by Ryan Ponto | Jun 10, 2017 | Bird Netting
WALNUT CREEK (CBS SF) — An outdoor mall in Walnut Creek has brought in a hawk to help with a pigeon problem.
Downtown Walnut Creek’s Broadway Plaza is a lovely place to visit — unless you’re a pigeon.
“They are called the wolves of the air,” explained falconer Bridget Maguire-Colton as her trained hawk Remmy flapped his wings.
Remmy is a Harris hawk usually found in the deserts of Arizona chasing doves. But now this bird of prey is chasing pigeons away from the suburban East Bay mall.
It seems to be working.
“Have you seen any pigeons today?” asked Maguire-Colton with a laugh.
There were none visible. Maguire-Colton patrols the plaza with Remmy keeping a hawk eye out for any intruders.
Every once in a while, she releases Remmy so he can get a better look from above.
Remmy rarely catches a pigeon. The hawk’s shriek alone usually clears the area for blocks around.
Remmy has also become an instant celebrity. Shoppers at Broadway Plaza are shocked to see the hawk.
“I think it genius! It’s a really cool idea,” said one shopper.
While pigeons may get used to the plastic owls sometimes used on buildings to keep the pesky birds away, experts say they never lose respect for sharp claws and scream of a hawk.
Currently, there are about a half dozen malls using hawks to scare off pigeons but the many sun-drenched outdoor malls in California could push that number higher given the success rate.
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 | Jun 9, 2017 | Bird Netting
London – He’s a sharp-eyed, no-nonsense killer who rules the roost at Wimbledon and the prestigious tennis championships wouldn’t function without him: meet Rufus, the hawk who makes pigeons’ lives hell.
Up at the crack of dawn throughout the two-week tournament which he has patrolled for 10 years, the sharp-eyed Harris hawk keeps pigeons in their place and makes sure they are not gobbling up the grass seed and fouling the pristine grounds.
Weighing just one pound, six ounces (625g), he has been training at the All England Club in southwest London since he was 16 weeks old.
“You couldn’t do this with just any bird. He’s just so chilled, calm and relaxed,” said his handler Imogen Davis.
“We start at 05:00. We clear the pigeons, if there’s any around, and get ready for the day’s play.
“But we’re here all year round which is when the majority of the work is done.
“The courts are constantly reseeded and the pigeons think it’s a picnic for them. They come in their absolute flocks and eat the grass seed.
“We’re here to ascertain that it’s Rufus’ territory – and it’s not a safe place for them.”
Pigeons would soon wreck the championships for players and spectators alike, Davis insisted.
“As soon as you’ve got a problem, it gets out of hand very quickly,” the 30-year-old said.
“If pigeons cause trouble throughout play, that can make a massive difference to a player, interrupting you when you’re in the zone. And the mess they can cause is pretty outrageous.”
It would be game, set and match to Rufus should any dim-witted pigeon try and take him on.
“If a pigeon wants to fight him, they can hang around and give it a go but ultimately it’s predator versus prey – and they’re going to take off every time,” said Davis.
Technology can be used to deter pigeons but Rufus’ job is safe: the natural terror Rufus instils in the pigeons of southwest London would be difficult to replace with gadgets.
Wimbledon is known for strawberries and cream but Rufus the Hawk prefers a protein-rich diet of chicken, quail, rabbit and pigeon.
Besides the All England Club, Rufus has also been known to do a job at Westminster Abbey, Northampton Saints rugby club and the occasional landfill site.
Rufus was mysteriously stolen back in 2012 but the culprit, who was never caught, had a change of heart and freed him two days later.
Now he is never out of his handler’s sight during the championships and even stays in Davis’s house.
Around 40 000 people a day pour through the gates during the tournament, but Rufus is unruffled by the commotion.
“These two weeks of the year are absolutely crazy. The rest of the year it’s just me and Rufus on the roof,” said Davis.
“He loves to fly and be out. His thing is to be out hunting. It’s all he knows. He’s not a show bird.
“He likes to keep me on my toes. He disappears down the golf club (across the road from the tennis site) and makes me go into the lake after him. But if I don’t go in after him he’ll make himself comfortable and I won’t be able to get him back.”
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 | Jun 8, 2017 | Bird Netting
A downtown park yesterday shut down its pigeon area after visitors complained about its poor environment and that the owner was secretly “killing and selling” pigeons on the site.
Yangpu Park on Kongjiang Road suspended all the activities involved in its “pigeon court” in the west section of the park from yesterday.
Previously, visitors could pay to feed the pigeons or pose in front of the pigeon houses. Over 100 pigeons were kept in a row of wooden houses near the park’s children playground.
Visitors told the Shanghai Daily that the owner of the pigeon court sold “wild and old” pigeons to regular park users, with prices ranging up to 100 yuan (US$14.70) for a fully developed pigeon.
Customers can point to the pigeon they wanted, and the owner will catch it with a webbed pouch, kill it and remove its feathers on site, visitors said.
Many old customers come to the park to buy pigeons as they believed the birds were fresher and more nutritious than those sold in the wet markets, an operator of the court said.
“The park decided to close the court and relocate the pigeons, because many visitors complained about the environmental problems of the pigeon courts recently,” the management of the park said.
In a statement posted at the site, the park management said environmental issues were the major concern. The site lies beside a large public plaza where many children play on skateboards or ride bicycles.
Most of the pigeons had been moved to inside the wooden houses yesterday, though some still sunbathed on the rooftops.
“It’s a pity that the pigeons have to be relocated,” the owner said yesterday. He declined to speak further on the matter.
Another operator of the pigeon court said live pigeons could still be sold. “You can take it to the wet market to ask for the killing and cleaning services,” he admitted. “But killing on site must be forbidden.”
The park management initially rented the area to the pigeon owner. However, the pigeon watching and feeding services were later upgraded to killing and selling, a regular visitor to the park said yesterday. Dust, feathers and smells marked the pigeon court, 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 Ryan Ponto | Jun 7, 2017 | Bird Netting
A CONSISTENT and team approach saw Wangaratta fall to Yarrawonga by just seven goals on Saturday.
