by Ryan Ponto | Jul 20, 2017 | Bird Netting
The word “pigeon” evokes thoughts of gentle cooing, fluttering in rafters, and poo-encrusted statues. The species responsible for the encrustation is deeply familiar to us, having ridden waves of European expansionism to inhabit every continent, including Australia. First domesticated thousands of years ago, urban pigeons have turned feral again.
Less familiar are the native species that are not your stereotypical pigeons: a posse of pointy-headed crested pigeons in a suburban park, or a flock of topknot pigeons feeding in a camphor laurel.
Australia and its neighbouring islands are the global epicentre of pigeon and dove (or “columbid”) diversity with the highest density of different columbids – an impressive 134 species – found in the region. Twenty-two of these native species are found in Australia alone, in just about every habitat.
These native species play an important role in ecosystem functioning: they forage for and disperse seeds, concentrate nutrients in the environment, and are a source of food for predators. Fruit doves for example, are zealous fruitarians, and the region’s tropical rainforests depend on them for tree diversity. Where fruit-doves have disappeared in the South Pacific, numerous plant species have lost an effective dispersal mechanism.
And here’s a paradox. Could Australia’s feral domestic pigeons become the vector for a dramatic decline of columbids – native species on which Australian ecosystems rely?The future of Australia’s native pigeons however, may depend on our domestic pigeons. Australia’s domestic pigeon population — both feral and captive – is large and interconnected by frequent local and interstate movements. Pigeon racing, for example, involves releasing captive birds hundreds of kilometres from their homes only so they may find their way back. While most birds do navigate home, up to 20% will not return, of which some will join feral pigeon populations. Birds are also traded across the country and illegally from overseas. These movements, together with poor biosecurity practices, mean that captive pigeons can and do mingle with feral domestic pigeons.
Emerging viral epidemics
In recent years, two notable infectious diseases have been found to affect our captive domestic pigeons: the pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 (PPMV1) and a new strain of the pigeon rotavirus (G18P). These diseases are notable because in captive domestic flocks they are both spectacularly lethal and difficult to control.
PPMV1, although likely to have originated overseas, is now endemic in Australia. This virus has jumped from captive to feral domestic pigeon populations on several occasions, but fortunately has yet to establish in feral populations.
The movements of captive pigeons, and their contact with their feral counterparts, can be the route through which virulent and lethal diseases – such as the PPMV1 and the G18P – may spread to Australia’s native columbids.G18P is thought to have spread to Victoria and South Australia from a bird auction in Perth in 2016. PPMV1 also spread rapidly to multiple states following its first appearance in Melbourne in 2011.
What have we got to lose?
Fortunately, neither PPMV1 nor G18P has crossed over to Australia’s native columbids. We can’t say how likely this is, or how serious the consequences would be, because we have not previously observed such viral infections among our native pigeons.
If the viruses prove equally lethal to native columbids as they are to domestic pigeons, we could see catastrophic population declines across numerous columbid species in Australia over a short period of time.
Should these viruses spread (via feral domestic pigeons), the control and containment of losses among our native pigeon species would be near impossible. Such a nightmare scenario can only be avoided by predicting if and how these viruses might “spill over” into wild columbids so that we can prevent this in the first place.
Protecting our pigeons
Agricultural poultry is routinely screened to check their vulnerability to threats like the PPMV1 and G18P. Such screening is an appropriate response to protect our agricultural industry.
For our native pigeons and doves however, no such similar testing is planned. Based on progress in veterinary vaccine development and advancements in understanding of feral pigeon control, the knowledge and technology required to mitigate this threat should be relatively inexpensive. The threat for these species can be actively managed, now, by improving our biosecurity and vaccination programs for captive domestic pigeons, and eradicating feral domestic pigeons.
The protection of our native columbids however, ultimately relies on valuing their ecosystem functions in the first place.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 19, 2017 | Bird Netting
An avian blizzard in central Wisconsin in 1871 made for a spectacle the likes of which would never be seen again.
Hundreds of millions or maybe even a billion passenger pigeons made their spring nesting grounds across a broad swath of the state, with observers reported the birds carpeting trees throughout. Indeed, it was the largest nesting of passenger pigeons ever recorded. It was also a bonanza of incredible proportions, with hunters shooting and selling tens maybe even hundreds of millions of the birds for the commercial game market. Less than three decades later, the passenger pigeon would no longer be found in the state, and the species would be extinct by 1914.
The disappearance of the passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) may be the most infamous example of an extinction caused by the actions of humans. Its tale is illustrative of how people can simply eliminate a once common, even abundant creature through relentless killing.
Stanley Temple, an emeritus professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shared the story of the passenger pigeon in an Aug. 20, 2014 presentation given on the occasion of the centennial of the bird’s extinction. Delivered as part of the Wednesday Nite @ the Lab lecture series on the UW-Madison campus, his talk was recorded for Wisconsin Public Television’s University Place.
Over several decades following the Civil War, vast and continuous hunts of passenger pigeons for meat and live specimens drove the species to extinction.
“You really don’t need to be a population biologist to figure out if you’re killing these birds on an industrial scale and preventing them from reproducing, extinction becomes a mathematical certainty,” said Temple.
Martha was the name of the endling passenger pigeon. She was on exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo for years before dying on Sept. 1, 1914. The bird’s body was subsequently sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for study and preservation. A taxidermy mounting of Martha has since been displayed at the National Museum of Natural History and other institutions.
In 1947, the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology placed a monument to the long-gone passenger pigeon at Wyalusing State Park, on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers. It reads: “Dedicated to the last Wisconsin Passenger Pigeon shot at Babcock, Sept. 1899. This species became extinct through the avarice and the thoughtlessness of man.” Its placement was dedicated by Aldo Leopold and memorialized in his essay “On a Monument to a Pigeon,” which was included in A Sand County Almanac.
“It was, indeed, a very remarkable event,” said Temple. “It was the first time that any sort of public sort of grieving, mourning over the loss of a species that we had clearly caused to go extinct had ever taken place.”
In 2014, Project Passenger Pigeon was launched to commemorate the centennial of Martha’s death and the species’ extinction, with Temple playing a leading role in Wisconsin and around the nation. This ongoing educational campaign highlights the bird’s legacy and encourages sustainable practices to prevent the extinction of other species. Its work has included books, the documentary From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction, lectures, artistic projects, and in southern Wisconsin, a rededication of the Wyalusing monument and the limited release of Passenger Pigeon IPA by Capital Brewery.
