by johnnymarin | Sep 12, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Network Rail has installed spikes on the structure to scare off the birds, which have made it their home for several years.
Most of the pigeons had flown off this week and have been perching on nearby walls, although a few have stubbornly refused to move from under the bridge.
And if history is anything to go by, there’s no betting the rest won’t return in the not too distant future.
People have moaned about the mess and the smell created by the pigeons over the years and all previous attempts to frighten them away have failed.
Back in 2007, Network Rail installed a buzzing gadget called a Wailer, but it simply scared passers by and was ignored by the birds.
So five years on and Network Rail spent £300,000 sprucing up the bridge where Station Road joins Kingston Road and putting up netting.
But the pigeons again took no notice and gradually returned to their favourite roost as the netting partially collapsed and had to be taken down.
At the time a company spokesman said: “The netting was removed as it was not as effective at deterring the pigeons as we hoped it would be. In its place we have installed ‘get off’ gel trays that are designed to prevent birds perching or roosting.” The trays also had no effect.
Meanwhile, Network Rail sent in crews last weekend to clear weeds and undergrowth in and around Taunton Station after members of Taunton Trains complained they had reached “epic proportions” and that the arrival in the town “resembles a jungle”.
A Network Rail spokesman said: “Work to clear vegetation took place at Taunton Station last weekend with a focus on the areas worst affected.
“Further work is planned to maintain the tidiness of the area in and around the station.”
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 | Sep 10, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
The icky-sticky problem of pigeon poop on sidewalks and even in people’s hair seems to be more widespread than we figured.
Our Saturday column about hundreds of pigeons that gather at Lawrence Ave. and Markham Rd. to gobble up food spread for them, then perch on overhead wires and rain down droppings on everything below, prompted plenty of indignation from readers.
City bylaws prohibit the feeding of wildlife — including pigeons and seagulls — in city parks and public spaces, but do not ban people from feeding them in other places, like a privately-owned parking lot.
That seems to be a sore point for readers, who directed us to other locations where pigeons are no less a problem, due to people who feed them regularly and are indifferent to the mess created by the overstuffed birds.
Jim Barrett sent us photos taken last year of a man spreading bird feed from a bucket in a parking lot at the Colony Plaza, on Lawrence, near Warden Ave., surrounded by hundreds of hovering pigeons.
One of his photos showed a flock of birds on the sidewalk in front of one of the plaza storefronts, which must be a source of frustration for shopkeepers whose customers don’t want to wade through them, or their droppings.
Francesca Vivenza said she contacted the TTC many years ago about “the many pigeons” that sit on utility wires outside Broadview station, where they bombard pedestrians beneath them.
“An old lady regularly brought bread to feed them,” she said. “One day I stopped and talked kindly to her, explaining that the pigeons are dirty, unhealthy … I got plenty of insults and left.”
Don Fairbairn said food is spread for birds at a strip mall at Markham and Eglinton Ave., which draws thousands of pigeons, and also at Bluffer’s Park, at the foot of Brimley Rd., despite rules which disallow it.
“There are signs there not to feed the wildlife, but they are ignored,” he said, adding that he has never seen evidence that the bylaw is enforced.
The best note came from Francis van Dorsser, who is also familiar with the pigeons at Markham and Lawrence and observed what could be an excellent method to keep them in check.
“This past spring I was waiting in my car for a person in the medical clinic,” in the plaza where the pigeons are fed. “All of a sudden pigeons were flying in every direction. I though of the movie, ‘The Birds.’
“A few minutes later, all was calm. Directly in front of me on a rooftop was this hawk, enjoying a pigeon feast. He had swooped in, picked up his meal and started dining.
“On the same building was a row of pigeons sitting on its edge, relieved that they were not today’s meal.”
The hawk should be commended for public service. We could use a lot more like him.
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 | Sep 8, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
WALNUT CREEK — Strolling the sidewalks of Broadway Plaza, you may not notice the absence of one unwelcome pest — pigeons.
That’s because of the vigilance of a 2-year-old Harris’s hawk named Remmy that patrols the plaza, scaring them away. Under the watchful eye of his handler Bridget Maguire-Colton, of Hayward, Remmy flies through the shopping plaza and parking structure on his broad wings scanning for pigeons.
Maguire-Colton, who works for The Hawk Pros, a company that uses hawk and falcons for pest control, is licensed to handle the large raptor.