The home side stepped up their intensity, pressed the issue when they had the advantage and showed signs of their ability to handle Yarrawonga’s fierce pressure but ultimately the Magpies couldn’t match the Pigeons’ superior scoring.
Yarrawonga led all game; a three-goal margin, 15-12 at quarter time was increased to a nine-goal buffer at half time, but the Magpies clawed their way back closing to six goals down at three quarter time, and within four goals late in the fourth and final term, but the Pigeons lifted and pushed the final margin out to 57-50.
Amanda Umanski lifted her game while opposed to reigning Toni Wilson medallist Hannah Symes scoring 33 goals at 79 per cent, while coach Kellie Keen was also accurate with 11 goals from 13 attempts.
Keen was her side’s best player through the attacking half, setting up high percentage shots for her shooters and then finishing off the midcourt’s hard work when it was her time to shoot.
Keen was backed up by wing attack Chaye Crimmins who set up a number of strong looks for her shooters with accurate passes.
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 | Jun 6, 2017 | Bird Netting
Local racing pigeons faced their toughest test of the season when they were dispatched to the Shetland Isles for liberation from Lerwick to face a 500-mile flight back to Boston. Boston Central RPC’s race was won by the Upsall and Grandson team. Results: 1 Upsall and Grandson 1262 yards per minute, 2 and 3 K. Ward 1146 and 1022, 4 and 5 Upsall and Grandson 899 and 831, 6 K. Ward 750. The club also had a 90-mile race from Malton, when the winner for Frost and Spooner was registering its third win of the summer. Results: 1 Frost and Spooner 1580, 2 G. and C. Edwards 1574, 3 K. Ward 1566, 4, 5, 6 and 7 Upsall and Grandson 1563.765, 1563.498, 1562.965 and 1562.699, 8 G. and C. Edwards 1562.633, 9 Frost and Spooner 1546, 10 G. and C. Edwards 1545.613, 11 K. Ward 1545.312, 12 G. and C. Edwards 1544. Swineshead and District RPC were also competing from Malton, when club secretary Terry Welby had a field day by taking the first five positions. Results: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Mr and Mrs T.F. Welby 1547.531, 1547.041, 1526, 1523 and 1503, 6,7, 8 and 9 G. Wheatman 1467, 1462, 1458 and 1441, 10 Craig Pearson 1342.
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 | Jun 5, 2017 | Bird Netting
The 2017 edition of the Wimbledon Championship kicked off on 3rd July in London.
It is the third Grand Slam of the year and the only one to be played on the grass.
The oldest tennis tournament in the world, every tennis player dreams of winning the Wimbledon trophy.
Let us have a look at some unknown facts about the tournament.
The beginning
The Wimbledon Championship was first played in the year 1877, making it the oldest tennis tournament. While only men’s single matches were played then, women’s singles and men’s doubles events were introduced in 1884 and mixed and women’s doubles in 1913.
The Cup and the Dish
The men’s singles champions is handed a silver-gilt cup and has been awarded the same since 1887, while the women’s singles champion is presented the ‘Venus Rosewater Dish’, with figures from mythology inscribed on it.
Winners of the other events are presented with the silver cup.
The trophies are presented to the champions by the ‘Duke of Kent’.
Champions are given replicas; not originals
While the winners are presented the ‘real’ trophies during presentation ceremony, the trophies are taken back from the winners to put on display at the All England Club’s museum. And, the winners take home a three-quarter size replica of the trophies.
Royal Box curtsey
The Wimbledon Championship had a peculiar tradition; it was mandatory for the players to bow to the royal box while entering or leaving the centre court, irrespective of it being occupied by a member of Royal family.
However, the tradition was scrapped in 2003, and the players are now only supposed to bow if Prince of Wales, or the Queen is present.
The rule of whites only
Unlike other Grand Slams, Wimbledon has a pretty strict rule about the dress code.
It is compulsory for a player to wear white from top to bottom, with no leniency towards anyone.
The umpire can ask the players to change if they do not meet the dress code. In 2013, Roger Federer was asked to change his shoes because it had an orange sole.
Being a ball kid is a tough job
While the tournament generally begins by end of June or early July, the ball boys and ball girls have to undergo training from the month of February. After training sessions, 250 boys and girls are selected to be the ball kids.
A rather unusual form of security
With the rather large number of pigeons hovering around the host city London, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club has employed Rufus, the Hawk to keep the pigeons away from the venue.
He took over from the previous hawk, Hamish, ten years ago and is trained to ward off the pigeons.
Young Harris hawk, Pollux, was hired last year to help Rufus.
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 | Jun 4, 2017 | Bird Netting
Police have arrested a thief after he took flight with 11 expensive racing pigeons from a residential complex and ate them.
The owner of the birds, surnamed Yuan, reported they where missing on June 25 when he went to feed them. And when a CCTV monitor was checked, to see of there whereabouts, it revealed an empty-handed man entering the residential complex at 2pm where Yuan kept his prized birds. He exited the entrance with a bag in his hand 13 minutes later. Further footage revealed the man riding away on a tricycle, used to recycle waste cardboard.
Police eventually arrested the man, surnamed Zi, in his 60s, who admitted to taking the birds. Zi told them he had taken some drink on that day and stole the pigeons after he found that a gate to the pigeonhole was open.
Police informed the thief that the racing pigeons were expensive, with the cheapest among them priced at 3,000 yuan (US$442). Zi, from Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, said he was unaware of their value. He thought they were just ordinary pigeons and boiled them to eat.
Yuan has only three racing pigeons left.
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 | Jun 3, 2017 | Bird Netting
Given recent concerns in China about social unrest or even foreign espionage, it was not surprising that a civic-minded citizen in Nanjing, Jiangsu province called police on Sunday after he found a carrier pigeon at his home with suspicious note tied to its leg, a news website reports.
Carrier pigeons have long been used for communication – legal and clandestine – in China. In the late 1990s, for example, dissidents were known to release pigeons carrying slogans written on ribbons tied to the birds’ feet.
The website of Jstv.com reported that worried policeman took the bird back to the station where they gingerly opened the note to reveal its short but direct message: “Lili, I love you!!! With love from Xiaojun.”
The bird was found to be a champion racing pigeon from Henan province and had an authorised ID band, according to the report.