Key Facts
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- At the beginning of the 19th century, biologists estimate that there were about 3 to 5 billion passenger pigeons living in their home range of deciduous forests around eastern North America, making it the most abundant bird on the continent, and perhaps in the world.
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- Flocks of passenger pigeons would travel continuously in search of mast (primarily acorns and beechnuts) and eat their fill before returning to wing, hence the name. They would briefly halt for about a month during nesting season in a range that included most of the lower Great Lakes region. Pigeon pairs would lay a single egg, and abandon their hatched squab about halfway through its development, while gorging all available food until compelled to move on in search of more.
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- Records gathered by 19th century naturalists provide the basis for most of the information known about the numbers, range and behavior of passenger pigeons. Alexander Wilson, an early Scottish-American ornithologist, documented the birds, as did John James Audubon, who remarked on their flocks darkening the skies for days. John Muir remarked on observing the birds’ passage as a young man growing up near Portage.
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- Hundreds of places around the eastern half of the U.S. are named for passenger pigeons, often by settlers who were impressed by the passage of a colossal flock. In Wisconsin, there are well over a dozen places named for the birds. For example, the Waupaca County community of Clintonville was originally named Pigeon, and the river that flows through it still bears that name (as does a namesake brewery based upriver in Marion). Another Pigeon River rises in Manitowoc County and flows through Sheboygan County before emptying into Lake Michigan. There’s also the village of Pigeon Falls and town of Pigeon, both in Trempealeau County.
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- Native Americans and settlers around eastern North America regularly hunted passenger pigeons, with the appearance of their flocks virtually guaranteeing a bounty of fresh meat for a brief period. But due to the birds’ continuous traveling, this mode of hunting did not significantly reduce their numbers.
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- After the Civil War, a national market developed for passenger pigeon meat and live birds. Aided by rapidly growing networks of telegraphs and rail, commercial hunters would follow flocks and continuously harvest birds. The hunt was particularly intense during nesting season, when both adults and squabs would be killed in immense numbers. U.S. Census data from the late 19th century indicates that there were likely tens of thousands of people who listed “pigeoner” as their occupation.
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- The largest passenger pigeon nesting on record was in 1871 across an 850-square mile swath of central Wisconsin that stretched in a “V” shape from Black River Falls south to Wisconsin Dells and back north to Wisconsin Rapids. Hundreds of millions of pigeons, perhaps even as many as a billion, nested throughout the area. About 100,000 commercial and other hunters flocked to Wisconsin, killing many tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of birds, shipped on ice in barrels that were loaded onto trains headed to market in cities. During the hunt, one gun dealer in Sparta sold 512,000 rounds of ammunition.
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- Along with killing meat, pigeoners would capture live birds to sell for the purpose of pigeon shoots. Thousands of pigeons would be released for recreational target practice. This pastime would later be adapted into the sport of clay pigeon shooting.
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- The last major passenger pigeon nesting was recorded in 1878, in Petoskey, Michigan. By 1900 there were no longer any large flocks, and the last wild pigeon was shot in 1902 in Indiana. Multiple organizations subsequently offered rewards for any evidence of a living, wild passenger pigeon, but none would be claimed.
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- The decline of the passenger pigeon was a catalyst for the passage of the Lacey Act of 1900, which provides for interstate regulations and prohibitions in commerce related to terrestrial fauna, fish and plants. It was the first federal law enacted to protect wildlife.
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- Arlie William Schorger was a chemist who retired early to begin a second career in ornithology in the mid 20th century. He would become an adjunct professor of wildlife management at UW-Madison and was a colleague of Aldo Leopold. Fascinated by passenger pigeons, Schorger would travel the nation collecting eyewitness accounts and other information about the birds. His 1955 book The Passenger Pigeon: Its Natural History and Extinction is considered the definitive study about the birds and their demise.
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- During the 19th and 20th centuries, humans caused the extinction of multiple bird species through overkill, including the great auk, Labrador duck, Carolina parakeet and quite possibly the Eskimo curlew, among others. Conservation measures motivated in part by the extinction of the passenger pigeon have helped revive the fortunes of various avian species in North America, including the trumpeter swan, wood duck, plume-bearing birds like the egret and sandhill crane, and the wild turkey.
- Scientists have found that the Lyme disease epidemic in the eastern U.S. has roots in the extinction of the passenger pigeon. Once the bird was no longer eating mast from beech and oak trees, an increasing availability of their nuts supported a population explosion of small rodents, particularly mice, that are carriers of the Borrelia bacteria transmitted by deer ticksand cause the disease.
Key quotes
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- On the importance of the passenger pigeon’s extinction: “[T]he passenger pigeon is sort of the ultimate cautionary tale about our relationship with wildlife. It is … something that we need to remember. Unfortunately, a hundred years after the fact, it is something that most people have forgotten. They don’t know the story of the passenger pigeon, and they don’t really understand, therefore, the significance of that tragic event for our ongoing relationship with the other creatures that share the planet with us.”
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- On the sheer numbers of passenger pigeons: “It’s really hard to get your head around what it was like in the eastern half of North America when these birds were around. The estimate was that at the start of the 19th century there were three to five billion passenger pigeons. I can say that, and three to five billion doesn’t mean a lot unless you have some sort of frame of reference. It meant that at that time, one bird in every four in North America was a passenger pigeon. If you lined those pigeons up beak to tail and strung them out in a row, they would circle the earth at the equator 23 times. In other words, this was a super abundant bird.”
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- On what renowned Wisconsin naturalists said of the species: “Aldo Leopold described the passage of these birds through the forest as a biological storm, that they essentially were such a huge force on the eastern deciduous forest. Our own John Muir, growing up near Portage, commented that it was a great memorable day. And indeed, that’s a sentiment that was felt by many. It was certainly felt by Native Americans, and it was felt by many of the early settlers of the eastern U.S.”
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- On the pigeons’ nesting behavior: “[T]he only time they basically stayed still was during the nesting season. Just like everything else that they did, suddenly they would appear, they would decide that this was the spot, they would settle in very quickly, build a rather crude nest and lay their single egg. They got down to nesting very quickly. They nested like everything else they did, in almost unbelievable numbers. Part of the reason for this was that it was a defensive mechanism against predators. By being in a large flock, a large herd, a large school, you minimize your individual risk of being hit by a predator. So these enormous nesting colonies would form quickly, the birds would feed on the mast that had been produced the previous fall.”
