation. Its orbit has been calculated from accurate observations as a very lengthened ellipse, with a period of 793 years to say the least, so that its next appearance will be in 2,675, wherein it is probable few of us will be left to greet it, but of course the immortal town of Richmond shall be. – The Eds.
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 | Feb 17, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
North Korea has released posters that promote inter-Korean cooperation, in the lead-up to its participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Pyongyang’s move comes amid speculations that it is reaching out to Seoul to dampen the growing alliance between the latter and Washington.
North Korean posters are notorious for their militaristic and anti-American messages, but the ones released by North Korea’s Uriminzokkiri propaganda website last week stressed cross-border relations, and specifically reconciliation, solidarity, self-reliance and unification.
One of the posters depicts a “unified Korea” flag that shows an undivided Korean Peninsula on the one hand and a group of people carrying the flags walking side by side on the other.
The poster states, “Let us actively form an atmosphere aimed at reconciliation and unification,” and has slogans commonly used by the North in its strategy for the South, such as “uriminzokkiri,” meaning “on our own as a nation, “solidarity of the people,” “self-reliant unification” and “self-reliance of the people.”
A different poster that shows people looking up to a brightly shining Peninsula, states, “Improvement on the North-South relations in 2018” and “Let us light up this meaningful year and leave a noteworthy record of achievements!”
A third poster portrays a boy and a girl dressed in traditional Korean clothing releasing pigeons into the sky, as the pigeons fly in a formation in the shape of the Peninsula.
It shows a black missile that states, “U.S. rehearsal for invasion of the North,” being shattered into pieces. The poster also states, “Let’s ease military tension between the North and the South and prepare a peaceful environment on the Peninsula first!”
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 | Feb 16, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
It’s been a good week for … birds
An ambulance service for pigeons has been launched in Aberdeen. Kevin Newell and Flo Blackbourn run Wiggy & Friends Animal Rescue and are on a mission to help the city’s injured doos.
They are asking people to help them map the city’s colonies so their Pigeon Patrol can check up on the birds’ welfare.
“We’ve created a rapid response first aid kit for pigeons,” explains Newell. “If a pigeon is ill we’ll catch it and treat it.”
Newell, who has his own business Humane Wildlife Solutions, and Blackburn, a zoology student, run the rescue service from their home in Old Aberdeen. The centre is named after Wiggy the pigeon, who the couple treated when he had an injured wing.
“A lot of people absolutely hate pigeons but once you get to know them they’re all little people with their own characters and traits,” says Newell. “We play pigeon noises to them so they feel like they have contact with other pigeons and not just us.”
Very Dr Doo-little.
It’s been a bad week for … plants
Flat-sharing can be fraught with difficulties. The divvy-up of bills, the sharing of the limited hot water, the impromptu parties. And there’s always that nagging question: who nicked my last bit of cheese?
But rare plants don’t usually come into the equation – but they did for Lancashire ecology student Joshua Styles, who woke up to discover that his flatmate had vomited on his collection of rare plants and seeds gathered from more than 40 rare species.
And instead of a drunken student accident, Styles, 22, appears to think the vandalism was an act of retaliation. “My flatmate came in drunk at 3.30 in the morning with five girls making loads of noise. I’d had a bit of conflict with him already over not paying the bills, including the internet, so this time I cut off access to it.
“The next morning I woke up to find he had vomited over the plants I’ve collected for a project I set up in order to save them from regional extinction and poured bleach over them. I can’t tell you how upsetting it’s been. Those plants meant everything to me.”
But his faith in humanity has perhaps now been restored. Since writing on social media about his plants’ plight, supporters have launched a crowdfunding page to help raise £5,000 to repair the damage.
It seems there are seeds of hope after 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 | Feb 15, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
A Syrian soldier serving in Aleppo has an unusual way of spending his downtime – breeding pigeons on the rooftop of a partially-destroyed building.
Bassil, who asked to be identified by his first name only, is a 29-year-old soldier from the eastern Syrian city of Deir el-Zour.
He has been serving as a soldier with the government forces in Aleppo in the north of the country for eight years, and has not seen his parents or siblings in all that time.
In 2016, Bassil witnessed some of the most intense fighting of the civil war as rebel fighters took control of parts of government-held western Aleppo.
In December 2016, the city came under full control of the government after a crushing offensive that forced remaining insurgents to evacuate to the northwestern province of Idlib.
But in the past two years, a scaling down of the fighting in Aleppo has given him the chance to explore his hobby of breeding pigeons.