The Carrier Pigeon Association of Nanjing said the bird might be trapped in recent rainstorms and suggested that the police feed the bird for a few days. After rest, the carrier pigeon would fly back to its host.
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 | Jun 2, 2017 | Bird Netting
“The harmless pigeon still has its use in war as a bearer of dispatches despite the great development of modern means of communication,” The New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial told its readers 100 years ago. “When it is impossible to depend upon the telephone between the front trenches and the rear through wires being cut or broken, a carrier pigeon service becomes extremely valuable.” The photograph showed a pigeon mail carrier leaving a British trench.
“The method of sending a message is to enclose it in a small aluminum tube about one inch long and half an inch in diameter and then fasten the tube to the pigeon’s leg. Now that the United States Army is learning all the latest devices used in modern warfare, the Signal Corps is being trained in the use of carrier pigeons. Three thousand birds have already been called into service at Philadelphia.” (The article did not say whether they had volunteered or been drafted.)
“An occasional hindrance to pigeon-carrier communication is that civilians, unaware that the birds are on active service, shoot them.”
“America Calls — Enlist Today. A photograph of U.S. signal officers wigwagging the above message from the dome of Capitol at Washington at the opening of the recruiting week for the regular Army.” The officers, slightly more than specks, can be discerned at the base of the cupola.
“Here we see why the Red Cross needs all the help it can get. These wounded men, who happen to belong to the British Army, have just been brought in from the firing line by stretcher-bearers, and are waiting for ambulances to take them to base hospitals.” The Times reported that the American Red Cross had just succeeded in raising $114 million (about $2.1 billion today) during a seven-day campaign — or $14 million ($263 million) more than its stated goal.
A motorboat “armed with machine gun and manned by yachtsmen cooperating with the police in harbor patrol work” was photographed off Stamford, Conn. The threat to America did not necessarily come from abroad, The Times said darkly in an accompanying article about domestic defense measures. “In a population so varied in racial origin, traditions and sympathies, including a small element which is influenced by subversive ideas, there must inevitably be some danger of disturbance.”
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 | Jun 1, 2017 | Bird Netting
Wimbledon’s resident hawk Rufus decided tennis was not the life for him and disappeared to the golf course this year, his handler has revealed.
The hawk is used by the All England Club to scare pigeons away so they do not cause a nuisance to players on court.
His handler Imogen Davis said: “He likes to keep me on my toes every year…and generally when somebody is expecting something of me.
“He disappeared to the golf club, and made me go into the pond after him. I was soaked up to here (my knees) and I was like: ‘You didn’t’.”
Rufus starts work at 5am, and not just during the two weeks of the Championships, his year-round job includes making sure pigeons do not nest in the roof of Centre Court.
Ms Davis, from Corby, Northamptonshire, said the Harris Hawk is trained not to attack.
She said: “It’s based on the innate sense of fight or flight, so if a pigeon wants to fight him they can hang around and give it a go but ultimately he is the predator versus prey.”
Ms Davis has to keep a close eye on the bird after he was stolen in 2012 before being returned to the RSPCA.
The 30-year-old handler said: “We were running around frantically. We never did (find out who did it). At the time all I could think about was the well being of Rufus.
“Generally on a day he has one quail or three chicks and the RSPCA had given him 13 chicks. When I went to pick him up his crop was massive.”
Rufus, who has a special Wimbledon pass with the job title ‘bird scarer’ on it, has patrolled the grounds at SW19 for a decade.
The hawk has no special plans to celebrate the anniversary, but will be keeping the grounds pigeon free as usual.
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 | May 31, 2017 | Bird Netting
ALL I WANTED was a quiet place at the end of the road where I could write my memoirs.
About the years of struggling it took to become an overnight excess with a publishing empire stretching from Oil City to Whiskey Flats dedicated to shining the light of freedom on truth, justice and the American way.
If I could just find the time.
Something is always interrupting.
It’s all part of the nightmare we call country living.
It started with the drumming.
It was sort of a Bo Diddley- on-a-bender beat that just kept going and going and wouldn’t stop.
Naturally, I assumed it was just another Sasquatch drum circle heating up.
Sometimes I think that’s all they do.
Maybe I should apologize, but somebody has to work.
Financing the hunt for Bigfoot and baiting them in takes major funding.
Peanut butter and jam sandwiches don’t grow on trees, you know.
I opened the door and stuck my head out, ready to holler into the woods to get them to pipe down for a while, and saw the real reason for my disturbance: a cute little woodpecker.
With a bright red head and a great big beak, the woodpecker was pounding a hole in the side of the house.
Woodpeckers are some of the dumbest creatures on the planet.
Maybe it’s because they spend their lives beating their head against trees.
It only makes sense that an ecological niche that involves brain damage could lead to an evolutionary dead end.
Shooting the woodpecker was not an option.
That would contravene the Geneva Convention of Birdwatching and possibly upset the neighbors.
There are simple rules to get along in the country, such as drive slowly, mind your own business and don’t spray the neighbors with birdshot.
They could shoot back.
And besides, you have a lot better chance of borrowing stuff from the neighbors if you don’t shoot at them first. Enough said.
Not to mention woodpeckers are a protected species.
The birds seem to sense this.
When I tried to scare it away, the woodpecker looked at me like I was impacting his habitat.
I thought we could all just get along.
And we did until the starlings moved into the woodpecker hole.
This is a curse I would not wish on my best enemy.
First, there is the endless process of the starlings building the nest, which means they have to pull the pink fiberglass insulation out of the wall, scatter it over the yard and replace it with a flammable nest made of moss and dry twigs.
Eventually, the babies hatch.
You will know this from their constant shrieking for food from dawn till dark for weeks on end with a distinct aroma wafting through the wall.
It’s a congealing mass of rotting starling nest just waiting to be used again next year.
I sprang into action.
It was going to be too easy.
I grabbed a fish net and beat on the wall.
When the starling flew out of the woodpecker hole, I caught it, then drove it to town to turn it loose.
I could not imagine a crueler fate.
That was until I returned home to find the starling had beaten me back to the house.
The net trick wouldn’t work anymore.
I had to borrow a ladder from the neighbor and nail a board over the woodpecker hole.
For a moment, there was peace.
