BEIJING: Guarding against avian flu, which has forced a mass cull of birds in China, pigeon fancier Wang Jincang paid out nearly US$400 (RM1,760) to get his 200 racing pigeons vaccinated and fortified for the onset of the spring racing season.
“I normally choose imported medicine, which is several times more expensive than some local brands,” Wang said as he lined up to enter birds for contests that begin this month.
The cost of vaccination is small change compared with how much pigeon enthusiasts pay to buy prized breeds.
An egg can cost a few hundred dollars, while the price for a full-grown bird with a coveted bloodline can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In 2013, a Chinese businessman paid €310,000 (RM1.48mil) for a Belgian-bred racing pigeon, whereas local birds can be bought for less than US$100 (RM440).
Wang does not want to say how much he has invested in his birds, though he spends almost US$1,500 (RM6,600) a month looking after their health, and describes his pastime as wagering time and money.
“Pigeon racing is essentially gambling. We are betting our time and fortune on the birds, similar to horse-betting,” Wang said.
Any form of gambling is banned in China, but pigeon races, which are flown over hundreds of kilometres, fall under the grey category of social sports.
Prize money has been rising. A club in Beijing is set to award 70 million yuan (RM44mil) in total prize money at its autumn championship. — Reuters
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.
CAIRO, March 18 — Pigeons are a delicacy in Egypt, traditionally served roasted and stuffed with fragrant rice. But for Cairo’s pigeon fanciers, their prized birds are nobody’s next meal.
Pigeon lofts, towering structures made of wood, balance atop hundreds of buildings in poorer neighbourhoods across the city. They house thousands of highly trained birds that would have otherwise found a home at a butcher’s.
Different breeds, whose speed, colouring and markings vary, can cost thousands of pounds per bird, and in Cairo the market for them is highly competitive.
“We enjoy it, we can stay up there from seven in the morning until midnight, just doing what we love,” Sayed Mohamed, a pigeon fancier, told Reuters.
Mohamed’s loft is four stories high and overlooks a 15th-century complex built by Mameluk Sultan al-Ashraf Qaitbey, a Unesco World Heritage Site. In the afternoon, he releases his pigeons — first his most prized birds, later the entire flock.
The birds understand a complex series of whistles and gestures that signal for them to fly higher or to come home. They fly far and wide, usually making their way back to the loft by nightfall. They often return with other pigeons.
“You can think of it like a shared language. They’re used to certain patterns, so if they land at another loft and notice something unfamiliar, they know it’s not home,” Mohamed said.
In the evening, Mohamed and other fanciers gather around local coffee shops to brag about stealing one other’s birds, each taking pride in the day’s catch.
Mohamed first picked up the hobby in his childhood, going with his uncle to the family pigeon loft and feeding the birds.
“I started doing this out of love … but I later learned that you also have to use it to make profit, you can’t just keep buying more pigeons,” Mohamed told Reuters.
Fanciers carefully breed their birds and often sell young pigeons to traders on a lucrative market.
“When [my brother and I] moved out, we got jobs and we bought houses and the first thing we did, even before getting married, was that we built our loft,” he said. “It makes us feel alive.” — Reuters
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.
A Nottinghamshire bar has been taken to court after failing to clean up a yard found full of dead birds and droppings.
Mansfield business Pacha Lounge Ltd – which claims to provide “a warm, atmospheric destination for the discerning patron” offering cocktails and sharing platters – has been ordered to pay more than £6,000 for a health and safety offence.
At Mansfield Magistrates’ Court on March 2, the company admitted failing to comply with a council order to clean up its side yard served under the Health and Safety At Work etc Act 1974.
It was fined £5,000 by the court on March 8 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £170 plus costs of £1,062. The magistrates also ordered Pacha Lounge Ltd to complete the work required by the Improvement Notice by April 6.
Mansfield District Council took legal action after the company failed to comply with an order requiring the Market Place business to clean its side yard and remove both live and dead pigeons in order to reduce the risk of infection to employees and anyone else who entered the yard.
The court was told council environmental health officers visited Pacha Lounge after receiving a complaint and found damaged bird proofing at the side of the premises, dead pigeons on the yard floor and large amounts of droppings on the floor as well as on items stored there.
Xhetan Bushi, a director of the company, was advised work was required to improve the yard but this was not carried out within a reasonable time so the council then issued an Improvement Notice – but after the company failed to act the council prosecuted.
Portfolio holder for public protection Councillor Mick Barton, speaking after the case, said: “Companies do have a responsibility for health and safety, and the council will act, where necessary, to ensure that companies meet that obligation.”
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.
ISLAMABAD: Islamabad has been declared a no-fly zone for kites, drone cameras, and pet pigeons as part of security measures for Pakistan Day parade on March 23.
The Islamabad police under the direction of top security forces of the country will be ensuring that the no-fly ban remains intact during the event being held at a time when anti-terror operations are going on across the country.
Over 2,500 personnel of Islamabad police will perform security duties for the parade.
The Capital Territory Police (CTP) have devised an elaborate security plan for the big day. The operations head of CTP, SSP Sajid Kiani held a briefing of SP (City) Zubair Ahmed Sheikh, SP (Rural) Syed Tanveer Mustafa, all SDPOs and SHOs and explained the security detail.
The SSP directed for effective checking and high alert security at all routes leading towards the parade ground.
SSP Kiani has divided the district into four sectors each to be monitored by an officer of SP rank. Similarly, an officer of DSP rank will be deputed in each sub-sector.
Joint pickets have been erected at various points while squads of Eagle, Falcon, Charlie, Rapid Response Force and mobiles are to keep a check on suspicious vehicles and people. Policemen will be deployed at roof tops while Reserve Force will remain on alert to tackle any untoward situation.
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.
A pair of hapless pigeons had to be rescued by firefighters – after they were seen dangling from the top of one of Cardiff’s tallest hotels.
The two birds were spotted hanging precariously by their feet after getting tangled in netting on the fifth floor of the Hilton Hotel in the city centre.
RSPCA Cymru were called to the scene, along with support crews from South Wales Fire and Rescue Service .