In a residential area known as Ramouseh, which used to house a major bus station, almost all the buildings have been destroyed.
It was the target of a lightning rebel offensive in August 2016, and was captured from government forces for several days.
On the roof of one building, where the staircase is only partially intact, Bassil keeps his pigeons in a cage.
When he’s not required for duty, Bassil climbs up the damaged stairs, squeezes himself through the rubble and metal joists and comes out onto the roof where he spends time with his birds.
He feeds them and admires them as they fly over the destruction down below – buildings riddled with bullet holes or partially collapsed from airstrikes and shelling.
“I climb here to relax and have some good time with the pigeons,” he says.
“I am far away from my parents so I spend my spare time with these birds after I finish my shift. I watch them and make them fly.”
Almost none of the buildings left in the area are fit for habitation, but Bassil says he is hopeful for the future.
“All parts of Syria should be built. God willing, all this destruction will be rebuilt.”
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 | Feb 14, 2018 | Animal Deterrent Products
WHEN he is not being kept busy in an active political schedule, Raymond Schenk spends a lot of his free time with his hobby of many years – pigeon racing.
A well-known local personality, Schenk is the leader of the Democratic Alliance in Ndlambe.
Born and raised in the Transkei near Umtata, Schenk and his brothers were always interested in pigeons, but it was only after he left school and began working that he started taking a keen interest in this sport.
He spent most of his working career with the SABC in Johannesburg, ending up as head of advertising and production with 32 years’ service. It was during this time that he really became serious about pigeon racing and joined the Horizon Pigeon Club in Roodepoort, eventually serving this as chairman for four years. After building his loft, he obviously needed stock birds.
“Pigeon fanciers are generally generous people and will always help and encourage a beginner with birds. But they don’t let out too many of their trade secrets and competition was tough among the 32 members,” he said.
Read Bob Ford’s full story in this week’s Talk of the Town.
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 | Feb 13, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
“I love photography,” says Franca Marazia. “It is my great escape.”
She focuses on the world she knows best.
“I photograph everyday objects, daily life activities, the environment that surrounds us, and the people and pets I meet along the way,” she tells me.
Marazia, 59, who lives in Hamilton, taught elementary school for 30 years. She says she is self-taught when it comes to photography, but she has had many years in which to sharpen her skills.
“I have always been photographing something, usually at family functions,” she says. “I seem to be the keeper of memories. I used photography in my classroom as well.”
Camera in hand, she usually sets out with a destination and a plan. But she welcomes the photograph that presents itself when she is not expecting it.
“Knowing the right scene is hard to explain,” she says. “It’s something I feel.”
Marazia is a regular contributor to Art in the Workplace at McMaster Innovation Park, located at 175 Longwood Rd. S. One of her offerings in the current show is “Sunset Boulevard,” taken at Pier 8 in the West Harbour.
She found a scene with a variety of shapes and textures, some of them unexpected.
Three figures sit at a table silhouetted in front of a landscape lying beyond a fence. The regular verticals of the fence contrast with the humans’ irregular shapes. A sparkling body of water leads to a horizontal strip of wooded land in the distance. This darkened land mass complements the dark human shapes in the foreground.
The sky, which fills the upper two-thirds of the composition, contributes a different combination of colours and textures, including an emphatic circle of sun.
“I had been photographing activity on the water and on the pathways,” she recalls. “Just happened to stay long enough to capture a breathtaking summer sunset. In trying to shoot its reflection on the water, one of my images included a family sitting at a picnic table. I didn’t realize what I had until I uploaded the images onto my computer.”
Marazia is never without her camera when she travels. In Viseu, Portugal, she was sitting at an outdoor café when she saw a man feeding pigeons, a familiar sight that inspired a sepia photograph.
A spacious foreground leads to six pigeons, each one attentively facing the man seated on a bench. He’s leaning toward them, looking at the food in his hand. He is as attentive as they are. Cars are lined up behind him, a background of modern urban clutter that contrasts with the timelessness and spaciousness of the event in the foreground.
In Amsterdam, Marazia found bicycles.
“It was bicycle heaven for me,” she says. “I captured hundreds of them. Such variety in design and functionality.”
In “Sunshine Yellow” she comes up close to bicycles wet with rain. In cropping the scene, Marazia draws our attention to the many circles and lines that crowd and overlap one another.
Red paving bricks and green moss add more geometric shapes and bright hues.