I’d just sat down to type a really good column for once and heard a woodpecker beating another hole in the wall.
Here we go again.
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 | May 30, 2017 | Bird Netting
Q. On my two-year-old maple tree, at about hip level on the trunk, all the bark is gone all the way down the tree. – S.S., Springfield
If the bark is peeled all the way around, it does not sound too hopeful that the tree will survive. A tree would have a hard time surviving if such damage went even half way around.
This is a process known as girdling, the killing off the tender wood just below the bark. This area of the bark is where all the moisture and nutrients travel up and down the tree to keep the plant alive.
I can think immediately of four possible causes for what you describe.
First, some maple trees do shed plates of bark, and sometimes these can be in rings around the tree. However, the tree is already putting on a new tough layer underneath that will now be the new bark.
The second possibility would be insect damage. You will usually see some holes bored into the tender wood where the bark has been peeled away.
If insects are the culprit, I assume you would find bore holes in the wood and possibly some slime or sawdust lying about on the trunk or on the ground. If you are convinced it is an insect problem then I would have the tree removed and burned or hauled away.
Possibility number three would be squirrel damage. Squirrels may scratch away at bark on a tree to try to get to some insect that may be living underneath the bark.
Finally, it could be a result of woodpecker damage — a woodpecker searching for insects pecks lots of holes into the tree and eventually does enough damage to the bark and the tender layer of new wood underneath, that the two separate and the bark will peel away.
Q: I’ve had a problem in the past with flowers and plants not blooming.– G.H, Springfield
The problem is usually related to the age of the plant, temperature, light, nutrition or pruning practices.
Many plants must reach a certain age before they are mature enough to produce flowers. Fruit trees, such as apples and pears, may require as long as five or six years before they produce fruit. Gingko trees can take up to 15 years before flowering.
A stressful environment may delay flowering even further.
Plants that have been budded or grafted may have delayed flowering or early flowering, depending on the type of rootstock onto which the plant was grafted.
Plants must be positioned to receive the proper amount of sunlight. Some plants flower best in full sun, others prefer cooler conditions in the shade.
Cold weather may kill buds on partially opened flowers. Hot, dry weather may cause buds to dry up. Various apple cultivars and peaches require exposure to periods of low temperatures.
Nutrition imbalances such as too much nitrogen can cause plants to produce primarily leaves and stems with few flowers.
Pruning plants at the wrong time of the year can be a reason plants fail to bloom. Spring-flowering plants begin setting next year’s flower buds in the late spring.
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 | May 29, 2017 | Bird Netting
It is difficult to imagine that a bird and a football player have much in common, but they do, and the lowly woodpecker just may hold the key to making safer football helmets.
The history of football is rife with attempts to make a better helmet for players to prevent skull fractures. While the technology does exist to prevent or diminish skull fractures, there is little to no protection from brain injuries. “This is where the woodpeckers come into play,” said traumatic brain injury attorney, Brooks Schuelke of Perlmutter & Schuelke, PLLC in Austin, Texas.
Dr. Gregory Myer, is the director of research and the human performance lab at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Sports Medicine division. Myer was contacted by Xennovate Medical’s CEO, David Smith, who was enthused about the possibilities of a possible breakthrough in brain injury care. The idea proposed came about as a result of studying woodpeckers.
Smith explained to Myer that woodpeckers prevent concussions by wrapping their tongues around their jugular veins to increase blood flow to the brain. This keeps the brain from moving about inside the skull while the bird hammers on wood. Myer understood that since the bird could not protect its head from the outside, the adaptation of winding its tongue around its jugular would prevent brain injuries. Mayer began research on the “Q Collar,” also known as the Neuroshield, which is designed to be worn around the neck and increase blood flow to human brains.
The initial prototype Neuroshield performed well in field tests with high school football teams, soccer teams and a SWAT team. The promising results may give the Neuroshield a chance that it could be pressed into service for the U.S. military. Although there is still more research to conduct, if the theory behind preventing brain trauma is correct, the collar may become an integral part of daily life and even be used while riding a bike or motorcycle. It is anticipated that the collar manufacturer, the Performance Sports Group, may put the product on the market by 2018.
“Traumatic brain injuries are complex and often alter a person’s life completely,” added Schuelke. “If you have been involved in an accident or suspect playing contact sports has resulted in a brain injury, my office is able to explain your legal options to you.”
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 | May 28, 2017 | Bird Netting
I’ve become the proprietor of an avian cheeseburger shack. We are so popular with the birds that I now trudge out every morning in my pajamas to make sure there is birdseed for breakfast. Heavy on the sunflower seeds, light on the thistle. We feed blue ones, red ones, black ones, brown ones, some spotted ones with red heads, and some bright yellow ones that are very little. I guess it’s obvious that I’m not too knowledgeable about birds. I am a city girl with a city girl’s appreciation of pigeons in the winter and gulls in the summer.
My Aunt Margie was a fanatic birder. She would go out birding with her binoculars and baggy shorts and wait for some precious specie to waft by. She kept a life list of every bird she had seen. She could trill bird calls if you asked and didn’t snicker. Her house was filled with Audubon prints, clocks that sounded bird calls on the hour and in her yard, a custom-made bird dream house with specs written for some kind of bird. I forget which kind of bird. Privately, we thought she was nuts.
Our own bird obsession started with the woodpecker last summer. Late summer, we started to hear a sharp tap-tap-tapping near the back of our house. Originally, I thought it was a plumbing racket. Or maybe a branch banging remarkably consistently in the wind. But every time I went out to investigate, the noise magically stopped. Just a bird flying away. It took a week for us to connect the dots between the ever-widening hole in the shingle and the bird in the nearby tree.
I went in to my husband. “I think we have Woody Woodpecker.” He reminded me that Woody was a cartoon and made the famous sound of the cartoon from our childhood. Hard to render into syllables, but “Eh-eh-eh-Uh-Oh!” I dragged him outside to see the evidence. We found a moldy copy of Birds of the Northeast clearly identifying the culprit. The next day, a handyman put a metal patch over the hole. Problem solved. The next week the woodpecker migrated (was there only one?) to the other side of the house. Another metal plate. I was starting to worry that our house would morph, from a clapboard farmhouse into an aluminum box, in one-foot-square increments.
