by johnnymarin | Nov 17, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
The search is on for the owner of a pigeon decked out in a bedazzled vest.
“They’re rhinestones, so is he Liberace or the Rhinestone Cowboy? I haven’t figured that one out yet,” said Jody Kieran, who runs a nonprofit bird rescue.
A woman found the pigeon on her patio Sunday and turned him over to Kieran, who’s never seen a bird like him before.
“After doing this for 20 years, this is the first time that I’ve had one come in that was actually wearing an outfit,” she said. “It was more hysterical than anything.”
The pigeon is missing a few rhinestones, but judging by his calm behavior, Kieran is sure he’s someone’s missing pet.
Another clue is in the vest itself, which serves the practical purpose of catching and holding bird droppings.
“We have a label. So, somebody purchased this for him and put it on. He didn’t put it on himself,” Kieran said.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Nov 15, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Animals are expected to minimize time and effort to reinforcement. Thus, not pecking should be preferred over pecking. However, even if time is held constant, pigeons often peck when it is allowed but not required (e.g., fixed time schedules), but with such schedules pecking may be adventitiously reinforced. In the present experiment, to better compare a schedule of reinforcement that requires pecking with one that requires the absence of pecking, we compared a modified fixed-interval (FI) schedule in which reinforcement follows the first peck after the interval has elapsed and a differential-reinforcement-of-other behavior (DRO) schedule, which requires pigeons to abstain from pecking for a similar interval. The delay to reinforcement was matched on a trial-by-trial basis by yoking the duration of the FI to match the DRO schedule that preceded it. Of 12 pigeons, six preferred the DRO schedule over the FI schedule and six did not show a schedule preference. Those that were indifferent between the schedules apparently had a stronger spatial preference than their schedule preference. Individual differences in the preference of the pigeons may have been related to their behavior during the DRO schedule.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Nov 12, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Twenty-one white doves emerged from white wicker baskets on a recent afternoon in downtown Detroit and launched themselves into the air, drawing applause from people gathered below.
The birds, which are actually selectively bred homing pigeons, initially began heading south. Then their inborn navigational systems kicked in — call it Mother Nature’s GPS — and the birds turned around and flew north, back toward their home 100 miles away in Saginaw.
It wasn’t long after that Phyllis Stevens, co-owner of Saginaw-based Dreamers White Dove Release, got into her car and started the same return journey. But she relied on I-75 and her smartphone’s GPS. By the time Stevens arrived home two hours after the release, 10 of her 21 birds were already there, waiting on the roof of their pigeon loft in her backyard.
“Every time I see it, it always amazes me how they know to get home,” Stevens said.
The white dove release business is reaching new heights of popularity in Michigan.
Bird handlers and business owners are doing multiple releases every week from spring to fall for weddings, funerals, public events and special ceremonies — even high school proms. The latest trend is “gender reveals,” where partygoers look for a blue or a pink-painted dove to find out whether the expected baby is a boy or girl. (Handlers say the special paint is safe and soon washes off.)
The most common bird release in Michigan is for funerals, these owners said, and this service is particularly popular among black families.
“That lasting image of a dove taking off is far nicer I think than a shovel full of dirt,” said Joan Luther, owner of Winged Occasions dove release in Flat Rock.
There are roughly a dozen small and large dove release operations in Michigan. The price for a dove release starts about $150 and varies based on the number of birds, weather conditions and the event’s distance from their home. The further the distance, the higher the risk that not all pigeons will return.
For well-trained birds, the greatest danger isn’t getting lost but being attacked by a hawk. That is why some handlers have already stopped flying their birds over long distances for the remainder of 2018.
“The hawks come out and they are very vicious because they are looking for food. They want to get fat for the winter,” Stevens said.
Come spring, there is a heightened risk that some birds — especially the males — will get sidetracked on their flights by short-term love interests, shacking up for days or weeks with what Stevens calls the “bum pigeons that hang out on the overpasses.”
But even those waylaid birds often return home.
“They’re kind of like children. If you put a roof over their head and you feed them, they usually come back,” said Michael Phillips, owner of West Michigan White Dove Release in Hudsonville.
Bird handlers say they can legitimately call their service white dove releases because homing pigeons descended from rock doves.
“We call them doves because would you like to have some ‘pigeons’ released at your wedding?” said Luther of Winged Occasions.
Where there is controversy, it often concerns the dove releases that use real doves. Those birds, known as white ringneck doves, lack the survival and navigational instincts of homing pigeons and therefore won’t fly home and will likely die.
Handlers who raise and train white homing pigeons consider it unethical to release ringneck doves. It is thought that only a handful of outfits in Michigan use these throwaway doves.