“I have a large collection of bicycle images. I’ve thought about why I feel the need to capture these images,” she explains. “On the one hand, I am reminded of earlier days, my teen years, when I practically lived on my bright blue ten-speed. It was my method of transportation for getting to my part-time job and for meeting up with friends. On the other hand, I am drawn in by the colour and design — the wheels of freedom.”
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 | Feb 12, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
WATERLOO — Joy Huggins and her daughter were walking through a park when they discovered a baby squirrel with a broken leg.
Huggins packed up the tiny critter and took it to a wildlife rehabilitator.
That was nearly 15 years ago.
For the past 10 years Huggins has been operating a provincially-authorized wildlife rehab centre out of her home in Waterloo.
“It just changed my life,” the 50-year-old said. “I really felt like I was meant to do this; I love animals.”
Huggins receives animal intakes from across the province. Her name is listed on the Ministry of Natural Resources’ website so she is constantly called by people finding injured or abandoned baby animals.
“Spring and summer is crazy, crazy because of the babies,” said Huggins. “The babies need constant feeding.”
Most of the six squirrels she has in her care now were babies that were abandoned in the fall and would not have been able to survive the winter on their own.
“(With) baby squirrels, the mom gets hit or killed somehow and these babies … fall out of the nest looking for mom because they’re hungry,” she said.
“If their eyes are open they actually seek out people — they’ll come up to people, they’ll climb up their leg, I’ve even had people say, ‘he was scratching at the door.'”
Three of the tinier squirrels Huggins has are kept indoors in enclosures where they enjoy swinging from their hammocks or doing back flips off the sides of their cages.
The heartier and fluffier ones are in a large wooden enclosure in the backyard.
The Wildlife Haven is operated entirely on donations and with the help of volunteers.
And there’s never a dull day at the house. At any moment Huggins could be doing an intake, releasing an animal back to the wild, feeding the animals their specialty diets, tending to injuries, or just keeping all the indoor and outdoor enclosures tidy.
And she always has an animal story to tell. Some are happy and some are heartbreaking.
She has two pigeons that fell in love while in her care. Romeo and Juliette sit side-by-side in separate enclosures taking turns sitting on an egg.
She also has a mallard duck healing after it was found frozen to the ground near RIM Park a few weeks ago.
Then there’s Roo, the grouchy groundhog she has had for five years. The Ministry of Natural Resources has permitted Huggins to keep Roo as an education animal as he is unable to be released back to the wild.
Huggins takes him to a senior’s residence in Kitchener from time to time.
She also gets the occasional possum.
“These guys sleep with their eyes open; it’s creepy,” she said with a laugh. “I didn’t know that when I first got one.”
Huggins is also caring for a quail, crows, goldfinches, a barn swallow, a cedar wax wing, pigeons and a number of finches.
Finches come in with eye infections commonly caused by dirty bird feeders, she said adding that most people don’t realize they have to clean them out regularly.
While the work is rewarding, it’s also challenging.
Huggins has seen many animals die due to severe injuries. These stories are hard to forget.
But it can also be heartbreaking to release animals that have recovered under her care.
“It’s very bittersweet,” she said. “You’ve got your goal, you’re going to release them, but then I can’t watch over them anymore … I struggle with that (but) that’s where they belong.”
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 | Feb 11, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Mary was part of the National Pigeon Service and was seriously injured three times by enemy falcons and gunfire.
She would deliver messages to the pigeon loft of her owner Cecil “Charlie” Brewer, which was behind his boot-making workshop in Exeter, Devon.
Mary was awarded the Dickin medal, the highest award for animal bravery.
The blue plaque from the Exeter Civic Society is its first to honour a partnership between an animal and its owner.
It will be sited at the former home of Mr Brewer on West Street in the city.
Mr Brewer trained homing pigeons and in 1940 placed his prized bird, Mary, at the disposal of the service.
Mary was dropped behind enemy lines and despite being wounded three times and once going missing for 10 days, she always completed her missions.
Upon her return, Mr Brewer would then nurse her back to health and at the end of the war they both received medals.
Mary won the Dickin Medal for her gallantry and outstanding endurance and Mr Brewer was decorated for his war services as Special Constable with responsibility for control of war pigeons in the area.
John Monks, Exeter Civic Society’s blue plaque coordinator, said: “It’s a remarkable story of dedication to duty worthy of a blue plaque but it is also a record of the roles humans have required animals to play in bad times.”
Mr Brewer raised money for charity by giving talks about Mary for many years before he died in 1985 aged 90.
The story of Charlie and Mary is also being turned into an animated film and is due to be completed next year.