My exhaustive research consisted of googling the catchy query, “What to do about woodpeckers?” and it yielded a few solutions. One: move. There are more birds than you. Two: get a birdfeeder and fill it with suet. What the heck. If you can’t beat ’em, feed ’em. It worked! Our woodpeckers invited their suet loving friends over for lunch and stopped snacking on our house. We started to like the birds. So many varieties! All day long, singing and chirping. We bought a new bird book and binoculars.
This year, when the frost was still on the morning grass, we got a second bird feeder. One you fill with seed not suet. I bought a big bag of birdseed at the grocery store and poured it in. The birds flocked, excited to locate our free buffet. The first bag lasted a month while the birds were flying back from Florida. Now, we think Yelp for Birds must have given us a very favorable review. At the hardware store, I was flabbergasted by the whole aisle of bird seed, like the cereal aisle at the Stop & Shop. Too many choices.
The guy with the white beard and nice smile asked me an existential question: “What kind of birds do you want?” I had no idea. “The pretty ones,” I answered. He looked at me indulgently, the way he might if I asked for a wrench with a pink handle but couldn’t tell him whether it was an Allen or a whatever. He tapped on a huge bag. “The ‘pretty ones’ like this. They like sunflower seeds. And mix it with this bag of thistle seed too.” For good measure, I bought a red glass hummingbird feeder and hummingbird food too. In for a cardinal, in for a humming bird. Humming birds are attracted by red, my new sage informed me.
He was so right. We became bird heaven by the end of the first day. A fly-in food truck for the Cohasset flock. The J-J’s of the feathered set. Full of seed in the morning, crumbs by evening. I was feeling good. Virtuous even. Then I had lunch with my lovely cousin Marianne, daughter of my Aunt Margie, the birder. “You shouldn’t feed birds in the Spring and Summer, you know”, she said. “They need to forage.” Crestfallen! My little good deed upsetting the organic balance of nature! And then I decided, screw that. Turns out I like operating a cheeseburger stand for birds. I get to see all the pretty ones.
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 | May 27, 2017 | Bird Netting
An obsession with keeping the landscape tidy has been blamed for the rapid disappearance of Britain’s smallest woodpecker.
The population of lesser spotted woodpeckers has almost halved since 2009 because dead trees are being quickly removed from parks and woods, the British Trust for Ornithology said. The sparrow-sized birds have been declining since about 1980 and only about 2000 remain.
The birds tend to nest in decaying wood because it is softer and therefore easier for them to peck when carving a nesting hole.
Trust spokesman Paul Stancliffe said decaying trees used to be left in place but landowners were now more likely to remove them, partly because of excessive concerns over health and safety.
“They are being tidied up much more, especially in parks,” he said. “If there is a danger of trees falling across paths, they are being removed.”
The decline is revealed in an annual report on wild bird populations based on data collected by the trust. Greenfinches have fallen by 39 per cent and turtle doves by 70 per cent over the same period. Both affected by trichomonosis, a disease that affects the throat and prevents birds from feeding.
There are signs, however, that a decline in farmland birds may have been halted. The number of farmland birds has more than halved since 1970, mainly due to the intensification of farming and increased pesticide use. The latest figures show a 6 per cent increase in the birds from 2014 to 2015.
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 | May 26, 2017 | Bird Netting
Strong claws, short legs and stiff tail feathers enable woodpeckers to climb tree trunks and use their sharp bills to chisel out insects for food, make nest holes and drum territorial signals to rivals.
Second to the ivory-billed woodpecker, the pileated woodpecker is the largest commonly seen in North America. This perched bird is almost entirely black on its back and wings. A white chin and dark bill put the finishing touches on its distinguished look.
Preferring dense, mature forest, it seems to be adapting well to human encroachment, becoming more common and tolerant of disturbed habitats — so that very well could be the “rat-a-tat-tat” you hear at your front door.
In woodlands or your backyard you can listen for its slow, resounding hammering. If it’s nearby, look up, follow the sound and you’ll probably be able to spot its pointed, blood-red capped head on the side of a tree, leaving a long rectangular or oval hole. Carpenter ants in fallen trees and stumps are its major food source.
The tongue of the woodpecker is long, usually with barbed tips, so it can be thrust out to spear an insect and draw it out of its hiding place in the wood. The tongue is coated with sticky saliva that helps it gather small insects like ants, but they also eat berries, fruits and nuts.
You might say their diet consists of protein, fiber-rich carbohydrates and grains, which means low fat and natural sugars. Maybe we humans should adapt a woodpecker diet. But I don’t think that’s what my husband means when he says I eat like a bird at dinner time.
Larger holes can be found for nesting. Fine chips of wood form at the bottom of the hole to cushion the eggs. When hatched, the young are featherless.
Red-bellied woodpeckers look like zebras in flight with their black-and-white barred backs. The male has red on his crown and nape. Females only have red on their necks, but both have a reddish patch on their belly, thus the name red-bellied woodpecker. They are common in open woodlands and parks.
The red-headed woodpecker is definitely colorful, sporting an entire head of dark red plumage contrasting with a blue-black back and snowy white underside. It inhabits open woods, farmlands, parks and backyards, foraging tree trunks and the ground for insects, berries and acorns. It will utilize any vacant cavity in a fence post, dead tree or even an electric pole to store acorns for the winter.
My hanging bird feeder serves as a quick snack stop for numerous red-bellied woodpeckers, red-headed woodpeckers and even the small white-breasted nuthatch, a short-tailed acrobatic bird that looks very similar to a woodpecker the way it hangs upside down on the bird feeder and scales a tree trunk.
When you check out the rapping at your front door and find no one there, it could be that a woodpecker was making a visit. Now, if they start ringing the doorbell, well, I don’t know about that!
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 | May 25, 2017 | Bird Netting
Since your column talks a lot about crows … For the last few years I have had two crows with a white feather on their wing and believed it was something white they had gotten into – maybe paint. Later I heard they were from Nova Scotia. I wonder if that’s true? Did they fly all the way over here?
Anyway, you asked me where Bear River got its name. Well, at one time a lot of bears lived in the woods here in Bear River and there are many rivers flowing through the trees. The bears are all gone now but as I walk through the trails I wonder if one might be lurking in the woods.