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- On the market hunting of passenger pigeons: “Suddenly they were up against a predator that was unlike any predator that they had ever had to contend with in the past. Of course, the predator was us. Basically, during this 50 year period after the Civil War, almost every nesting attempt was ruthlessly pillaged by commercial market hunters who killed the birds and sold them at market. Both the adults and the nestlings were killed. They caused sure a disturbance in the nesting colonies that very few young were raised. One of the parents would be killed by the hunters, or the disturbance was just too great and the parents would abandon and leave the colony. To make matters worse, the market hunters eventually were able to track the birds year-round and continued killing them 365 days a year.”
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- On 19th century attitudes towards passenger pigeons: “[D]uring the 19th century there were no conservation laws, there was nothing preventing people from killing wildlife at will. The national mindset was essentially, still, that that natural resources of the continent were inexhaustible, and especially something that was perceived to be as abundant as the passenger pigeon. No one could have imagined that in such a short period of time we could basically wipe them out.”
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- On why people weren’t initially concerned about passenger pigeon numbers: “Probably not only was there the attitude toward the natural resources of the country, but there was also the fact that people were quite accustomed to the idea that you didn’t see passenger pigeons every year. The easy explanation when they didn’t show up was that they’re somewhere else. You read all kinds of accounts of people basically passing this off as, the pigeons are just somewhere else. And the somewhere else really became almost absurd.”
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- On the impact of Martha’s death and the extinction of passenger pigeons: “[T]he extinction of the passenger pigeon was undoubtedly the catalyst for the modern 20th century conservation movement. It inspired organizations to form, like [the] National Audubon Society. It inspired the first wave of wildlife protection laws in the country. It essentially woke the public up to this idea that the wildlife resources of the country were not inexhaustible.”
- On the continuing role of overkilling in extinction: “[A]lthough there are these amazing comeback stories and many others of species that benefited from the lesson of the passenger pigeon, unfortunately the statistics tell us that we’re still in deep trouble, and we’re getting deeper into trouble all the time. As endangered species lists continue to grow, it’s somewhat tragic that in addition to things like habitat loss and ecosystem stresses like climate change and invasive species, that there are still substantial numbers of endangered species that are endangered because we’re overkilling them, that we still haven’t gotten over that most brutal form of causing a species to go extinct.”
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 18, 2017 | Bird Netting
FERAL PIGEONS, WHICH LIVE ON every continent in the world except Antartica, are famously adaptable—They shack up all over, from San Francisco to London to Mumbai.
They are also in Calgary, where around 200 of them have made their home on the roof of the South Health Campus, a 269-bed hospital. This was an unwelcome development, since pigeons can carry disease, and they poop a lot.
The hospital’s efforts to get rid of them—including with noise, which worked at first, before the birds got used to it—haven’t been successful, so recently they chose to get a little more serious. They’ve hired three baby peregrine falcons, according to the CBC, as a future anti-pigeon patrol.
A falconer, John Campbell, plans to release the falcons from the building, where it is hoped they will hunt down the pigeons and “other small game,” the CBC reports.
“You could [use] anything that would scare them, that would go after them as prey,” Campbell said. “It doesn’t have to be falcons but the falcons work very well.”
It will be a little time before the falcons get to the hunting, as just one has fledged so far. In the meantime, though, they’re being fed dead pigeons to give them a taste for pigeon blood.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 17, 2017 | Bird Netting
Bengaluru: Some feed pigeons out of the belief that it would bring prosperity or wash off their sins, blissfully unaware that its increasing population was destroying the food chain of other birds and the ecosystem. Experts point out that the alarming rise in population of pigeons in the city was due to easy availability of food.
Expressing concern, Harsha, a bird expert, said, “Pigeons do not require a special place for nesting. They mostly build their nests on rooftops and windowpanes and not necessarily on trees.
Pigeons are growing at a rate of 20 per cent monthly, which is alarming as it is destroying the food chain of other birds like myna, Asian koel and crows.”
Food chain regulates the balance of each species based on their reproduction. Due to urbanisation, predatory birds which feed on pigeons have dwindled. Moreover, Blue Rock Pigeon which nests on the availability of food in the wild, reproduce at a faster rate due to the easy availability of food in urban areas.
“Shikra, predatory bird nests on trees and feed on pigeons. Due to the less number of trees in the urban areas, Shikra is not usually seen, hence the number of pigeons multiply. We cannot see Outstack, another predatory bird which feeds on pigeons,” Harsha said.
Carrier of diseases
Experts believe that pigeon droppings are acidic and the bird itself is a carrier of diseases.
“Pigeon droppings are highly allergic to human beings and it leads to early exhaustion,” says Dr Rupa from Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre.
Harsha claimed that pigeons are one of the causes of rise in cases of bird flu. “They are the carriers of diseases and once their faecal matter dries up it spreads in the air leading to the skin infection in children and respiratory problem amongst the elderly,” he added.
It may be noted that In 2001, a ban was imposed on feeding pigeons at London’s Trafalgar Square owing to health hazards.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 16, 2017 | Bird Netting
The first red-cockaded woodpeckers to be hatched in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in at least four decades were welcomed in early May by biologists.
Two of three chicks survived and have since been seen flying around with their parents. The woodpeckers are an endangered species.
“It’s a real milestone,” said Bryan Watts, director of The Center for Conservation Biology, and a first step in establishing a population of the swamp’s once indigenous bird. It’s also part of a larger recovery effort that includes a growing colony in Sussex.
“We’re sort of holding the line up here from keeping the species from contracting further south,” Watts said.
The red-cockaded woodpecker is a small, black and white bird named for the male’s flash of red feathers. They’re unique in that they carve their homes in live trees and mate for life, though young are raised by a collaborative group.
The birds once numbered in the hundreds of thousands in the Southeast and as far north as New Jersey, biologists say. But logging, development and forestry practices reduced the bird’s habitat and sparked a 20th century decline.
The species was listed as endangered in 1970, and hadn’t been seen in the Great Dismal Swamp since 1974. Public and private agencies have been working for years to get the population back up. The Nature Conservancy’s Piney Grove Preserve in Sussex is the only other Virginia enclave and home to 70 birds broken into 14 breeding groups, Watts said.
Over the past two years, 18 woodpeckers have been released into artificial roosts in the Great Dismal Swamp, relocated from populations in North and South Carolina. There were slim hopes the five remaining birds – two males, three females – would reproduce this year.