With support from hotel staff firefighters were eventually able to free both birds from the netting and release them back into the wild.
One pigeon was returned to the wild immediately while the other was released following a short spell in veterinary care.
RSPCA inspector Sophie Daniels said: “Fortunately the pigeons were rescued and are now safe and well back in the wild.
“We’re grateful to the firefighters from South Wales Fire and Rescue Service for their support in completing this rescue, which shows what we can achieve working together to protect local animals.
She added: “Incidents like this act as an important reminder that external netting can act as an obstacle to wild birds and it’s great that the hotel will be monitoring this closely to help protect the nation’s wildlife.”
Marie Fagan, general manager of the Hilton Cardiff, said: “It is situations like these which show how vital the RSPCA’s work is to protecting our animals and wildlife.
“We worked closely with both the RSPCA and fire and rescue services to help them release the pigeons and we would like to thank them for their efforts.
“We are thrilled that both pigeons were safely rescued.”
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.
Tourists sailing down the highways toward Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1955 would have been filled with gleeful anticipation. Numerous resorts and roadside offerings were on offer to sate their recreational lust: They could drop into the Arkansas Alligator Farm and mingle with the toothsome reptiles, ooh and awe at celebrity likenesses at the Josephine Tussaud Wax Museum, or delight in the animated miniatures of Tiny Town. Or they could go to the newly opened I.Q. Zoo and watch Casey the chicken play baseball, a duck play the drums, and a rabbit dunk a basketball, to name just a few oddities.
I.Q. Zoo was the brainchild of a psychologist couple, Marian and Keller Breland, who not too long before had been working alongside the famous psychologist B.F. Skinner to train pigeons to pilot the first “smart bombs” for the United States government.
Born in 1920 in Minnesota, Marian Kruse was whip-smart, with dark hair and a gentle smile. Her parents affectionately called her “Mouse,” a nickname that stuck for life. Young Marian loved Black Beauty and begged her dad to move to a farm.
“As a child, I was terrifically interested in animals,” Marian told an interviewer in 2000*. “I was also, although I didn’t know it at the time, interested in the humane treatment of animals.”
After graduating high school as valedictorian, Marian landed a spot in a University of Minnesota psychology class taught by Skinner, the influential psychologist who earned fame (and a long teaching post at Harvard) for his theories, notably “operant conditioning,” the idea that free will is an illusion and behavior is dictated by the negative and positive results it produces. Marian became a favorite student of his; she proofed Skinner’s writings, and even babysat his kids.
Marian was zipping to the health center for treatment from a lab rat bite when she collided with fellow psychology student Keller Breland. Within a year she would graduate summa cum laude and marry Keller. The Brelands were both trusted assistants and graduate students of Skinner’s when he recruited them in 1942 to work on a top-secret government assignment: Project Pelican.
Project Pelican didn’t involve pelicans, but pigeons, a bird Skinner was fond of using in his research. Skinner believed that by following the principles of operant conditioning he could teach them to pilot bombs on the World War II battlefield. The process began with three pigeons encased in the nose-cone of a bomb.
“They had been taught to peck at a target shown on a ground-glass screen in exchange for food,” wrote John N. Marr in his essay Marian Breland Bailey: The Mouse Who Reinforced. “If the bomb deviated from the target, the pigeon’s’ pecks at the screen would transmit signals to correct the bomb’s heading.”
In 1943, Skinner went to Washington to show off his deadly flock.
“They opened the pigeon chamber and saw three pigeons pecking away,” said Marian. “This caused them several minutes of disbelief, I’d say.”
The pigeons were never deployed. “A variety of reasons had been given,” wrote Marr. “but none related to the birds’ behavior.”
Despite the fate of Project Pelican, a light had been flipped on in the minds of Marian and Keller. If they could train a pigeon to guide a bomb, they reasoned, they could probably train other animals to do extraordinary things. And if they could do that, there was probably money to be made.
They started training animals at their home, and then on a small farm in Minnesota, applying ideas gathered from studying with Skinner. The common practice in animal training was to intimidate and dominate animals; dogs and other creatures were punished for not doing what their owners wanted through physical and verbal reprimands. The Kellers’ took a much gentler approach: they ignored behavior they didn’t want and rewarded behavior they did, typically with food.
This worked remarkably well. Eventually, they started training animals on behalf of General Mills, whose labs they had used when training their bomb birds. Enter the crowd-pleasing chicken: The Brelands trained hens to perform stunts that could be used to promote chicken feed all over the country. Breland chickens played pianos and “asked” for food by pushing a button. They trained a cow to “take quizzes” by pressing light-up “yes” and “no” targets, they trained a pig named Priscilla to knock over a stack of dishes. Word of their incredible success spread and they began training animals for television and film, including Buck the Bunny, a rabbit who starred in commercials for Coast Federal Savings, picking up coins in his mouth and dropping them into a bank.
In 1955, they opened I.Q. Zoo and travelers far and wide were introduced to the wonders of the Breland menagerie. “There is no punishment involved in the training at all,” read an ad for the zoo. “Once they are trained, they will not forget, and are happy and eager to perform.” Visitors, and the media, were enchanted.
“At a little farm near Hot Springs, Ark., I saw a chicken do arithmetic problems and a rooster knock out a tune on a piano. I played a pinball game against a turkey, and invariably lost. I watched a hamster imitate Tarzan on a trapeze, a rabbit play baseball and a dozen chickens swing baseball bats,” reported a Popular Mechanicswriter in 1953.
As their success grew, so did the pool of animals they trained. They taught a reindeer to operate a printing press, they trained parrots to balance on soccer balls and rollerskate, goats to push baby carriages, and a cow to play the harmonica. They trained cats, raccoons, squirrels and even dolphins. Chickens remained a perennial favorite, they “did math”, walked on tightropes and played tic tac toe with visitors. Under the banner of their business, Animal Behavior Enterprises (ABE), they also sold coin-operated displays that housed trained chickens, and these were scattered throughout the country.