Remmy patrols the plaza by flying up and around the buildings and through the cavernous parking garage scanning for pigeons. Upon landing, a little bell around his right leg, used as a locating device by Maguire-Colton, can be heard chiming as he explores the small nooks and crannies looking for roosting pigeons. To retrieve Remmy, Maguire-Colton blows a whistle, and he swoops down to land on her thick leather gauntlet and is offered a small treat.
Maguire-Colton, who has been using Remmy at the plaza for about a year and a half, says “It is far more effective than using (bird deterrent) spikes, fake owls or poisons that can harm a pigeon.” The pigeons are not just a nuisance, bird feces contains uric acid that is corrosive to metals. Rooftop nesting spots can also block gutters and could damage air conditioning units.
Using a hawk as pigeon abatement seems to be working. On a recent afternoon that Remmy spent working with his handler, no pigeons were sighted at Broadway Plaza. Even though Remmy enjoys chasing pigeons, the odds of him catching one are very low. However, the pigeons don’t know that, and the threat is real, as Remmy has gotten lucky a couple of times.
The Harris’s hawk, native to the Sonoran Desert, generally hunts rabbits, snakes and small animals that are on the ground and the hawks are typically not fast enough to catch a pigeon. Remmy, a formidable bird, with a nearly 3-foot wingspan, strong sharp talons and approximate weight of 1.5 pounds, is easy for a pigeon to spot, and once they have seen him they know to keep flying until they are clear of the plaza.
Remmy is also a sight for shoppers. When Maguire-Colton carries Remmy through the shopping plaza she becomes a falconer ambassador.
“You really do have to be PR plus falconer, it’s a bit of a balance,” she said.
With 12 years of experience, she can answer any questions people may have. Remmy, who was bred in captivity, will happily stand on Maguire-Colton’s arms, watching for pigeons while she answers questions. The only thing that ruffles Remmy’s feathers are dogs, large or small; they all look like coyotes to him.
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 | Sep 7, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
On Sept. 1, 1914, a legend passed in the aviary at the Cincinnati Zoo. That legend was a single pigeon, named Martha, after George Washington’s wife. Martha was the last of her kind, and with her death, the passenger pigeon became extinct.
The passenger pigeon, not to be confused with the domesticated homing pigeon, was a species of pigeon native to the Eastern United States. Once reported to be the most common bird, the species declined rapidly in the early 1900s and disappeared entirely with the death of Martha.
Some ornithologists, scientists who study birds, estimated that in their prime, passenger pigeons made up about two out of every five birds. Many historical journal entries tell tales of migrating flocks 1 mile wide blocking out the sun for hours.
IMPACT OF HUMANS
If the passenger pigeon was once so prolific, then what must have gone wrong to make the birds die off so fast? The short answer is humans. Passenger pigeons traveled in huge flocks for centuries because the larger numbers meant there were lower odds of any one pigeon being picked off, a technique called “predator satiation.” However, this adaptation is only advantageous until humans with nets, poles and guns became involved.
Passenger pigeons were seen as pests for the after effects of their migrations, easy to catch, prolific and tasty enough to be appealing to both the underclass and the elite. This combination means that when the location of a nesting flock was found, hunters would quickly arrive in the area to kill and ship off as many barrels of pigeons as possible. For a while, it seemed as though the hunting wouldn’t disrupt the pigeon population, as their numbers had barely declined.
Numbers can be deceiving, though, as years of disrupted breeding meant that almost all of the population was growing older and older with no young to replenish the flocks. Therefore, the continued pressure on the population eventually led to a sudden population crash. The last confirmed wild passenger pigeon was shot in 1901, leaving the population extinct except for those in captivity.
The sudden decline of the passenger pigeon got people’s attention, and soon legislation was being passed to protect migratory birds, as well as their nests, eggs and feathers. The 1970s brought an even larger explosion of environmental legislature. The Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973, was part of a worldwide effort to add protections to endangered populations.
Later, the IUCN Red List was developed as a global way to evaluate and guide the conservation of both plants and animals. The IUCN Red List categorizes species as Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild and Extinct.
Despite passenger pigeons’ sad end, Martha has been well taken care of in her time after death. Immediately after she was found, she was packed into a 300-pound block of ice and shipped to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., where she was mounted and displayed through the 1950s. Since then, she has been protected in a locked box in the special collections area of the Smithsonian (though her internal organs are stored in an entirely different section).
Martha has made several flights since her death — to San Diego and back and then for a brief return to the Cincinnati Zoo to be displayed in a new exhibit in her name. For both of these trips, Martha flew first class with an escort — quite the upgrade from the crowded migration flights of her ancestors.