We have a walking trail back of our home and there’s an old tree with the bark all shaved off and sawdust down all around the tree on the ground. I heard a commotion around that area for days now and saw two Northern Flickers flying around. I thought I’d take a look and found a perfectly round hole in the tree that looked like a carpenter had drilled it out. How exciting. It’s carved perfectly round.
A red bucket has been hanging on the branch below the woodpecker hole for years and when I peeked inside there was a big pile of sawdust. It must have come from the hole because when I was sitting on my hammock, I saw the woodpecker pounding away at the hole and sawdust was flying everywhere. It made me wonder if he looked at that sawdust and was quite proud of his accomplishment.
While I am writing to you Brenda, do you know what kind of seeds woodpeckers eat? We have lots of little black and white woodpeckers with little red hats on the back of their heads. Maybe they eat more than insects.
In the trail behind my home I spotted an owl on a tree and then realized there were three of them. I can hear them hooting close by at night.
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 | May 24, 2017 | Bird Netting
I recently had the opportunity to go out in the field with Kerry Brust, a red-cockaded woodpecker biologist in the North Carolina Sandhills. I went with Brust to put brightly colored and aluminum bands on nestling red-cockaded woodpeckers. It’s part of a research project begun in 1978, initiated by Dr. Phil Doerr and Dr. Jay Carter III of N.C. State University. Sandhills Ecological Institute, a nonprofit formed in 1998, continues the research in collaboration with Dr. Jeff Walters’ lab at Virginia Tech. The Sandhills institute was created to: research and monitor the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) and related ecosystems in North and South Carolina; promote the study of and education about the longleaf pine and related ecosystems; engage in scientific studies and promote education regarding the red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) and its habitats. The institute maintains demographic databases on the woodpeckers and studies the biology and behavior of the species. The studies have provided insights that are applied throughout the Southeast and have helped in the creating of important tools for managing the red-cockaded woodpeckers, such as artificial cavities and cavity restrictors. The intensive monitoring of the birds’ population entails inspecting the status of cluster and cavity trees, routine nest checks from April to July, color-banding nestlings and unbanded adults, conducting adult group census, and checking on fledglings to document whether reproduction is successful. Brust is co-director of the Sandhills institute with Jay Carter and is the supervising biologist. Two other full-time biologists assist her, Andy Van Lanen and Anna Prinz. Each year the institute monitors approximately 300 red-cockaded woodpecker clusters at Fort Bragg, Camp Mackall, the Sandhills Game Land, McCain Forest, The Nature Conservancy’s Calloway Forest, Weymouth Woods State Nature Preserve and various private lands.
We were out on Fort Bragg. Federal lands (including those owned by the Department of Defense) are required to protect federally listed species such as red-cockaded woodpeckers. The birds were listed as endangered in 1968 and were one of the first species covered under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. They are a non-migratory, cooperatively breeding species that lives in family groups and defends a set territory called a cluster. Clusters are the collection of cavity trees used by a single woodpecker family group. Groups can be a breeding pair only, or have as many as four to five generally related helpers. They’re considered an “umbrella” species, meaning other species also benefit from management for the red-cockaded woodpeckers, such as prescribed fire, thinning of understories, etc. We went out early in the morning, and since it was drizzling, we started our day just doing nest checks. This involves using a camera on a pole that can be stuck in the cavity. It sends an image down to a viewer where we can see what is in the nest. The first few nests had nothing in them but wood chips, which is how the woodpeckers prepare for egg laying. We finally found a newly hatched chick, about three days old, with eggs that still had not hatched. It stopped raining so we were able to go to a nest where babies needed to be banded. Brust climbs ladders that she stacks as she goes to get up to the cavity hole. She uses a delicate string noose to carefully remove the babies from the nest. Then she places them in a soft cotton bag to carry them down and back to the truck. Here she pulls them out and masterfully places bands on their legs while they are wriggling about and making soft chirping noises. Then she climbs back up and puts them safely back in their nest. The ideal age for banding nestlings is 6 to 8 days old. It was remarkable to get to see these birds up close. The North Carolina Sandhills population of red-cockaded woodpecker is just one of 13 Primary Core Recovery Populations the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has designated throughout the Southeast as needed for complete recovery of the species. Although population increases have been observed within Sandhills public lands, the woodpeckers are still a protected species. While military training restrictions for the Army have been relaxed on Fort Bragg, regulations remain in place for development and timber harvesting that affect the woodpeckers’ foraging and nesting habitat. As with many listed species, the birds’ future remains precarious. It’s good that groups like the Sandhills Ecological Institute are helping watch over the species that remain.
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 | May 23, 2017 | Bird Netting
NEW ULM — The electric distribution system in New Ulm is under attack from woodpeckers.
Over the last year, the New Ulm Electric Distribution Department discovered significant woodpecker damage to the wooden transmission line crossing the Minnesota River and connecting to the Fort Ridgely substation.
“It sounds quite humorous, but it is a recent phenomenon for us,” Utilities Director Patrick Wrase said. The wooden poles at the river crossing have been in place since the 1980s but no woodpecker damage has been noticed until the last few months.
“I don’t want call it an infestation, but we have a good population of woodpeckers in this area, and we’re dealing with the nesting of that group in our transmission poles across the river,” Wrase said.
Dan Pirsig with the Electrical Department gave a presentation about the woodpecker problem. Staff first noticed the damage on the poles crossing the river last fall. Repairs were conducted in January, and structural assessments were performed. The recommendation was to replace the poles.
Replacing the poles is estimated at $30,000 per transmission pole. At this time there are five poles with damage bringing replacement costs up to a total of $150,000. The wood poles would be replaced with steel poles to prevent further woodpecker damage. In addition, the steel poles cost less than the laminate wood poles
Currently there are only five poles with damage, but approximately 34 poles are at risk from woodpecker damage. The cost of replacing all at-risk poles would exceed $500,000.
Pirsig said this is a time-sensitive issue. This is an ongoing problem that will not go away. If the integrity of the poles is compromised, they could break off in a wind storm or blizzard.
Pirsig said the department will begin wrapping the poles in a mesh material as a preventive maintenance method and repair the damage already done.