“If you use doves, doves don’t come home. Those birds are just going to die,” Phillips said. “And after a funeral, you don’t want that thought in your head, ‘My nephew died, and they threw some birds up in the air, and they all died.’ ”
Still, some activists including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals consider any type of bird release problematic because the events can be stressful and life-threatening, even for homing pigeons that safely make it home.
“Is this their preference? To be caged, released and forced to do this repeatedly? Certainly not,” said Stephanie Bell, a director in PETA’s cruelty investigations unit.
A YouTube video surfaced last year of a white dove release during a funeral near a highway in which one of the birds flew directly into the path of a tractor-trailer, eliciting gasps from the gathered mourners. It is unclear where that incident occurred.
High return rate
Bird handlers interviewed for this article said the return rates for their birds are 90 percent or higher.
All 21 birds released last month in downtown Detroit made it back to Saginaw. There was one straggler, Stevens said, who eventually showed up four days later.
The Oct. 26 release was the finale for the Detroit Police Department’s “Stop Domestic Violence” event marking Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Police Sgt. Kyla Williams said the department had ended the event in previous years with a balloon release and decided to try something different this year.
“Doves symbolize love, hope and peace, and love, hope and peace have meaning for domestic violence survivors,” said Williams, who found the visual spectacle of the release to be deeply moving.
“I thought it was beautiful and just amazing to see one of God’s creatures soar,” she said.
Intensive training
Release birds don’t naturally know to return to their coop; they must be trained.
Stevens said it generally takes 16 weeks to train a bird before it is ready to fly all the way from Detroit. The training regimen involves placing the birds into a travel cage, loading the cage into her car, then driving out every day and releasing the birds from steadily increasingly distances.
A 50-mile maximum radius is common for release businesses. Stevens said that her flock can handle 100-mile radius flights because they inherited genes from her late uncle’s racing pigeons for strong navigational sense. The longest her birds have ever flown was 120 miles, she said.
Because proper training is a major time commitment, handlers and business owners such as Stevens are often in retirement or nearing retirement and just working part-time.
“You have to keep them in shape — they’re like little athletes,” said Stevens, who has 150 birds in her release flock.
How not to hold
Birds can be released by hand as well as by basket. But one must hold them properly.
There was once a bride who held her pigeon way too close to her wedding dress.
“And it pooed on her,” Stevens recalled. “But the wedding planner handled it beautifully — ‘Oh, you’re so blessed. This bird blessed you.’ And the whole crowd clapped, and she let the bird go.”
Peaceful closure
The number of birds per release is generally up to customers. For West Michigan White Dove Release, the standard funeral service has four birds.
“Three for the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. One more for the deceased,” Phillips explained.
Winged Occasions, in business since 1990, has released as many as 100 birds at high school graduations and once let go 50 during a wedding.
The most Stevens ever released was 30 birds. That occasion was a remembrance service in Detroit this year for a 30-year-old man who was the victim of a violent crime. The release took place at the side of a street in desolate part of the city where the man’s body had been discovered.
“A big reason that someone will call is they feel that this gives a peaceful closure at the end of the funeral and brings a sense of comfort to the family,” she said.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Nov 10, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
A petition has called on Ipswich’s MP and the Prime Minister to intervene on plans for a pigeon cull on the town’s Waterfront.
The petition was launched after Associated British Ports (ABP) informed nearby residents of a controlled killing planned for Sunday, November 18, between 10am and 1pm.
ABP said the move was intended to prevent the pigeon population from endangering the UK’s food supply chain.
But a petition for MP Sandy Martin and PM Theresa May to step in looks set to reach 2,500 signatures just days after being launched by Brandon Orton at change.org.
The petition states: “The reason for killing pigeons is due to ‘public safety reasons’, so that it does not endanger the UK’s food supply chain.
“However, there have been many local residents and members of the public who have stated that they have never had problems with birds and have not seen many on the waterfront.”
ABP assured residents the culling would be completed quickly and humanely by trained professionals.
A spokesman said: “ABP is part of the UK’s food supply chain, and as such, we adhere to strict regulations regarding the control of pests at the Port of Ipswich.
“Measures are in place to prevent the spread of disease, stop serious damage to food and preserve public health and safety.
“We are committed to safeguarding the integrity of the UK’s food supply.”
The cull will be carried out by shooting – the quickest and most humane method, said ABP – and by trained professionals under licenses issued by appropriate government agencies.
According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), land owners and people given permission by authorities or the Environment Agency are granted a general licence to cull certain wild birds.
The licence can only be used to preserve public health or to ensure public safety – not to simply cull birds that considered to be a nuisance.