“But the birds worked it out,” Watts said.
Two nests with eggs were discovered initially. Three chicks hatched in the first nest on May 13, but one bird was grossly underweight and died, biologists said. The second nest was found devoid of eggs or babies. Biologists suspect a snake got them before they hatched.
Colored leg bands, which the surviving birds got at 7 days old, help scientists track them, according to Watts and Jennifer Wright, biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.
The birds are featherless and rubbery at that age – primitive looking and golf-ball sized – yet still flexible and hardy, Watts and Wright said. The chicks’ eyes are initially closed. They can only discern light and dark, which makes them easier to extract from the nest.
Still “you want to be careful,” Wright said. “It’s all by feel.”
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 15, 2017 | Bird Netting
Downy Woodpeckers are year-round residents of our area, raising their families in summer as well as spending winters here. When the breeding season arrives, a pair selects a nest site in a dead branch and sets to work excavating a cavity. Both male and female dig the cavity, and all the work is done with their beaks — breaking off pieces of wood and discarding them as the nest takes the shape of a gourd, larger at the bottom.
You can tell the male from female because the male has a red patch on the nape of his neck. Females lack this colorful adornment.
Woodpeckers employ three strategies for safe and secure nests. They need to be hard to find, difficult to reach, and hard to get into. A nest that is well-hidden high in a tree is difficult for such predators as snakes and raccoons to find and reach. And, if reached, a cavity nest with a small entrance is hard to get into.
It takes the pair about 16 days to excavate the nest, then male and female take turns incubating the three to nine eggs the female lays. It takes just 12 days for them to hatch.
With as many as nine babies in the nest, it must be hard to keep it clean, right? Baby woodpeckers are fed several times each hour, and what goes in must come out.
Removal of baby woodpecker poo is made easier because it comes out in the form of a fecal sac — a gelatinous capsule that Papa carries in his beak and drops well away from the nest.
Leaving the nest must be a little scary for young woodpeckers. Imagine looking out of the nest from 15 feet up the tree and trying to fly for the first time.
Young downy woodpeckers do this when they’re just 3 weeks old.
The fledglings are fed by the parents for another 3 weeks, then they’re on their own.
Of the seven species of woodpeckers that can be found in this area, the downy is the second most common, outnumbered only by the red-bellied woodpecker.
Both the downy and the red-bellied can be seen in most suburban neighborhoods that have lots of trees. You can enjoy these birds by stocking a simple tube feeder with sunflower seeds. Nuthatches, chickadees, titmice and finches will also be drawn to these feeders, providing you with many hours of pleasure enjoying these birds.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Ryan Ponto | Jul 14, 2017 | Bird Netting
With a decision forthcoming on proposed protections for a rare species of woodpecker found in the Black Hills, a new population estimate for the bird has provoked warring reactions from opposing sides of the debate.
A master’s thesis presented in May by Elizabeth Matseur of the University of Columbia-Missouri estimated a population of 2,920 black-backed woodpeckers in the Black Hills in 2015, and 3,439 in 2016.
Those numbers are about three to four times higher than the estimate included in a still-pending 2012 petition to list the birds as a threatened or endangered species.
The petition was submitted by four environmental and conservation groups. A decision is required by Sept. 30 from the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in cooperation with the secretary of the Department of the Interior.
A Black Hills timber industry group opposes the listing because it could result in more protected habitat for the birds, and therefore reduced logging, in the Black Hills National Forest.
Ben Wudtke, forest programs manager for the Black Hills Forest Resource Association, said the new research disproves the case for listing the birds as threatened or endangered.
“This study should put the final nail in the coffin and show that black-backed woodpeckers are doing very well in the Black Hills,” Wudtke said.
Chad Hanson, a representative from one of the groups that submitted the petition, said that simply is not true because the student researcher’s findings are fundamentally flawed.
Hanson is an ecologist for the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute in Big Bear City, Calif. He said the new research has “one major flaw” — a buffer area of 500 meters between sites where birds were counted, rather than 1,500 meters, which Hanson said is the appropriate standard.
“To avoid overcounting, you have to take that into account,” Hanson said. “They would’ve counted some birds not just twice, but with a 500-meter buffer, they very likely would’ve counted some birds three times or more.”
In other words, Hanson thinks the population estimates in the new research might be inflated by a factor of three. But even if the new estimates are accurate, he said, they still fall below the threshold of 4,000 individual birds that the petition cites as necessary to avoid a risk of extinction.
Matseur, the author of the thesis, said she and her collaborators accounted for the likelihood of individual birds being counted more than once.
“We feel this is an accurate model and population estimate,” Matseur said.
The research was sought by the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station, which provided support for the work along with partners including state government agencies in South Dakota and Wyoming, Matseur said.
Matseur and a crew of up to five helpers spent the summers of 2015 and 2016 doing a combined 1,800 miles of off-trail hiking in the Black Hills. They followed predetermined routes and stopped for five minutes apiece at predetermined points to watch and listen for black-backed woodpeckers. Each detection point was visited three times per summer.
In all, the team made 7,110 stops at the detection points and logged 362 detections of black-backed woodpeckers.
“Sometimes we would go a week without detecting a woodpecker,” Matseur said, “but that made it more exciting when we got one.”
Matseur and her team put their data into a statistical model that included additional factors, such as forest conditions, to produce estimates of the total black-backed woodpecker population in the Black Hills.
The birds are about the size of a robin and are adapted to peck insect larvae from trees in burned areas of the forest. The black-backed woodpeckers in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming are said to be a genetically distinct subspecies, as are another population of black-backed woodpeckers in Oregon and California. The two groups are the only ones covered by the petition for threatened or endangered status.
The petition groups say that decades of firefighting, fire prevention and post-fire logging have destroyed much of the charred and snag-filled habitat — full of dead and dying trees — that black-backed woodpeckers need for long-term viability.
A mountain pine beetle epidemic in the Black Hills that lasted from the 1990s through last year created some additional habitat for the birds, which is a factor that could account for increased numbers. But researchers say the snag-filled areas created by mountain pine beetles are not as conducive to a thriving black-backed woodpecker population as the snags created by fires.
Managers of the Black Hills National Forest already strive to preserve some black-backed woodpecker habitat. If the birds are listed as threatened or endangered, forest managers could be required to protect more areas for the birds.
“The result is, there would be less logging,” said Hanson, of the John Muir Project. “That’s almost certainly true. And there should be. Ecologically, that is what’s called for here.”