Such a contraption in Manhattan’s Chinatown captivated New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin, who wrote an ode to the chicken in 1999. “When I tell the chicken story,” he writes, “I always point out that nearly all the people I take down there have precisely the same response to the prospect of playing ticktacktoe with a chicken. After looking the situation over, they say, “The chicken gets to go first!””
Ten years after the opening of I.Q. Zoo, the Brelands had grown supremely confident in their unusual skills.
“I wouldn’t hesitate to sign a contract today to produce a thousand white rats to play tiddly winks,” Keller told the Associated Press in 1962. He would never have the opportunity to accept this challenge before his death, three years later in 1965.
Bereft, Marian also needed help running ABE and the I.Q. Zoo. Help manifested in the form of Bob Bailey, a man who had been training dolphins on behalf of the Navy.
As the Breland’s star was ascending, Bailey was working as a researcher at UCLA’s medical school. One day he spied an ad; the Navy needed a director to head up their new dolphin training program.
“How I ever got the job to this day I do not know,” said Bailey in a 2016 talk. “I had never trained a dolphin in my entire life!”
At a desert base in California, Bailey trained dolphins to detect mines and carry messages and equipment. Among the consultants he called in to help him with the task were the Brelands. And when he grew frustrated with the Navy’s obsession with learning how to communicate with dolphins, he accepted a job at ABE in 1965. After Keller died, Bob took on many of his responsibilities. And Marian and Bob continued to work on behalf of the government.
In addition to the I.Q. Zoo, Bailey told Smithsonian magazine, the team had a special set-up for training animals run covert missions.
“We had a 270-acre farm,” he said. “We built towns. Like a movie set, there’d be only fronts.”
Marian and Bob trained boobies to fly through mazes, pigeons to thwart ambushes, ravens to plant bugs, dogs to locate mines, and cats outfitted with recording equipment to surveil people.
The extent to which these animals were actually used is obscured behind government secrecy, but Bailey told Smithsonian that “We got the ravens into places. We got the cats into places.”
Marian and Bob married in 1976 and ran the I.Q. Zoo and ABE until 1990. Marian passed away in 2001; Bob continues to teach and consult on animal training. The Brelands’ and Bailey’s helped popularize the notion of training through positive reinforcement, not yelling and hitting. Among the other methods they brought to the mainstream was the use of the clicker, a much beloved tool for dog trainers today, including those who work in dog cognition labs.
In his love letter to the Chinatown chicken, Trillen described a 1999 rendezvous with Marian and Bob in California. Both “showed up in matching Hawaiian shirts, as if to underline their status as retired”. But they were nominally retired, because they had just arrived from teaching a class to guide-dog trainers in the methods of operant conditioning. And behind their vehicle they hauled a trailer full of their training tool of choice—chickens.
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.
You can stand in the 1800 block of Marshall St. in South Baltimore, look north and see the two Baltimores we love. On the left there’s a new and cool industrial-chic apartment building called 2 East Wells. On the right there are well-kept rowhouses and a line of old alley garages with wooden doors and hanging flower pots.
Marshall Street at Wells Street, on the southern edge of South Baltimore, is a place where, you might say, two cities meet: Millennials on one side, long-timers on the other. You can stand right there, in Marshall Street, and see the two things Baltimore needs: fresh new blood and sturdy old bones; urban renewal alongside a traditional neighborhood. In balance, it’s all good.
There are bound to be conflicts, though, and so we have one today, and it involves pigeons. An unfortunate dispute has developed between the owner of 2 East Wells and a couple of local fellows who enjoy pigeons and seeing them fed.
It wasn’t until after 2 East Wells opened, in 2015, that anyone complained. The apartment building boasts “spectacular rooftop decks as well as apartment terraces.” The place has a rooftop fitness center, too. None of that sounds compatible with pigeons.
So now the Owings Mills company that owns 2 East Wells blames the men for encouraging hundreds of pigeons to gather near the apartment building. With pigeons come pigeon droppings, and the aerial bombardments have made it difficult for the concern to rent some of its apartments. So says the complaint filed by Wells CRP Building LLC against Charles “Rudy” Schreiner and Carl Smith.
“The sheer volume of pigeons attracted by Mr. Smith’s feeding activities creates substantial health risks and visual blight insofar as the pigeons leave and continue to leave copious amounts of droppings on the balconies,” the complaint alleges, adding that “prospective tenants have refused to lease the plaintiff’s apartments facing Marshall Street because of the copious pigeon dropping issue.”
The company says it has had to pay for the cleaning and painting of 24 balconies. (I also noticed plastic owl decoys, the kind intended to ward off pigeons, on five of the balconies yesterday.) Wells has asked the Baltimore Circuit Court to enjoin Schreiner and Smith from feeding the birds and for $75,000 in damages to the building.
Schreiner, a 59-year-old retired longshoreman, has owned the row of garages along Marshall Street for 25 years, and Smith, 63, a semi-retired contractor, has rented one of them for 15. Smith often parks his pickup truck in a vacant lot next to the garage and works inside. He’s been feeding pigeons for years.
“Sometimes,” says Smith, “the pigeons come to me and they’ll have wire on their feet, or fishing line, and I’ll remove it for them.” One of the pigeons had a mangled toe, requiring amputation; Smith conducted the minor surgery and treated the toe with Neosporin. As far as he knows, the bird survived.
“Carl is the pigeon whisperer,” says Jim Pumphrey, who lives nearby, on Light Street.
Pigeons, wild and domesticated, are part of city life, and in South Baltimore there is a long history of residents keeping pigeons, training them and racing them over long distances. The South Baltimore Pigeon Fanciers Social Club has been around for at least 50 years.
“These pigeons here now are descendants of the pigeons that people used to keep in coops up and down Marshall Street,” says Pumphrey, a 59-year-old longshoreman who has lived in South Baltimore all his life.
A cease-and-desist letter from Kimberly Manuelides, an attorney representing the owner of 2 East Wells, arrived at Smith’s apartment in South Baltimore last June. It blamed him for a nuisance by feeding and attracting pigeons to Marshall Street. The letter warned him of legal action if he did not stop.