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 | Feb 10, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
The parents of Amarillo hobbyist Charles Hanna’s winning Hessian Pouter pigeons originated in Germany, but the birds bred in Amarillo are now national breed champions.
Hannah’s pigeons are among 4,589 being shown through Saturday at the National Pigeon Association Grand National championships at the Amarillo Civic Center Complex. The show is free and open to the public.
“I bought the parents from Germany and raised these here,” Hannah said of his blue Hessian Pouter that won the top cock award and hen that won in its category. “They’re about a year old.
“My blue pouter won the breed because it had better features and color and fuller feathers.”
Pigeon enthusiasts from the United States, Europe, Canada and Mexico are in Amarillo for the NPA’s annual national show and seem pleased with the accommodations of the first-time host city.
“This is wonderful,” said Rick Barker of Temecula, Calif. “I’ve been to 40 national conventions and the facilities are beautiful. This is our first time in Amarillo and it’s one of the best facilities ever.”
While the NPA show boosts the local economy, it wasn’t just the facilities and Embassy Suites hotel across Buchanan Street that impressed Barker.
“I can’t believe how friendly the people of Amarillo are,” he said. “We asked for directions to a restaurant and the lady said, ‘Come on, it’s close, I’ll take you,’ and she walked us there.”
Larry Warnecke of Highland, Ill., who is in the city with his American King pigeons, echoed Barker in praise for Amarillo.
“The facilities have lots of room and the hotel just across the street is fantastic,” Warnecke said.
Barker said the attraction to raising pigeons often has its roots in raising chickens.
“Many of us grew up with chickens and moved to the city,” Barker said. “For city people, this is as close farming as a city person can get. It (also) gets the kids off their phones texting.”
One of those teens at the show, Vincent Pizzuto, 14, of Prescott, Ariz., has been involved in raising pigeons since age 3.
“I’m not showing here, but friends brought me,” Pizzuto said. “I love a lot of things about raising pigeons — the colors, you meet a lot of people, the competition, the awards.”
The participants come from all walks of life.
“We have doctors, dentists, attorney and all kinds of people showing,” he said. “This is a show, but racing pigeons have million dollar championships and you can make more money racing pigeons that racing horses, and I’ve done both.”
The showing of champions will be the show’s feature at 1 p.m. Saturday.
The top pouter — known for their blowing of their bills that makes them look like they are “pouting” — of 30 breeds will be in Saturday’s final lineup, and Hannah hopes his birds among the finalists.
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 | Feb 9, 2018 | Animal Deterrent Products
Maintenance work will cause disruption for bus station users.
Wrexham Council is undertaking improvements at the town’s bus station in King Street over the weekend.
Workers will be putting up some netting to prevent the pigeons from causing a mess and also installing new LED lights in the near future.
All buses will run as normal and access from Lord Street to the retail arcade during opening hours will be unaffected.
People using the station between 6pm on Saturday and 6am on Monday will be affected.
Anyone waiting for a bus will have to wait outside the concourse which will be closed for the works to take place.
A Wrexham Council spokesman said: “We’re sorry if this causes inconvenience but this work has to be carried out before the end of the financial year.
Cllr David A Bithell, lead member for the environment and transport, said: “We do have a scheduled improvement programme for the bus station that will take place over the coming months and this is the first phase which will see improved lighting and an end to the problems caused by pigeons in the roofspace.”
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 | Feb 8, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
A voluntary ambulance service for pigeons has taken off in Aberdeen.
Kevin Newell and Flo Blackbourn run Wiggy and Friends Animal Rescue and go to the aid of injured pigeons across the city.
They are appealing for help to map colonies so the pigeon patrol can target the most appropriate areas.
The couple – who describe themselves as rapid responders – take the injured pigeons home for rehabilitation before setting them free.
Mr Newell told BBC Scotland that many pigeons get trapped because of netting on buildings aimed at deterring them.
He told BBC Scotland: “These pigeons have no-one to help them.
“We want to bring awareness that pigeons are dying horrible deaths.”
Flying into windows and being hit by cars are other causes of pigeon injury.
Ms Blackbourn explained: “A couple of years ago Kevin brought home a pigeon that he found lying on its back.
“We posted about it, we just thought we’d take him in as everyone else was stepping over him and didn’t really care.