In national forests, the U.S. Forest Service selects areas to open for logging and sells logging rights to private companies through a competitive bidding process. For timber that was cut during the 2016 fiscal year in the Black Hills National Forest, the Forest Service received $2.17 million, according to the agency’s quarterly reports.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 13, 2017 | Bird Netting
How’s this for a happy problem: Several North Jersey backyard birders report that downy woodpeckers have been hogging the sugar water in their hummingbird feeders this summer.
What nerve!
Most folks view the interlopers more as a phenomenon than an irritant, but after asking around, I’ve found that the freeloading is fairly widespread, and it has likely been going on for as long as there have been hummingbird feeders,
A quick search of my old emails found that a reader had written to me seven years ago about the problem and — heaven forbid — I never replied. Think of this column as part belated apology and part how-to article.
Don Torino of the Bergen County Audubon Society says that “it seems in the last few years downys at hummingbird feeders have become very common. Some folks seem a little frustrated at times but most think it’s a very interesting behavior.”
Torino’s solution for the frustrated folks: “Put up an extra feeder and enjoy the hummers and the woodpeckers together. It shouldn’t be about trying to control wildlife behavior. Just sit back and enjoy the show.”
When you think of it, hummingbird feeders are the very definition of an attractive nuisance — a source of free sugar water for any insect, bird or mammal that can find its way to the feeder.
That means not just ants and bees and downy woodpeckers but such freeloaders as squirrels, Baltimore orioles, house finches and (in Arizona) even bats. If white-tailed deer figured out a way to mooch the sugar water, you can bet they’d be there, too.
As a birder in Oakland reports: “I have had a downy at my feeder all summer, and now the red-bellied is there as well. The little hummer has to wait his turn.”
Concerned that the interlopers are drinking too much of the sugar water and your neighborhood hummingbirds aren’t getting their fair share? Tired of refilling your hummingbird feeder all the time? Here’s some advice.
The secret to success with feeders of any kind often involves design, and it turns out that hummingbird feeders come in all sorts of nifty shapes and sizes to ward off unwanted spongers.
For example, if ants are a problem, you can buy feeders with little moats. (Last time I checked, ants were lousy swimmers.)
If other mooching birds are a problem, you can buy a hummingbird feeder without any perches. These feeders look pretty cool, like large Christmas ornaments.
As for bees, I am told you should avoid feeders with those little yellow-flower accents. (I once had a feeder like that, but a bunch of rowdy squirrels deflowered it.) It seems that red attracts hummingbirds, but the fake yellow flowers draw wasps and bees.
Other birders have reported that squirrels are raiding their hummer feeders as well. That raises the question: How do you keep squirrels away from hummingbird feeders?
The answer is the same for all feeders: Make the feeder harder to get to (think “baffles”), and then pray a lot. I have found that like telemarketers, squirrels are nearly impossible to get rid of, no matter how hard you try.
Tiny tasers, anyone? (For the telemarketers, of course. You didn’t think I’d … )
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 12, 2017 | Bird Netting
We have talked about the activities of nature’s little critters in the past, but it never ceases to amaze me as to what can happen in an instance.
Last week, while on vacation, I was sitting on the porch taking a break from some chores, and my wife was behind camp working in her flower garden.
Earlier, she had been filling the bird feeders and had taken a piece of suet, about half the size of a golf ball, and placed in on the ground while she refilled the cages.
Well, shortly following that, a chipmunk came out of his den, which he has many entrances to in the area, and began enjoying the morsel of suet. However, a nearby woodpecker decided that it was his, and began pecking at the chipmunk’s head. The chipmunk was undeterred by all of this and continued to eat the suet, despite taking quite a beating from the woodpecker.
Meanwhile, two mourning doves landed nearby, and decided to get in on the action. They began to approach the other two combatants, sneaking in from behind the woodpecker. At that point, I thought to myself, “this will be interesting.” Unfortunately, my wife was not aware this was going on and came around from behind the camp and began to say something to me. At that point, the confrontation broke up. The chipmunk scooted off to his den, and the three birds flew off in their own directions. We’ll never know how that would have turned out.
Later, that evening, I noticed the chunk of suet was no longer on the ground, so one of them won out on that fight.
But that was nothing compared to what we witnessed on Saturday. It was a beautiful day, and we were out on the lake to take in some fishing. There was a bass tournament going on that day, so many boats and anglers were in the area. At one point, we saw a small bass, about 12-inches in length, floating in the water, obviously dead. We left it, citing that the circle of life would come into play, and some bird of prey, an osprey, bald eagle, or even a sea gull would come along and scavenge that up.
One of the things we did notice in the almost three hours we were fishing was that there were no birds present in the crystal blue sky. Usually, they are all around us.
Finally, at one point, we heard the call of a bald eagle, although we could not see it. I summized it was perched in a nearby tree and possibly warning us not to approach the dead fish, which it possibly had its eyes on for lunch.
The fish was floating approximately 15 yards away from our boat when a bald eagle came swooping down from a nearby tree and flew parallel to the water – maybe five feet from the water level – for about 20 feet, extended its talons, picked that fish right from the surface of the water, and proceeded, at the same altitude, down the shoreline and disappeared around a bend into a cove.
I have seen bald eagles scoop up fish from the lake before, but not from that close a distance. It goes without saying the scene was spectacular. Bald eagles are massive birds.
Even when you think you have seen all Mother Nature has to offer, something like this comes along.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 11, 2017 | Bird Netting
The red-cockaded woodpecker is an endangered bird, and approximately nine call the 1,700-acre W.G. Jones State Forest near The Woodlands home.
The birds are mostly spread out across Southeastern states, and officials with the Texas A&M Forest Service do what they can to ensure the forest is in good condition for the birds to thrive, said Donna Work, Texas A&M Forest Service biologist.
“In this forest, sometimes they stay where you put them, and sometimes they don’t,” Work said. “They kind of mix around and find their place in the population.”
To maintain the environment for red-cockaded woodpeckers, forest officials keep up with mulching, spraying herbicide and burning the midlayer of plants in the forest, when necessary. This maintains an herbaceous ground covering for bugs, which are a large part of the bird’s diet. Removing the midlayer of flora also protects the birds from rat snakes and other predators, Work said.
To rebuild the population in Jones State Forest, some red-cockaded woodpeckers were translocated—or safely moved—from Louisiana in 2014, Work said.
“In our case, we really needed something to enhance our gene pool because we’re kind of isolated here and kind of stagnating,” she said.