Now legal action has come against both Schreiner and Smith, and they have retained Baltimore attorneys Barry Glazer and Jonathan Saltzman. They’ve challenged the claims against their clients, saying the owner of 2 East Wells had other remedies, such as registering a complaint with health authorities, before filing suit. They seek $75,000 from Wells LLC in a counter-suit that claims Schreiner and Smith have been subjected to an “improper, frivolous and baseless” legal action. They called the lawsuit “malicious,” too.
Too bad, all of it: litigation from the push-and-shove of the new Baltimore meeting the old one.
Smith still feeds the pigeons, but he does so now behind Schreiner’s garage, when no one’s looking. “I can’t help myself,” he says. And he’s not the only pigeon feeder in the neighborhood, he says. Four or five neighbors also put out food for the birds.
Which raises, I should think, a significant challenge for plaintiff: Tracing excrement from the pigeons Carl Smith feeds to the balconies on 2 East Wells. As Smith says, “I have no control over where the pigeons poop.”
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.
The passenger pigeon was once the most abundant bird in North America, so numerous that they “darkened the sun with their flights.” In 1915, the passenger pigeon officially became extinct as the last bird died in Chicago. How could this have happened? In the early 19th century, massive deforestation and overhunting led to the passenger pigeon’s ultimate demise. Efforts to conserve the species were too little and too late. Read more about it!
Important Dates:
November 28, 1889: Passenger pigeons, once populous, have now become a “rarity”; however, they are still actively hunted.
May 4, 1908: An article calls for the protection of passenger pigeons from overhunting, listing facts about the species.
December 8, 1910: There is only one passenger pigeon left, spending its days in the Zoological garden in Cincinnati.
April 15, 1911: An article documents the disappearance of the passenger pigeons, and how there is a $400 cash reward for anyone who finds the nest of a passenger pigeon.
February 1913: The last passenger pigeon in the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens falls ill.
May 1915: The last passenger pigeon dies in Chicago at the age of twenty-seven years.
June 1915: There is an unfounded rumor that the US Department of Agriculture is offering a $10,000 reward for the person who finds a passenger pigeon nest.
June 22, 1916: An article claims that the passenger pigeon is not extinct, and that the bird will once again become numerous.
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.
After a profitable time of things last weekend, our Catching Pigeons column returns with the word from the training centres.
Noel Fehily forsakes the delights of Newbury and Donny on Saturday for a flight North to Kelso and an interesting tilt at the featured totescoop6 Premier Novices’ Hurdle with the highly-rated Chalonnial.
A winner on his hurdling debut at Bangor, he was asked a very stiff task by Harry Fry in the Grade One Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown on his only subsequent start. Although no match for the impressive winner, he ran a sound race to finish a respectable third, and is expected to be even more effective after enjoying a Winter break.
This is a long haul from his trainer’s base in the dark depths of Dorset, but he looks the sort to improve, and can take revenge on the Sandown runner-up Capitaine, who was well beaten a week ago and is now 3lb worse off.
Tom Symonds can land the most important race of his young career with Hollywoodien in the William Hill High Five Supporting Greatwood Gold Cup at Newbury.
The former Nicky Henderson assistant has not enjoyed the best of luck since he first took out a licence, but this lightly raced seven-year-old has always looked capable of winning a valuable event, and there has been plenty to like about the last two of his three outings this term.
Having come home a decisive five lengths clear of the useful Astracad at Wetherby on Boxing Day, he finished a very sound third behind Garde La Victoire in a good class event at Sandown. The two miles looked a tad on the sharp side that day and he should appreciate a return to this longer trip.
Hello George has not been the easiest horse to train over the past couple of seasons, but he still retains ability and should go well for Philip Hobbs in the Seniors Handicap Hurdle. He shaped well on his comeback at Exeter, and has been given a chance by the handicapper in an interesting race.
Bloody Mary has yet to see action this term, but the fact she is a fresh horse should play to her advantage in the William Hill “High 5” Supporting Greatwood Handicap Hurdle.
A smart mare in her native France, she did well in a light campaign for Nicky Henderson last season, ending with an excellent third to the very high class Limini in the Mares Novices Hurdle at the Festival. She will come on for this run, but has been working nicely and will give her mail counterparts plenty to think about.
Kim Bailey’s Harry Topper is a class performer of old and he can notch his first win since a lengthy lay-off Betway Supporting Greatwood Veterans Handicap Chase.
A former winner of both the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby and the Denman on this course, his training problems have meant he has barely completed the course let alone win since that 25-length thrashing of Al Ferof here just over three years ago.
However, he showed distinct signs that a return to something like his old form was possible with an eye-catching effort at Exeter last time, and he looks to have found a good opportunity to land what would be a popular success.
Sgroppino is well regarded by the Hobbs’ camp and should step up on his promising third at Newton Abbot in the Moore Of Devizes Ltd Supporting Greatwood Open National Hunt Flat Race. The form of that debut effort in Devon looks solid.
The Last Samuri, another top class Bailey-trained fencer won the BetBright Grimthorpe Handicap Chase 12 months ago on his way to a brilliant second in the Grand National, and he should go close again to landing the perfect warm up success for Aintree, despite his inevitable lumpy rise in his ratings.
However, he may just find the concession of 23lb to old rival Sego Success just beyond him. Although disappointing at Warwick last time, Sego loves this course and is on great terms with himself at the moment. He is also fitted with a visor for the first time and has a 20lb pull with The Last Samuri from last year.
The Organist has proved very disappointing since her switch to fences at the start of the season and it is no surprise to see her revert to the smaller obstacles in the BetBright Casino Handicap Hurdle.
She won three of her five starts for the Million In Mind syndicate before being sold to JP McManus, and won the Listed event for mares on this corresponding day 12 months ago. If she can repeat that form, another big run looks assured.
Miss Mirabeau can strike for Sir Mark Prescott – who celebrated a birthday this week – in the Betway Maiden Stakes at Lingfield.