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 | Sep 3, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
At Tuesday’s regular meeting of Town Council Manager of Planning and Land Development, Ashley Bilodeau will ask council to consider passing a by-law to prohibit the feeding and attracting of pigeons in town.
In a report Bilodeau will present to council, she writes “The pigeon population is increasing in the Town – Pigeons mate for life and pair can breed up to 12 ledglings per year. Staff have increasing been receiving calls and emails from residents asking for help ith neighbours who are feeding the pigeons, encouraging the flock to flourish and remain in the area.
Pigeon feces are highly acidic and so corrosive that it can cut a roof’s average life span in half.
Resident’s property is being damaged.
Orkin Canada gives the following tips for prevention and control:
· Eliminate sources of food, including bird feeders intended for other species
· Repair and seal any damage to the exterior of buildings where they can build nests
· Place fake/statuettes of predatory birds near ledges
· Create an unwelcome environment with loud noises and/or water sprays to scare them away
To this end, Staff is asking Council to consider a bylaw to prohibit feeding and attracting of pigeons.”
Her report goes on to say “Public comments were received from two individuals; one of which was supportive of the new By-law, the other was concerned about whether it can be enforced appropriately. In order to ticket someone,
they would have to be in the act of feeding a pigeon. Her recommendation was to place emphasis on enforcing the buildings and/or structures that encourage nesting/roosting.
Staff also met with the Timiskaming Health Unit (THU) to discuss the health concerns related to pigeons. From their standpoint, pigeons are not a health problem. There would need to be several
inches of droppings in a very restricted area in order for it to pose a health concern. They insist that feeding restrictions do help, however the enforcement must be focused on the places they reside.”
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 | Sep 1, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Martha died Sept. 1, 1914. She was the last of her species, the last passenger pigeon.
Passenger pigeons were once the most numerous bird in North America. Estimates range from 3 billion to 5 billion passenger pigeons in North America when the Europeans first reached the New World.
The scientific name Ectopistes migratorius combines the Greek word for wander and the Latin word for the one who migrates.
This species wandered over a huge range of eastern and midwestern forests and western prairies — from Texas into Canada, almost to Hudson’s Bay. It roamed from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River Valley and up along the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountain Front, as well as north into Canada. A few even crossed the Rocky Mountains.
Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition recorded in their journals seeing the passenger pigeon, even eating a few, along the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers in what became Montana.
While pairs and small flocks were once common in Montana, in the East and as far west as Minnesota and Missouri, the bird once roosted and nested in the hundreds of thousands, even in the hundreds of millions.
“When these roosts are first discovered, the inhabitants from considerable distances visit them in the night, with guns, clubs, long poles, pots of sulphur, and various other engines of destruction,” bird illustrator Alexander Wilson described the scene of a slaughter in Kentucky in the first decade of the nineteenth century.
As settlers pushed westward, cutting the trees and draining the wetlands, the pigeons lost nesting and roosting sites. No matter where the birds migrated, local people and market hunters tracked and slaughtered them.
The railroad and telegraph made it easy to learn where the birds were and to bring the market hunters, both shooters and netters. The market hunters shipped the product — barrels of pigeon or coops of live pigeons — by train on a national market.
Pigeons were here in Montana when beavers still built dams that created the pools and meadows moistened the plains; before trappers removed the beavers. Pigeons were here when the trees lining the Missouri River and tributary streams were cut to fuel steamships moving up and down the river. Removing beavers and trees exposed soil to drying and eroding, and destroyed habitat used by the pigeons.
In September 1881 “numerous” pigeons were reported in several locations in Custer County, and the following September the Army telegraph operator at Fort Benton returned from a day’s hunt with 12 passenger pigeons.
Then the birds disappeared from Montana.
In 1892 the state’s largest newspaper, The Anaconda Standard, reported that the passenger pigeon had been “utterly exterminated” in Montana.
Market hunters get a lot of the blame. But accessories were the organizers of shooting competitions who bought pigeons by the coop off the national market, up to 25,000 live birds, for major shoots out East. Organizers in Montana bought fewer birds, but they bought live passenger pigeons; for example, the Montana Territorial Fair of 1873 featured a trapshoot with live birds.
As the passenger pigeon declined in number, gun clubs turned to shooting newly invented glass balls and later clay pigeons, particularly Remington’s popular “blue rock” brand, as well as live pigeons raised in coops rather than wild passenger pigeons.
Extinction is forever. As The Anaconda Standard reported in 1899, “Gone, forever gone — the wild pigeon, a fable and a romance.”
Let’s conserve the remaining wild flora and fauna of Montana. Let’s do it for ourselves and future generations.
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)