Red-cockaded woodpeckers have declined in population due to habitat loss, Work said. Although birds were moved to the state forest, no hatchlings were born last year. However, three-fourths of the birds that were moved in 2014 have remained in the forest, she said.
Forest officials continue to monitor nest activity and check in on the family groups, which consist of one breeding female, one breeding male and one or two helper birds, said Work, adding there are approximately four family groups in the forest.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 10, 2017 | Bird Netting
The importance of good genetics in racing pigeons cannot be understated. The foundation stock of South Africa’s renowned pigeon racing loft, Kitchenbrand’s Loft, is a case in point.
Co-owned by Mark Kitchenbrand, the Kitchenbrand’s Loft’s Ace Pigeons are bred for performance and speed, and the loft’s incredible gene pool is sourced from the best genetic stock worldwide.
The genetic strength of top racing pigeons will secure results on race day. As such, ambitious fanciers are continuously on the hunt for top genetic pigeon stock, which results in them often purchasing offspring from the same foundation stock.
Therefore, the genetic composition of champion Olympiad pigeons in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, for example, may often intertwine, making them distant relations of each other.
Because they are also sellers, the offspring of foundation pigeon stock owned by top breeders such as Pieter Veenstra, Jan Hooymans, C&G Koopman (Dutch champions), Alfons Klaas, Hardy Krüger, and Gaby Vandenabeele (Belgian champions), are bred into the racing pigeon population by them and various other buyers.
Speed
Olympiad pigeons are categorised according to the following: best sprint-, middle-, or long-distance racers, and all-rounders. However, regardless of the distance, the pigeon that flies the shortest route home, at the highest speed, will always be the winner.
Kitchenbrand bought the now champion all-rounder, Birdy, for R800 000 at the South African Million Dollar Pigeon Race (SAMDPR) auction in 2007.
Birdy was awarded the SAMDPR 2008 Knock-Out Competition Champion, Grand Average Ace Pigeon, and Hot Spot Average Ace Pigeon titles , and has passed her extraordinary genetic strength on to her offspring.
Bred in SA since 2008, Birdy’s offspring are amongst the world’s most powerful hereditary transmitters, producing top results: Birdy’s first six direct offspring all bred multiple first prize winners. Four of her direct offspring were in the top 200 in the 2011 Sun City Million Dollar Race.
While Kitchenbrand thus has access to Birdy’s superior genetic line through her offspring, he recently acquired some of Stefaan Lambrecht’s sprint pigeons, currently the fastest pigeons in the world.
Birdy and Harry
Dutch pigeon racing champion, Jan Hooymans, bought Birdy in October 2015. Since then, famous Dutch Ace Racer, Harry, a blue cheque cock owned by Hooymans, has been mated to Birdy.
None of their direct offspring have been put on sale.
Harry is one of the best racers in the world, after winning two races against 22 340 and 37 728 pigeons, and scoring third place against 21 520 pigeons. Harry’s progeny won against 11 337 pigeons, and a grandson won against 44 293 pigeons.
Key genetic links
As a result of their outstanding genetics, Harry and Birdy’s progeny should be phenomenal racers. Both Harry and Birdy are related to renowned pigeon foundation stock: Harry was bred from the genetic foundations of C & G Koopman and Gaby Vandenabeele.
Birdy’s dam is closely related to the same Louis van Loon and Janssen brothers pigeons used in the formation of the C & G Koopman genetic pool. In SA, Birdy was mated to top bird, Zander, bred by
Dutch champion, Pieter Veenstra. Veenstra’s birds have a strong C & G Koopman foundation.
Birdy’s offspring with Zander thus have a golden link to the Janssen birds, as the base birds in the Veenstra loft also connect with this line.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 9, 2017 | Bird Netting
A Missouri man has a fish story that he will likely be telling for years.
Monroe MacKinney, 22, was fishing at his parents’ pond on My 31 when he caught a most unusual bass, reports the Daily Mail.
When he went to remove the hook, he noticed something peculiar inside the fish’s mouth.
“I went to lip him so I could remove my hook and that’s when I saw something in its mouth, MacKinney explained. “I didn’t know what it was and I almost dropped the fish back in the water. I was hesitant to remove the hook, but upon further inspection I realized it was a mole inside the fish’s mouth.”
The rodent was fully intact, looking like it just emerged from its hole. Except that it was dead.
“I had no idea how the bass got ahold of a mole,” the young fisherman continued. “I was speechless – I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I knew I had a once-in-a-lifetime catch, and I couldn’t pass up the chance to get a few pictures of it.”
Fish that feast on land animals is rare, but not without precedent.
For example, there are catfish in Australia who have been known to eat pigeons, reports an article in New Scientists. “Lesser salmon catfish,” as they are called, occasionally ambush pigeons at the water’s edge. But more often they eat animals when they drown.
In a survey of 18 lesser salmon catfish from Ashburton River in northern Australia, almost half had mice in their stomachs.
Two of the fish had three animals each in their stomachs, and some fish had up to 95 percent of their stomachs filled with small mammals.
The primary prey in these cases was spinifex hopping mice, which do not enter water voluntarily. “These mice often live in small colonies within a single burrow system,” says Erin Kelly of the Centre for Fish and Fisheries Research at Murdoch University, Perth, who led the research. Therefore, “collapse or flooding of one or multiple burrow systems along the Ashburton River could have inadvertently introduced them into the water.”
And though a few freshwater fish species are known to dine on land vertebrates — African tigerfish have been filmed plucking a swallow out of thin air, for example — it is rare for them to eat so many.
But the lesser salmon catfish aren’t the only fish who have been reported to eat non-aquatic animals.
Trout in Idaho have been found with rodents in their bellies. In a trout population survey done at the Silver Creek Preserve, biologists catch trout to get their weight and measurements, reports the website Cool Green Science.
During each survey, the researchers sample the contents of select trout stomachs to see what they have been eating. As they opened brown trout stomachs during a survey in 2013, they found montane voles, which are small rodents common along Silver Creek.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 8, 2017 | Bird Netting
She came out vehemently against a proposed pigeon cull in Vittoriosa but animal rights campaigner Moira Delia now welcomes the mayor’s change of heart and the drive to tackle this problem in a more humane way on a national level.
Interviewed on Times Talk, the television presenter laments the lack of enforcement of animal welfare legislation as she speaks of dog micro-chipping, horses in the sun and the use of chains as dog leashes.