By Oasis Dream out of the Listed winner Miss Corniche, she did not exactly tackle the best sprint maiden the country can offer on her debut over the minimum trip here two weeks ago, but ran a race full of promise nonetheless and gave every indication she will both learn from the outing and appreciate the step up in trip.
Earlier on the same card Red Flute looks worth an each-way interest in the opening Betway Sprint Handicap.
He’s one of two runners in the race for Denis Quinn and although not exactly firing on all cylinders so far in 2017, the chestnut has been eased in the weights and has some useful course form at this kind of level last summer.
My Target looks worth following until no longer able to contest handicaps and he can bring up the four-timer in the Sunbets.co.uk Handicap.
It’s a warm enough race and Michael Wigham also sends out the returning Mansfield on his first run for 458 days under Josephine Gordon, while Third Time Lucky and Lunar Deity shouldn’t be too far away, but My Target holds most of these on recent form and a mark of 102 shouldn’t be beyond the classy son of Cape Cross.
The best bet at Newcastle comes in the opening race as Marzouq bids to regain the winning thread in the 32Red.com Handicap.
Jeremy Noseda was full of emotion after Atalante won at Chelmsford on Thursday evening in the name of Walter Swinburn as a bit of a farewell to the great man and Marzouq has been going nicely alongside that one in his recent homework.
Noseda sends Marzouq north on a solo raid and it’s encouraging to see John Egan back in the saddle after he rode him to win his maiden at Chelmsford back in September. Last month’s third at Kempton was needed and it’s hoped the step up to a mile can bring about further improvement in the son of Spring At Last.
Veena is a thriving filly right now and is well worth keeping on side in the £10 Free Bet At 32Red.com Fillies’ Handicap.
He is David Simcock’s only runner on the Saturday card but he’s sent a few up to Newcastle in what has been a busy week for the track and the yard’s runners have not been performing badly.
The one to look out for early next week is Perfect Moment, who is going to take plenty of beating if taking up her engagement in Lingfield’s Free Horse Racing Tips At Tipsterreviews.co.uk Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race.
She was heavily punted first time out but just ran out of gas at Wetherby after racing up with the pace. She’s pleased Don Cantillon in her work since and the yard are hopeful the Milan filly can swiftly recoup those losses.
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.
From the cannabis party to candidates dressed as naked cowboys on election posters, election time in Denmark is always a source of much amusement and endless debate for the locals.
But to many outsiders, it’s a time of trivialities and of little consequence. Sure, it’s impossible to miss the tsunami of election posters going up all over the country, and who doesn’t crack a smile at a naked sheriff, but there is little effort to include the growing number of internationals living and working in Denmark.
But here ye, here ye! All that changes now. It’s time for the European voice to make itself heard. With the local elections swiftly approaching later this year, Keith Gray – a publisher by day and political petitioner by night – has stepped into the breach.
European voices
A native of the Shetland Islands, Gray will be on the ballot as a candidate for Socialdemokratiet on election night on November 21, and having lived in Denmark for more than a decade, Gray is acutely aware that the thousands of non-Danish EU citizens calling Copenhagen their home are yearning for representation.
“I could see there was a narrative in Denmark as a whole that people from the EU were being portrayed as positive stories – particularly the western Europeans. They came and got jobs, but that wasn’t my experience.”
“I met unemployed Europeans and unemployed Nordic citizens, people with problems who needed help. We are as diverse as the Danish population and nobody is representing US at the city municipality.”
The issue was compounded by the Brexit vote last summer as 3,500 British citizens, according to Gray, who face losing the right to live in Copenhagen.
Attacking apathy
But he’ll have his work cut our for him, because despite local elections being the only time non-Danes can vote in Denmark, aside from EU elections, most EU citizens don’t bother voting.
During the last local elections in 2013, only around 30 percent of EU citizens in Copenhagen voted, compared to about 70 percent of Danes. Gray aims to galvanise the European voters, and that’s no easy feat, considering many are only in Denmark temporarily.
But Gray hopes to convince people that voting is essential as the municipal decisions impact daily lives – from kids in daycare and the rubbish being emptied to keeping the public transport running smoothly.
“They might not be that interested in long-term projects if they know they’ll be leaving in two to three years, but you never know what the future will bring,” said Gray.
“Just look at me. I’ve ended up staying despite not thinking I would. I came originally because there was no job for me in the UK, and I’ve ended up staying for ten years.”
The magic 800
Gray believes he’ll need to reach 800 personal votes to make it in. That may prove more difficult than it sounds, given the non-Danes’ lack of
participation.
The good news for Gray is that there are more and more internationals in the country. Recent figures revealed that a record 336,840 international people worked in Denmark in 2016 – a 45 percent increase from 2008.
“EU citizens don’t vote in local elections even though it’s the only time we can vote. EU and council elections are the only time we can decide anything. We’ve never fielded a EU candidate before, so we don’t know what’s going to happen. I need to get the message out
there.”
According to figures from Danmarks Statistik, there are some 44,000 EU citizens living in Copenhagen Municipality – so that’s not including Frederiksberg, Gentofte etc – out of a total of 600,000 people in Copenhagen.
Kicking up local dust
But Gray is more than a one-trick Shetland pony bent on bucking for EU issues. In fact he’s on the gallop for plenty of other more local-orientated issues.
He is a keen supporter of reducing pollution in the city and facilitating that by improving public transport and working to ensure that the municipality uses electric cars and buses to lead the way.
Another issue that lies close to Gray’s heart are the continuous cuts in municipal funding for public libraries.
“It’s fundamental from an education perspective. When I came here as a new immigrant and couldn’t speak Danish, it was in the libraries that I borrowed books in Danish, read Danish newspapers, applied for jobs and learned the language. So it’s also essential to integration.”
Another key issue is ensuring that Copenhagen remains a city that everyone can afford to live in. Figures from 2013 showed that the number of city dwellers in the capital who earn over 400,000 kroner a year has almost tripled from 7 percent in 2000 to 20 percent in 2011.
Political animal
Gray first got involved in politics as a member of the Labour Party in the UK at the age of 17, and he kept that drive going when he settled in Copenhagen all those years ago.