“Ever since then people kind of knew us as the people to bring pigeons 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)
by johnnymarin | Feb 7, 2018 | Pigeon Spikes
Every day, at sun rise, A. Prasanna heads to the terrace to feed a flock of pigeons. He scatters millets from a bowl, held in his left hand. “Every week, I spend nearly 50 kilos of millets for feeding the pigeons.” Prasanna, a resident of Sathasivam Nagar in Madipakkam, says, “Every day, around 6.30 a.m., I feed the pigeons. If I am unwell or out of station, my wife and son and daughter — A. P. Priyadarshini, P. Anirudh and P. Harini — feed the pigeons.” On an average, more than 200 pigeons gather every day at our terrace. He began feeding the pigeons two years ago. Besides pigeons, a good number of squirrels have also started visiting Prasanna’s terrace.
“I started this practice after I watched a video that was circulated on WhatApp. It showed a resident of Royapettah feeding parakeets on his terrace every day,” he says, adding, “ I also feed cows and stray dogs with bananas, sesbania grandiflora (Agathi Keerai) and biscuits and help poor people by buying them food.”
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 | Feb 6, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
John Wilson Foster’s Pilgrims of the Air starts in the realm of magical realism and ends in horror. From miles of passenger pigeons blocking out the sun, to vast massacres of the bird and deforestation by humans, to a solitary last bird dying in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914, the story is all too easy to allegorize.
Allegories have long surrounded the passenger pigeon, so astonishing to many of its witnesses that only figures of speech could convey their wonder. They were called clouds — or, more threateningly, tempests, streams or floods, troops and regiments — and compared to the “coils of a gigantic serpent,” in John James Audubon’s recounting. Attempts at literal depictions conveyed the flocks’ grand scale — ornithologist Alexander Wilson estimated 240 miles and more than two billion pigeons in one grouping — but lacked the splendor of figurative language.
The comparisons at times suggested an uncertainty about the birds — were they good or evil? Early European explorers in the New World saw a prelapsarian Eden, yet, Foster writes, nature’s “abundance was her abandon” in the Puritan Protestant response. The passenger pigeons, again serving as symbols, were either augurs of disaster or signs of God’s pleasure, presaging sickness (because they stayed longer during mild weather) or promising bounty. Either way, they were chaotic, not orderly — and “this new world cried out for order, discipline and overmastery through agriculture,” Foster writes. “The New World was to be a spiritual and material enterprise: colonisation obliged conversion. Native abundance, at first marvelled at, was to be harnessed and pruned; Nature was to be appropriated, exploited and marketed.”
Our knowledge of what happened to the species does not diminish the magnitude of its tragedy. The vastness of the passenger pigeon flocks shifts, horrifyingly, to the scope of their massacre, a “slaughter of the innocents, as one market gunner admitted.” The birds had long been consumed — the Potawatomi people, for instance, were among its hunters — but in the mid-19th century, harvests turned into “carnivalesque org[ies] of destruction,” and eventually the killings were “dispassionate, organised, ruthless and of an industrial scale.” Pigeoners, aided increasingly by the expansion of the railroad and information networks that let them know where to go, descended on nesting sites and mass-executed the birds using sledgehammers, fire, clubs, and guns. No destructive force seemed taboo. “As many birds as possible were killed or captured, irrespective of demand or need,” Foster writes. Milliners and taxidermists were among the beneficiaries of the killings.
Foster, a literary critic, presents this American tragedy as one of anthropocentric ego. He writes acutely and, perhaps appropriately for the subject, often in dense columns of winding prose. Even as he cites historical facts and ornithological details, there is an underlying poetry to his descriptions; the story he is telling is, ultimately, a eulogy. Most hauntingly, a subtextual question pervades Pilgrims of the Air: As temperatures rise, which species must we eulogize next?
One of the book’s most powerful poetic devices is the metaphor in its title. The birds were pilgrims and explorers; Foster writes that Ectopistes migratorius, the passenger pigeon’s scientific name, translates to “wandering wanderer.” Passenger pigeons “might embody American wilderness in which they exercised the unfenced freedom of nomads or rootless pioneers,” Foster writes, although “their nesting sites were nevertheless called cities.” As industry and pigeoners encroached, “the pilgrims of the forest became fugitives,” and within mere decades, the wandering, and the wonder, were over.
As Anne Schmauss discussed in The Santa FeNew Mexican earlier this week, 2018 has been named the Year of the Bird by the National Audubon Society, National Geographic, and other institutions. This year marks the centennial of the protective Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which arrived too late for the passenger pigeon but did save the snowy egret and other species. “The Year of the Bird might be just the wake-up call we all need to protect our birds and ourselves from the mounting threats against our world,” Schmauss writes.
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)