Wrase said other cities have had success with the mesh wrapping. The wrapping can be purchased for under $100 and would cover multiple poles.
The replacement project will be budgeted in 2018 and details will be presented at that time.
In other news, the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission approved the execution of a settlement agreement with the Hutchinson Utilities Commission (HUC) to resolve the metering error and resulting over-billing for natural gas the Hutchinson Commission caused to the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission (NUPUC).
In April, a draft of the agreement was prepared and approved by the PUC. New Ulm City Attorney Roger Hippert submitted the document to HUC for consideration and has been informed the document will be accepted by HUC without any changes and can be considered the final settlement agreement.
The settlement calls for a $1,298,645.98 payment from HUC to NUPUC. Once received, the $1.3 million will go into a fund to replenish the gas departments reserves.
“The additional expenses have been paid out to our gas supplier throughout this process,” Wrase said. The cost of this overcharge was not passed on to utility rates, but reserve funds were used. This payment will cover the loss to gas reserves.
The payment from Hutchinson does not resolve the entire metering issue. At the close of the meeting, the PUC entered a closed session to discuss possible litigation related to unpaid unaccounted-for gas transported on the Fairfax gas pipelines to the Heartland Corn Products ethanol plant.
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 | May 22, 2017 | Bird Netting
An older gentleman approached me at a recent Audubon chapter meeting. “Yep, I used to see plenty of them when I was a kid,” he said. “They hung around an old corn crib on our farm.”
Sadly, I have heard similar comments throughout my home state of Minnesota over the past few years. The old gentleman was correct; there used to be a lot more Red-headed Woodpeckers.
Since the 1960s, the species’ numbers have plummeted across most of its range. According to Minnesota Audubon, Red-headed Woodpeckers have declined almost 80 percent since the 1960s in Minnesota alone. They are also pretty much gone from our New England states, where, in the 1800s, a bounty was placed on the birds as they descended on, and cleaned out, farmers’ cherry orchards.
Numerous state breeding bird atlases and Christmas Bird Counts have documented the extent of the decline. The cause is a little more speculative. In the Upper Midwest, the drop correlates consistently with a loss of oak savanna habitat. Savanna is characterized by a flat, open understory interspersed with small clumps of living and dead oak trees. In Minnesota, over 98 percent of the original oak savanna is gone, mostly as a result of suburban development and intensive agriculture. Developers just love the land since it’s flat and has little water and few trees; there’s not much to do but just build homes.
For the past eight years, a small but energetic group of committed birders has been working to preserve and expand Red-headed Woodpecker habitat in the Upper Midwest. Through the group’s citizen-science research, we have learned a lot about the charismatic woodpecker and the habitat it needs to thrive.
The boldly marked bird is hard to confuse with other North American woodpeckers — even the poorly named Red-bellied Woodpecker. Both the male and female have almost identical red, black, and white plumage. The only way to distinguish gender is via DNA evidence.
Red-headed Woodpeckers are not shy, so, in one sense, they’re relatively easy research subjects, but they are cavity nesters and picky about habitat. Biologists refer to them as habitat specialists. In the Upper Midwest, two needs are essential: oak savanna with clumps of live and dead oak trees, and regular disturbance by fire.
Creating a savanna
We learned about the importance of frequent burning from biologist Rich King, the former naturalist at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, in central Wisconsin. He had success creating an oak savanna out of what was pretty much an oak forest at the refuge. First he designated and preserved small clusters of live and dead trees. Then he chopped down the remaining trees and cleared the understory. Still, only a few birds showed up to inspect the new savanna. It wasn’t until a burning regime was initiated that things changed. The results were dramatic. Within three years of regular disturbance, 70 nesting pairs were present on the newly created savanna.
Why is burning so important? Most of us associate woodpeckers with pecking trees in search of insects, larvae, or grubs. Red-headed Woodpeckers, however, spend most of the spring and early summer catching flying insects. Their close cousins, the Acorn and Lewis’s Woodpeckers, do the same. The birds usually position themselves at the end of dead limbs and then either hawk insects (fly up) or stoop (drop down) to catch insects close to the ground. The thicker the understory, the more hiding places insects have. Regular burning keeps the understory low and makes insects more accessible.
Our Red-Headed Woodpecker Recovery Project initially considered building nest boxes (as had been so successful with the bluebird), but King convinced us it was more important to preserve and expand the oak savanna. The woodpeckers will excavate their own nest cavities if habitat is present.
With the help of 25 committed volunteers, the recovery project surveyed the entire state to discover the location of remaining healthy oak savannas where groups, or what we call clusters, of Red-headed Woodpeckers were present. (We define a cluster as three or more pairs in an area a quarter mile in diameter.) Individual pairs still remain throughout the southern and central parts of the state, but the pairs are scattered and often located in isolated telephone poles and a few remaining abandoned farmsteads. Few groupings or clusters remain.
Given this situation, it made sense to locate the remaining healthy groups of birds and then work with landowners and managers to retain, and hopefully expand, that habitat. Presently, groups of Red-headed Woodpeckers are holding their own in seven areas — four on state or federally owned and managed land, one on a private nature reserve, and two on golf courses. As natural oak savanna disappears, some birds have resorted to golf courses that are nature-friendly and have stands of red, white, or bur oak.
Key to our project is the cooperation of the University of Minnesota and its field station at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, in East Bethel, just north of Minneapolis. The reserve encompasses over 5,400 acres of woods, wetlands, and oak savanna and is home to 30-40 breeding pairs of beautiful and raucous woodpeckers. Eight years of research at Cedar Creek has taught us a lot about the bird, its preferred habitat, and what we might do to expand its numbers.
So what have we learned? Red-headed Woodpeckers feed primarily on insects in the spring and early summer. The remainder of the year, however, they are opportunistic feeders — that is, not very picky. As the summer progresses, they begin to feed on fruits and berries. Then, in the fall, when the acorn crop matures, they eat both acorns and the grubs that are often inside them. Acorn crops are cyclical. In good years, some birds will cache the nuts to eat in winter. If the birds do not overwinter, we assume they move only far enough south to secure territory and food.