When the Østerbro chapter of the Socialdemokratiet party were looking to field seven candidates ahead of the 2017 local elections, Gray found himself standing up to be counted.
“They wanted our list to represent Copenhagen, so there should be 50 percent women and people of non-Western background, and while no-one said anything about European immigrants, the first thing I thought at the time was that Copenhagen had never had an EU immigrant on the municipality,” he said.
You won’t be seeing any posters of Gray dressed up as a naked cowboy as the election campaign gathers momentum this autumn, but there’s a good chance you’ll run into him around town as he goes door to door trying to get the word out.
Internationals are an integral part of this city and they have a voice, he will say. Now is the time to put it to good use.
“European citizens are everywhere: from the local baker and the municipal worker to the publisher in Holte,” said Gray.
“Some 7-8 percent of our neighbours have a European background. I don’t want them to feel like second-class citizens.”
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.
Flying rats spreading filth and disease or just wild birds as deserving of our concern as any others?
Views about pigeons have always been divided, but does anyone really understand the law when it comes to controlling them?
This week I witnessed an old fellow brazenly flouting the law. Even after I pointed out what he was doing he simply ignored me and carried on.
Openly feeding pigeons on the street from two huge bags of grain, he refused point-blank to accept what he was doing was wrong.
The trouble is, when I pointed out his actions to a passing police officer he simply advised me to mind my own business and not to get involved.
If we’re not prepared to enforce our laws you have to ask what is the point in having them?
Surely controlling pigeons benefits everyone and by not taking action against these anti-social, irresponsible people who feed these birds we are condoning their actions, justifying what they are doing and encouraging the spread of disease.
Pigeons are recognised as pests right across the country, but the UK doesn’t have any law forbidding the feeding of wild birds. Instead, we rely upon a hotchpotch of bylaws drawn up and overseen by borough councils which adopt wildly different approaches to the issue.
Some don’t even recognise the problem while others not only make it clear it is illegal to feed them but actually offer advice on how to kill them as humanely as possible.
I think it is high time all councils in our area published their policy and their bylaws very clearly on their websites so everyone knows where they stand.
A lonely woman who said she fed pigeons in her garden because they were the only company she could get was fined £2,300 after her neighbours complained and she refused to stop feeding them.
Meanwhile, Beryl Withers, 81, who’d just finished a sandwich, emptied out the remaining crumbs for the birds. Council wardens told her she was breaking the law and could face a £2,000 fine – in the end she had to pay £50.
So, in theory anyone who leave titbits out on a bird table could end up being fined.
All this while, the guy I saw in the town centre goes on unquestioned.
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.
A pigeon problem in Ventnor could soon be resolved thanks to one unlikely deterrent.
Ventnor Town Council has employed Rentokil Pest Control to bring in a Harris Hawk to soar through the skies of the town to scare off the birds.
In recent weeks, the town has seen an influx of the pigeons, so the hawk “Sharka”, has been brought in to help.
Layla Bennett, from Rentokil Pest Control, said:
“There are a number of different methods that can be used for pigeon control, some of those are lethal, the council would prefer to stay away from lethal methods if possible. We’re looking at, first of all, to use hawks to disturb the pigeons, instead of killing. There’s also methods that involve netting or spiking but these can be quite unsightly.
“Shaka is a male Harris Hawk and he will be literally present in the area, flying around under the control of his falconer and that will deter the pigeons wishing to live here. We are yet to create the bird’s management plan but I expect he will be required between once or twice a week.”
For residents who may be worried about red squirrels in the area, Layla has this message:
“Your red squirrels are exceptionally safe. Our hawks are what we call ‘social imprints’, which are used to being hand-fed by people. The hawk will return to its falconer for a gift of food. He’s not a hunting birds he won’t catch any red squirrels. I’m a huge admirer of red squirrels myself.”
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.
PESHAWAR: Pigeon lovers here on Sunday held race of their pet birds by releasing the specially trained racing pigeons from Jehlum district to cover a distance of around 295 kilometres for returning home in Peshawar.
“The wining pigeon covered the specified distance in three hours and fifteen minutes and reached to Aswa Baba area on Warask road near Chaghar Matti,” informed Jan Muhammad, a pigeon lover and organiser of the event.
Talking to APP, Jan Muhammad said his pigeon won the competition and he has been awarded with a trophy.
He said in all a total of nine pigeon lovers participated in the competition by releasing their birds in Jehlum.
Jan said he released his 13 pigeons in the race and all returned to home while the winning bird reached in three hours and 15 minutes.
He also informed that another race was also held in Gujar Khan in Rawalpindi to Peshawar which was won by the pet of Shamshad Khan of Hassan Gharhi area.
In that race, my pigeon reached a minute late, Jan informed.
Jan said in the pigeon race a special breed of pigeon, known in local language as Qasid (messenger) Racing Homer, participates.
The pigeons of other breeds cannot travel such a long distance and only the Qasid breed has the ability to reach home by travelling hundreds of kilometers distance, he explained.
Competing pigeons were especially trained by the owners by releasing them frequently from the distance starting from 10 kilometer to hundred of kilometres, Jan added.
He said in the beginning, the pigeon was released by the owner from Pabbi, which is around 13 kilometres from Peshawar, and later the distance was increased with the passage of time.
Usually, a pigeon released from Faisalabad reaches Peshawar in six to eight hours. The time it takes to cover the specified distance is measured and the bird speed of flying is calculated and compared with all of the other pigeons in the race to determine which bird returned the earliest.
The winner of a pigeon race is the bird with the highest velocity, he reiterated.
In response to a question as how it is judged that which bird reach at which time, Jan said every pigeon carries a code number tied in his leg and as the bird reach home, the owner inform the organiser and his claim is ascertained by tallying the code.
Jan said objective of holding pigeon race is to encourage bird lovers who have preserved this past practice, dating back to 220 AD or possibly earlier.
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.
IT is not often one takes notice of a pigeon, but with the help of kindhearted Karyn Lund and a small push from social media, a six-week old racing pigeon was returned to its owner.