Ms Delia also raises the concerns of animal lovers who would wish to keep their pets’ ashes after they die, after the closure of a small-scale crematorium that was operated illegally by a non-governmental organisation.
She also has her say on whether Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretary Clint Camilleri, a hunter, has a conflict in occupying that role.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 7, 2017 | Bird Netting
When a tiny lizard is moved away from his territory and placed in a new “mystery” location, can he find his way back? If so, how?
Yellow-bearded anoles are territorial species, with males staking out a tree as home turf. Researcher Manuel Leal, a behavior ecologist from University of Missouri who studies anoles in Puerto Rico, attached miniature tracking devices to 15 male anoles, walked them to a new site while disorienting them, and tracked them to find out if they could make their way back to their home-turf tree within 24 hours.
What happened is surprising and creates a new set of questions about the abilities of animals to navigate despite overwhelming odds that should leave them lost for good.
The experiment focused on yellow-bearded anoles, but this impressive ability isn’t exclusive to these tiny lizards.
Homing pigeons are also famous for this ability. And a new theory for how homing pigeons find their way home is that they use sound waves that emanate from the Earth itself.
Popular Science describes the theory put forward by U.S. Geological Society geologist John Hagstrum: “The idea is that pigeons use these low-frequency infrasound waves to generate acoustic maps of their surroundings, and that’s how they find home even when they’re released miles from where they dwell. The theory not only explains how pigeons make their way home almost every time, but why they sometimes get lost. (High winds, supersonic jets and various other phenomena can disrupt these infrasound waves, disorienting the birds and setting them on a false course for home.) So while it’s by no means conclusive, this new theory seems at first glance a very tidy way of explaining a mystery that has baffled avian biologists for generations.”
Might anoles also use such sound waves? Or could it be another sense that picks up the cues to lead them home again, even when they’re quite lost?
The research that will give us the answers to these little lizards’ navigation abilities might also help us unravel other mysteries about animal senses.
“Leal says there are many reasons why anoles are a great system for studying evolution,” explains the University of Missouri website. “There are hundreds of species, they have colonized a diversity of habitats, and they exhibit a wide range of complex behaviors.”
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 6, 2017 | Bird Netting
It’s a bird-eat-bird world out there!
The sinister squawker is shown going full “Temple of Doom” on the poor pigeon as it writhes on the cement at the Kings Highway station in Brooklyn.A ruthless raven was caught on camera ripping the beating heart from a half-alive pigeon on a New York City subway platform.
“Only in New York City. It’s either eat or get eaten,” the video’s narrator says. “Yo, that’s a raven. He just ate his homey!”
The bird then tears out the pigeon’s gizzards as it flaps its wings one final time, the wild video shows.
Observers joked the ominous bird-icide is a metaphor for competitive life in the Big Apple — and the embattled New York City subway system itself, according to Gothamist, which first reported the video.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 5, 2017 | Bird Netting
Shoalhaven City Council is taking action over a building it owns in the Nowra CBD which neighbouring property owners have described as a “health hazard”.
Following complaints about the Betta Electrical building in Berry Street, council’s maintenance team started work securing the building to stop pigeons from gaining access and roosting.
Local solicitor and CBD property owner David Nagle described the building as a “health hazard”, saying the property had become the home to numerous roosting pigeons, which were defecating all over the area, including the three-storey building he owns on the corner of Berry and Junction streets and Egans Lane.
Mr Nagle said pigeons were clearly getting into the building’s roof cavity, which had led to an associated rat infestation.
Council purchased the former Betta Electrical building as a viable commercial property for $1.05 million in December 2007 but the building has sat virtually vacant.
Council’s director Assets and Works Ben Stewart said talks were being held with property owners in the Nowra CBD and a team of council builders were securing the building.
“We are working to try and deter the pigeons from entering the building,” Mr Stewart said.
“We are also talking with neighbouring properties owners about the problem.”
On Monday morning council teams arrived on site, erecting scaffolding to gain access to the roof area and erected another set of scaffolding on a neighbouring property to allow work on the southern end of the building where the pigeons were gaining access to the building.
The Register understands a piece of guttering had fallen off the building, taking the fascia board with it, which provided access for the pigeons.
“We have had similar problems with wild pigeons on other buildings, such as the School of Arts, and we will be working on similar methods we used there to prevent pigeons landing or roosting on building surfaces,” Mr Stewart said.
“We will also look at other measures like installing spikes and mesh to stop roosting opportunities.”
He said council was looking into control methods for the pigeons.
“Once the work is complete we will also be looking at other pest control measures,” he said.
“Everyone is aware with pigeons comes other vermin and that is a problem not only in this city. It is a problem in other states and countries.”
He said the Betta Electrical building was one of a number of strategic properties council owned throughout the city.
“The block of land was part of the Egans Lane expression of interest process to activate the area through a proposed development in 2016,” he said.
“Council is still considering that plan and looking for alternative proposals from interested parties, with the objective to see the commercial/retail development of the site.
“Staff will be reporting back to the CBD revitalisation committee regarding the future of the site.
“Twelve months ago we opened up the thoroughfare access from Berry Street to Egans Lane based on feedback to make a user friendly, community, passive recreation space.
“There are a number of strategic sites in the Nowra CBD council has been looking for opportunities to activate, including areas like Stewart Place and Egans Lane. Council owned properties are critical to any future proposals.”
He said council’s carpentry staff had recently been focused on community assets, such as public toilets, halls and libraries.
“In the recent one year rate increase, $200,000 will go towards the maintenance of buildings,” he said.
“Council manages more than 1400 buildings and structures ranging from gazebos to the Betta Electrical building and through to the entertainment centre.”
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 4, 2017 | Bird Netting
Having written about the role pigeons played in the success of the D-Day landings last month, I was reminded of a wonderful collection of family papers that we hold at the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, writes Debbie Watson.
Rupert Henry Ghillyer of 43 George Street, Devonport played a vital part in this. He had a loft for racing and homing pigeons (shown in the photograph on the left) between his home and St Stephen’s School, the bomb damaged building shown in the background. He offered his time and pigeons voluntarily to help with the war effort.
Rupert was a skilled labourer in Devonport Dockyard, but during the Second World War he volunteered as the Area Officer for the National Pigeon Service, Plymouth Group in his spare time. As part of this role he was authorised by Herbert Woodman, the Chief Pigeon Supply Officer, to visit any loft and birds in his area and inspect them.