How and when the birds decide to overwinter, or to leave, is a mystery. In 2012, 180 mature and juvenile woodpeckers were in our 400-acre research area. The acorn crop was not good, but we were amazed at how rapidly the birds left. All but two departed in two or three days in the second week in August. How was the exit coordinated? Did the birds communicate with each other? In contrast, only a few woodpeckers flew away in August 2015, while 72 chose to overwinter. Do they not only sense the health of the acorn crop but also have clues to the severity of the winter? We are learning much, but the mysteries of overwintering still remain.
Most birders know that Red-headed Woodpeckers are cavity nesters. What may be less known is that, generally, they are high nesters. For more than 200 nests that we have documented, the average cavity height was about 26 feet, and our highest nest was 65 feet up. The loftiness helps explain why the birds fledge so many young; 75 percent of nests produce at least one fledgling. High nests discourage predation. Nesting preference is for dead trees or dead limbs in live trees. We have recorded successful cavities in the trunks of living oak and live aspen, but a survey of all nests shows the woodpeckers clearly prefer to nest in dead wood.
Egg-laying begins in early May, and the average clutch size is four to five eggs. It takes about 12-14 days for eggs to hatch and another 26 days until juveniles are old enough to fledge, for a total of about 40 days from egg-laying to fledging. On average, only two of the brood will survive to fledging. We are studying why brood success (that is, the number of fledglings per total eggs laid) is a little less than 50 percent, but our data are consistent with other studies and historical writings. It’s just another mystery waiting to be solved.
One rather nasty piece of news: Red-headed Woodpeckers are messy nesters. They do little, if anything, to keep their nests clean. Indeed, in one case, the male died while in the nest cavity, and the female laid her eggs on top of his carcass.
Research methods
Our research methods include color-banding and then observing nesting success with a narrow miniature camera mounted on an extendable pole. Careful monitoring of our work has shown little if any negative impact on the birds’ activities. The woodpeckers are not shy. In fact, once they recognize our surveyors, the birds often follow them around looking for a handout, as we stock scattered feeding stations with peanuts.
We have used both mist-nets and Potter traps (small cage-like traps) to capture birds. The first time we used a cage trap, we baited it with sunflower seeds and peanuts and inadvertently tossed in a few macadamia nuts that one of our researchers was snacking on. The first woodpecker to arrive immediately seized upon the macadamia nuts and was trapped. Since ours is a low-budget project, we quickly decided that we could not afford to use macadamia nuts regularly; the birds would have to settle for peanuts.
We have banded more than 170 Red-headed Woodpeckers with both metal numbered federal tags and colored plastic bands. We use six different colors, which afford us hundreds of possible combinations, so we can identify every bird from a distance. The first thing we learned, following our initial banding efforts, was that many of our birds return to the Cedar Creek savanna year after year. That may not sound stunning, but little, if any, published research demonstrates such site fidelity.
The first year, we banded 50 birds; none overwintered. The next spring, 17 of the banded birds returned. Recapture proved that we had banded them the previous spring. In addition, we have documented examples of nest-tree fidelity — that is, birds returning to either the same tree or one near it the following year. We are still gathering data, but we have also seen examples of year-to-year mate fidelity.
Red-headed Woodpeckers are often portrayed as territorial birds, and they are, but at Cedar Creek they also exhibit a clear colonial nature. All of the birds we have studied have been found in less than 400 of the reserve’s 5,400 acres. The reserve includes a few hundred additional acres of savanna, but they have not been burned regularly. This tells us that if adequate habitat, low understory, and food are present, the woodpeckers tend to cluster.
They do, however, remain territorial vis-à-vis their particular nest site but apparently don’t need much elbow room. We have recorded nests as close as 30 feet to each other. The birds will defend that perimeter but, other than that, seem content to have neighbors nearby. The size of the reserve’s colony varies between 30 and 40 verified nests per year.
Our research is important, but so, too, is our advocacy work across the region. We share our findings with agencies and landowners on whose land groups of birds persist. The work has been gratifying, as state and federal agencies have made commitments to expand oak savannas and to conduct regular burning of the understory. Recently, Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, northwest of Minneapolis, agreed to recreate oak savanna on two parcels of forested land. Thanks to their efforts, Red-headed Woodpeckers were verified nesting at the refuge last year for the first time in 10 years, and this year, observers documented additional birds on another savanna area and on the auto-tour road. We have also helped with burns and serve as consultants for the Belwin Conservancy, a non-profit organization that is recreating oak savanna on the nearly 1,400 acres of permanently protected land it owns in Afton and West Lakeland townships, east of Minneapolis.
While most of our efforts focus on small clusters of woodpeckers — three to six pairs — a few years ago we discovered a concentration that may be even larger than the one we are studying at Cedar Creek. The colony is in an unlikely place — Camp Ripley, one of the largest National Guard training centers in the Midwest.
The facility covers 53,000 acres near Little Falls, in the central part of the state. Within it are two large firing ranges (totaling nine square miles) that are burned every year so troops can fire armaments and fighter planes can drop bombs. This may not sound attractive to you, but it is to the woodpeckers. Because of the yearly burns and many broken trees, the birds have set up shop in the firing ranges.
Forbidden to take one step onto the grounds due to unexploded ordinances, we can only drive two roads that circumnavigate both ranges and have to locate woodpeckers using spotting scopes and binoculars. On our first visit, we saw numbers of adults and juveniles. We can only guess how many pairs are present and what it takes to raise a brood within an active firing range. Still, our cursory surveys reveal that the birds are doing quite well. As an old fishing buddy used to say, “Go figure!”
Although we are only in the fledgling stage of research and habitat-recovery work, we are optimistic that something can be done to stop the decline of the Red-headed Woodpecker and to increase its numbers. A certain type of savanna habitat is essential, along with regular burning to sustain an open understory. In recent years, as the Cedar Creek staff has expanded the burning regime, the woodpeckers have moved into the newly burned territory and begun nesting.
It may be difficult to create new groups or clusters, but if an area has a history of hosting Red-headed Woodpeckers, and a few pairs remain, it is realistic to enhance and expand that habitat through land acquisition, selective tree cutting, and regular burning regimes.
Nothing is guaranteed, but we believe the wisdom from the movie Field of Dreams holds: If you build it, they will come.
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