Something happened during one of its first flights, forcing it to land. With his luck he landed in food heaven, the Campus Cafe at Curro HCA High School. “Being a huge animal lover, cruelty-free living is my family’s thing, I Googled what the right thing to do was. Apparently homing pigeons like to hang out for a few days and then sometimes make their way home,” said Karyn Lund, the tuckshop owner.
The pigeon, nicknamed Mr Snax due to his love for popcorn and fries, found that Karyn’s handbag was the perfect place to nest. “Without wanting to be too invasive I eventually coaxed him into allowing me to pick him up. I retrieved the number off of the ring on his foot and asked for help on Upper Highway Info. Within minutes I had located his dad, Bruce Symons, and he is happy and back home with his pigeon friends,” said Karyn.
The Highway Mail caught up with Bruce to find out more about the sport of pigeon racing. The 40-year-old father of two is a member of the Hillcrest Pigeon racing Club which has 12 members, who are better known as pigeon fanciers. “The sport has been going on for hundreds of years and the local club has been running since 1976. In the old days it was called the poor man’s horse racing, It isn’t so much like that anymore as it definitely isn’t a cheap sport now,” he laughed.
What inspired you to get into pigeon racing?
When I was a child I had pigeons and it was a passion. I started racing in 2002 and there’s a drive to get better and better.
How do you train a pigeon?
It starts at home. When April arrives we chase the pigeons out the loft and do that for a couple of days. When they fly away from home we call it ranging. They then get their bearings right. The training consists of a 30km trip, then 50km, 90km. 120km and then 150km until we have the long training toss, sometimes ranging up to 800km. The birds fly back home from a certain point.
What is the worst part of pigeon racing?
Breeding the babies and the natural predators catch them. It is heartbreaking when you lose them. We lose about 40 per cent of our pigeons to wildlife.
What is the most rewarding part of racing for you?
When the pigeons come home. When that pigeon comes back, he has not only come back home but he has come back for you. I get goosebumps every time.
What three words would you use to describe the sport?
Rewarding. Exciting. Humbling.
Has a pigeon never returned before?
It does happen where a pigeon doesn’t come back. They could have been caught or killed and some of them just decide they don’t want to race anymore and become commons, a feral pigeon or rats of the sky.
What is the average time you need to train a pigeon?
To train a pigeon to fitness you only need six weeks.
Which breed of pigeon works best in the races?
The pacific racing pigeon as they have more muscle and better brain capacity.
How many pigeons do you currently own?
I have 130 babies and about 50 old birds.
Describe your typical competition day:
I am generally pacing up and down. Get a bottle of wine from my wife and we put on a potjie or braai.
Complete this sentence: Pigeons are… “the athletes of the sky.”
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.
It’s a last opportunity to qualify for the Pertemps Final at Haydock on Saturday but there may be an unusual element to this particular Qualifier with virtually none of the field likely to actually secure a run at the Festival unless they can up their ratings by a couple of pounds with a big run.
Mydor just about falls into category, having been handed a British mark of 133, whereas 135 has been the bottom-rating for the Final for the last three years. However, the Irish pigeon is adamant that Tony Martin’s runner he can overcome that problem by scoring here under Brian Hughes.
He hasn’t always been the most consistent performer, but cheekpieces have improved his application of late and he ran particularly well at Leopardstown on his latest start.
Warrantor is a young stayer who is still to produce his best over fences and should reward an each-way interest in the Betfred Grand National Trial at Haydock on Saturday.
Warren Greatrex has always held a candle for the eight year old despite the gelding’s somewhat patchy career so far over the larger obstacles. However, his two performances this season, a close second in a valuable handicap at the Open meeting at Cheltenham in November, and a respectable fifth on the same course on New Year’s Day suggest he is progressing nicely.
His stable are now in much better form than at any stage of the season, and he is likely to be well at home on what is likely to be dead tacky ground.
Fletchers Flyer has had his problems this winter, but he deserves his place in the line-up for the Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase at Ascot and should prove hard to beat. Harry Fry has some attractive targets for this highly-talented gelding upcoming, and he showed he can hold his own against top company when winning a handicap at the Punchestown Festival as a very raw novice.
The fact that the victory came during the embryonic stages of this campaign means he still qualifies for a race like this, and, not for the first time, this looks a relatively weak race for Grade Two level.
Beyond Conceit can retain his 100 per cent record over hurdles in the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle on the same card. A smart performer on the Flat for Andrew Balding, he made light work of the opposition on his hurdling bow at Newbury four and a half weeks ago. Nicky Henderson is looking at one of the novice events at the Festival for the eight year old in just over three weeks’ time, and has given him a nice break since the win to try and ensure he is at his most potent for this very important warm-up race.
Divine Spear, a stablemate of Beyond Conceit, is improving with racing and he is fancied to add to his Fontwell win over Christmas in the Les Ambassadeurs Casino Handicap Hurdle. He still showed signs of inexperience when a staying-on third at Cheltenham last time, and should give promising claimer Ned Curtis another great ride in this open-looking race.
At Wincanton, Ben Pauling’s Whin Park was not unfancied when down the field in a bumper at Warwick on his debut and he should go well at a decent price in what looks a weak race for the Betway National Hunt Novices’ Hurdle.
There are two all-weather cards in Britain on Saturday and both could prove unusually informative as we move into a stage of the year when the major Flat stables are getting ready to fire their guns again.
Flight Of Fantasy was unlucky to get collared at Kempton last time, having seemed as if she had put the race to bed at the two-furlong pole and plenty will fancy her to gain appropriate compensation in the 32Red Maiden Fillies’ Stakes at Lingfield.
However, there’s a good word for the unraced First Moon, with Josephine Gordon aboard, as she makes her debut in the same race for Hugo Palmer. A Khalid Abdullah-owned filly, she reportedly excelled in a recent gallop.
Amy Murphy has proved a profitable trainer for Catching Pigeons readers to follow in recent weeks and she introduces Gwendolyn on her first run for the yard in the Betway Dash Handicap.