Under the Defence Regulations 1939, any person keeping racing or homing pigeons had to have an official permit and was not allowed to liberate any pigeon from its own loft or carry any pigeons without an official label from the Secretary of the National Pigeon Service in Gloucester!
Rupert received his permit on November 5, 1939 and was a member of the National Pigeon Service. You may remember from the previous article that the Plymouth pigeons and their owners played a vital role in carrying communications between here and France in connection with D-Day and other military operations.
In 1945 and 1946 Rupert received documents of gratitude from the Chief Constable of the Plymouth Police force and the Royal Air Force for his contribution. Like many, Rupert was an unsung hero.
Rupert’s wife Iris also played her part in the local community and can be seen in the photograph at the top with a stall of dolls at an event at the Old People’s Club in St John’s Church, Devonport. The little girl looks very pleased!
Another Ghillyer family member who served his country well was Rupert’s father, also called Rupert.
He was born in Colchester, Essex in 1889 and joined the Royal Navy in 1907 as a stoker. He was an acting leading stoker from 1913-1914, with official promotion to this rank from April 1915, a position he retained until 1929 when he completed his service.
His record confirms that he served in the First World War for which he received three medals including the 1914-1915 Star. His record also gives his height, hair and eye colour, complexion and a description of his tattoos. Among many of the ships he served on were Monmouth, Vivid II, Indus, Tiger, Valiant, Ajax and Hood. His conduct was noted as ‘VG’ (very good) throughout.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 3, 2017 | Bird Netting
AMANZIMTOTI Racing Pigeon Club reports on race nine and 10.
On Saturday, 24 June, seven members flew a total of 108 birds from Vrede.
First Doug Fry, second Basil Tait, third and fourth Doug Fry, fifth to 11th Basil Tait.
From Paul Roux, race 10 saw 55 birds compete in total, with three members taking part.
Coming in the top four positions was Basil Tait, fifth to seventh went to Doug Fry, eighth Basil Tait, ninth and 10th Doug Fry.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 2, 2017 | Bird Netting
One New Yorker was thoughtful enough to capture the grisly scene on film so we can all marvel at the city’s wildlife.
New York City is a lush, majestic landscape teeming with wildlife—and not just street punk warthogs who dress like they listen exclusively to PiL. The city is home to deer, coyotes, an unnerving number of loose crabs, and, apparently, at least one vicious raven.
Earlier this week, NYC subway riders were treated to the sight of a raven completely mutilating a still-living pigeon right on the above-ground Kings Highway Q platform. One courageous straphanger was thoughtful enough to capture the entire grisly scene on film, so we can all bask in the wonders of New York City nature.
“New York City, it’s either eat or be eaten,” a guy in the video says while the raven mercilessly pecks the guts right out of a flapping pigeon’s chest cavity. “This dude just ate his whole stomach out!” The camera briefly pans away from the Lecter-like bird to another pigeon, who stands awkwardly a few feet away, ignoring his brethren’s disembowelment.
The dying pigeon’s flaps grow weaker as the raven splays its guts across the concrete platform. Finally, borrowing a page from Kano in Mortal Kombat, the raven tears the pigeon’s beating heart out and flies away, leaving only a tattered carcass in its wake.
Watch the entire low-budget Planet Earth scene above and marvel at the beauty of Mother Nature while one bird shreds the innards of another bird. Have a great morning everybody!
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 1, 2017 | Bird Netting
Let’s imagine there were no pigeons: If we could design a drone that would disperse diseases harmful to humans while splattering a corrosive substance onto cars, buildings and monuments… would we?
Well, if we could throw breadcrumbs at it and watch it scuttle toward us, we might.
Now pigeons can live very well on grass seed and insects just as their distant ancestors did in the wild. They can also range up to five kilometres between roosting, nesting and feeding sites.
The birds multiplying in our streets should not be considered as wildlife. It’s beyond me why Birdlife Malta should bother to comment on the culling of these urban pests by local councils.
The first feral pigeons to appear in our public spaces were probably escapees from racing pigeon clubs.
The domestic strain originally came from the wild rock pigeon, fond of nesting in high cliff areas. That’s why their descendents still nest high up with a strong liking for uncovered ventilator openings in our homes.
According to a study by the University of Basel, Switzerland, pigeons are potential carriers of no less than 60 diseases harmful to humans. Nine are bacterial, five are viral and the rest are mostly fungal agents.
Let’s have a coordinated campaign to protect the public from health risks of the pigeon invasion
So why isn’t the Health Department warning us against these dangers?
Actually, unless you are handling pigeons, they generally pose a much lower disease transmission risk than rats or flies.
So it’s not highly likely that you or your child would pick up viral encephalitis or cryptoccocal meningitis from a bird cooing away in your ventilatur.
If you do have direct contact with pigeons then symptoms similar to pneumonia can arise. However, the same is true for anyone keeping parrots, budgies, cockatiels, hens, sparrows or seagulls. (Not to worry – ‘Parrot fever’ is not the same as bird flu.) But normally mild or symptom-free respiratory diseases carried from pigeons to humans can be fatal in vulnerable individuals.
When pigeon poo dries it turns to a powdery dust, kicked up into the air by passing feet. The smaller the child, the higher the exposure.
Demolition of abandoned buildings where pigeons have been roosting can pose a threat to neighbours too, as particles of pigeon debris contaminate the air they breathe.
A pigeon is capable of producing 48 chicks a year. The advice from pest management companies is to tackle the problem while pigeon numbers are still low (one or two).
Peregrine falcons seemed to work for Trafalgar Square. But if natural predators are brought in for the job here they might end up as collectors’ items.
Poison is out, not just because it’s a cruel death for the bird but also a danger to human health.
Traps are unwieldy and egg-destroying ventures may still attract the ire of some animal welfare extremists.
Putting contraceptive chemicals in feed has already been tried by local councils with limited success. Unless people are prevented from feeding the pigeons the birds will spend more time breeding than foraging.
Even culling by shooting will only have a very short-term effect unless a total clampdown on feeding is brought in.
Let’s have a coordinated campaign to protect the public from health risks of the pigeon invasion; not to mention the disfigurement of our beautiful stone buildings.
Everyone must be urged to take action and discourage feeding of the urban pests wherever possible.
Had we enforced by-laws where they exist the problem would not be with us today. Applied piecemeal, the pigeons just move on.
Now a legal notice is needed to ban the feeding of pigeons in public areas, with enforcement and steeper fines for putting public health at risk.
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)