ABP bosses said they had explored other avenues for managing the pigeon population.
A spokesman added: “We have examined all the possibilities in managing the pigeon population and we are now fulfilling our legal obligations in the most effective and humane way possible. These actions are necessary to protect the UK public.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Nov 3, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Non-fare-paying pigeons have been causing a nuisance at London Waterloo station, leading Network Rail to hire a Harris hawk to scare them off.
The 5-year-old hawk, named Aria, has possibly the best and easiest job in London: she does a two-hour shift twice a week, which mostly involves flying about like a badass and scaring the bejeezus out of the poo-happy pigeons.
She also gets a nice bath out of it – her handler Max Bell comments:
“Aria really enjoys the environment at Waterloo and is delighted to be here. She does a great job and often likes to reward herself with a relaxing bath in the puddles that gather on the rain shelters over the platforms.”
This isn’t Aria’s first rodeo, though: previous gigs include King’s Cross station and the Treasury, where she unfortunately failed to scare off Theresa May.
Waterloo area manager Jason Murphy explains the need for a hawk:
“Pigeons can be a real nuisance for people using the station. They also cause a lot of mess which needs cleaning up at some expense.
So Aria’s work is really important in making the station a better place for our passengers, while saving us money on our cleaning bills.
She’s a very hard worker and we’re delighted to have her as part of the station team here at Waterloo.”
Keep an eye out for Aria next time you’re at Waterloo, because she’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for 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 johnnymarin | Nov 1, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
This week’s insane SUPERSTAR jackpot got us thinking about life and luck. Black cats and broken mirrors might be internationally-recognised omens of bad luck but Malta has its fair share of spooky and downright silly superstitions.
Here are seven of Malta’s strangest superstitions that many islanders still believe in.
1. Spilling wine is actually a good omen
OK, so you’re at a lunch, wearing your favourite (and obviously white or light blue) outfit, sitting across the table from your kunjata, and in between the excited banter and the constant commotion, you end up spilling wine.
Some of it goes all over the tablecloth, and of course some of it ruins your perfectly fine (and probably expensive) outfit… not to mention your kunjata’s new blouse. Well, your gut reaction might be rage (and infinite shame), but don’t worry; if this one superstition is to believed, what you’ve done is actually invoked a good omen. Go figure.
2. Killing a black moth will give you bad luck
Look, we know moths are basically edgy nocturnal butterflies, but there are a lot of people out there who just don’t like the furry fliers. Add a menacing black coating to the mix, and you’re looking at a lot of people who will gladly kill the fluttering moths.
If you’re one for superstitions, though, we’d recommend rethinking that swatting; turns out killing a black moth will actually give you bad luck. Although to be very honest, this sounds like a rumour started by the moth themselves.
3. Having a pigeon sh*t on you is a good thing
Yes, really. At least, if you’re superstitious.
There’s a certain unholy coincidence and irritating irony to when this happens. Normally, it’s while you’re walking into Valletta wearing a full suit, probably already feeling hot and sweaty.
This sticky icing on the cake is enough to push even the calmest islander over the edge, but fret not; it turns out the sh*tty episode is actually a sign of good things to come. Good luck convincing people who come face-to-face with you and that new statement piece sitting on your shoulder though.
4. A woman on her period cannot work in a bakery or vineyard
As in, she can. But she’ll end up ruining the taste of the finished produced. Just by literally being present. Cool.
Turns out there’s one thing that’s even more frustrating than implying a woman is having a bad day because she’s on her period… and it’s telling her to get out because she’s going to spoil the next batch of vino.
6. Putting a colourful eye on your boat will protect you from evil
One of Malta’s most beautiful traditions is also quite strange when you really think about it.
Believed to be a contemporary nod at Osiris (or Horus) – the Phoenician god of protection from evil – the eyes can be seen on the front of countless colourful luzzus all over the island.
From the southern fishing village of Marsaxlokk to the northern coastal area of St. Paul’s Bay, many a bright fishing boat has its own set of decorated eyes, making the traditional luzzu look like a hilarious – and very colourful – sea unicorn.
7. Having a set of ‘magic numbers’ increases your chances of winning the lottery
Sure, it’s random and there’s a very long list of possible combinations, but no: we’ll stick to our own favourite set of digits, thank you very much.
This superstition is very popular in Malta, with people choosing combinations based on their birthday, number of children, or even house number. Throw numbers like 3, 7 and 13 in the mix, and you’re looking at a constant juggle between lucky and unlucky ‘magic numbers’.
It’s all taken one step further on that one special (read: sad) day when you don’t play your numbers and some of them actually are drawn! See, maybe they were magic after all.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