This is Gwendolyn’s third Newmarket yard and she hasn’t joined the stable looking especially well-handicapped, but there must be the possibility that she will find improvement for the in-form Murphy and could be worth a small bet if the price is right.
The two Jamies, Osborne and Spencer, are a very successful combination when they get together and should go close with Hungarian Rhapsody in the 32Red Maiden at Kempton on Saturday evening. The son of Exceed And Excel carries the familiar white colours of Michael Buckley, and has shown enough at home to suggest a bold show on his first racecourse appearance.
Queen Odessa beat the very highly rated Kayf Grace in a bumper last season and she should step up on her only outing so far this term in the 32Red Casino Mares Only Novices Hurdle at Market Rasen on Sunday. Although she has not seen action for three months, she should be fit enough and this looks a run-of-the-mill event.
There are few more popular horses in Newmarket than Stand Guard, who already holds the honour of having won more All-weather races in Britain than any other horse.
He’s 13 and clearly getting no quicker in his old age but John Butler believes there might just be a little more juice to be squeezed from these pips and he was a shade unfortunate to get undone by a ridiculously slow early gallop at Kempton earlier this week.
Stand Guard has an entry at Southwell on Tuesday and at first glance looks to have been found a very good opportunity to win again on a surface where he has plenty of old form in the book.
Claimantakinforgan will not have been missed much by racecourse commentators during a mid-season break, but this impressive Haydock bumper winner is held in high regard at Seven Barrows and his cheery fan club are looking forward to seeing him back in action, perhaps as early as this week
He is better than his most recent outing at Ascot suggests and is back in good form on gallops after his mid-term hols.
The valuable £50,000 Goffs Bumper at Newbury just after Cheltenham could be an early lucrative spring target.
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.
Council chiefs in Stoke-on-Trent have defended spending £75,000 on tackling the city’s pigeon problem.
Latest figures show that the council spends more than any other authority outside London on ridding the streets of the winged menace.
In the last three years, Stoke-on-Trent City Council has spent £75,000 on a range of measures including pigeon-proofing buildings, clearing up pigeon mess and removing dead pigeons.
A spokesperson from Stoke-on-Trent City Council said: “We have a duty to ensure our city is clean, well maintained and attractive for residents, businesses and visitors.
“More than a third of the money we have spent in the last three years has gone on permanent, long-term solutions to protect our buildings.
“This will create a cleaner and healthier environment for everyone and preserve the heritage of our city.”
Technical officer at the British Pest Control Association Natalie Bungay, said: “Pest control will be carried out against pigeons when complaints from the public come in.
“People don’t like to see them and complain about being swooped on and the mess that they create.
“This is a large problem throughout the country, but councils deal with them in different ways.
“The councils want to protect their buildings from the mess that pigeons make.”
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.
LAHORE – At least five persons received bullet wounds as two groups clashed over pigeons’ race in Kahna police precincts yesterday evening. The victims were shifted to a hospital where the condition of one of the injured was said to be serious till late Sunday night.
Heavy police contingents reached the spot and arrested six men in connection with the fatal shooting. Police said that two groups opened fire on each other as they clashed during the pigeon race. As a result, five people sustained bullet wounds. Four of the injured were identified by police as Asif, Aslam, Sharafat, and Nafees. The police also registered a case and were investigating the incident.
Kite flying
Many people defied the police crackdown and continued kite-flying in various parts of the provincial metropolis yesterday.
A police spokesman on Sunday said that at least 107 persons were arrested by police during the crackdown launched across the city to implement the ban on kite-flying. The police also filed more than 90 cases against the violators under the kit-flying act.
In 2005, Pakistan’s Supreme Court had banned the spring festival over a number of deaths caused by the use of sharp and glass coated strings. The festival of kite-flying was completely banned across the Punjab province
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.
SAO PAULO, Brazil — A pigeon in Brazil was busted for trying to smuggle a cell phone into a Sao Paulo state prison.
Guards at the Franco da Rocha prison caught the pigeon with a cell phone strapped to its body. Prison officials believe the bird was trying to deliver the phone to an inmate.
The guards were tipped off to the scheme when they saw several inmates running around trying to capture the pigeon.
Once guards captured the bird they discovered it carrying a small pouch containing a cellphone and battery.
Officials said they are investigating which inmate was behind the failed cell phone scheme.
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.
High above Cambridge’s Trinity College, a hawk has swooped on the hapless bird as it perches on the college clock.
But the bird of prey got stuck behind the giant minute hand as it ticked towards 4.30pm – halting the century-old timepiece for more than three minutes.
Cambridge University engineering expert Dr Hugh Hunt, a fellow at Trinity, spotted the attack and posted pictures of it on Facebook.
He said: “Hawk eating pigeon on my clock dial, oblivious of looming minute hand. Will probably stop the clock.”
It did. College members who look after the pendulum-driven machinery later said on the Trinity website: “Quinn the Harris Hawk ate a pigeon and got stuck behind the minute hand, causing a 186-second stoppage.”
Several members were deployed to reset the clock and do “a top-up wind.”
Later Dr Hunt posted a diagram showing how the clock’s pendulum was affected, captioning it: “The amplitude of swing of the pendulum from yesterday afternoon. Definitely disturbed by the carnage.”
The clock is housed in one of the oldest buildings in Trinity, King Edward’s Gate, originally the entrance to King’s Hall, which joined with Michaelhouse in the 16th century to become Trinity, then called the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.
The current clock was installed in 1910, and is unusual in that it chimes the hour twice.
The first chime is a low note, and is called the Trinity Chime, and the second is a higher one, the St John’s Chime. William Wordsworth, a St John’s alumnus, mentioned it in his 1850 poem The Prelude:
“Near me hung Trinity’s loquacious clock,
Who never let the quarters, night or day,
Slip by him unproclaimed, and told the hours
Twice over with a male and female voice.”
Birds of prey have been visiting Cambridge’s high towers and spires regularly. In the past few years, peregrine falcons have been seen nesting on top of the University Library and other tall buildings.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
