by johnnymarin | Feb 6, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
John Wilson Foster’s Pilgrims of the Air starts in the realm of magical realism and ends in horror. From miles of passenger pigeons blocking out the sun, to vast massacres of the bird and deforestation by humans, to a solitary last bird dying in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914, the story is all too easy to allegorize.
Allegories have long surrounded the passenger pigeon, so astonishing to many of its witnesses that only figures of speech could convey their wonder. They were called clouds — or, more threateningly, tempests, streams or floods, troops and regiments — and compared to the “coils of a gigantic serpent,” in John James Audubon’s recounting. Attempts at literal depictions conveyed the flocks’ grand scale — ornithologist Alexander Wilson estimated 240 miles and more than two billion pigeons in one grouping — but lacked the splendor of figurative language.
The comparisons at times suggested an uncertainty about the birds — were they good or evil? Early European explorers in the New World saw a prelapsarian Eden, yet, Foster writes, nature’s “abundance was her abandon” in the Puritan Protestant response. The passenger pigeons, again serving as symbols, were either augurs of disaster or signs of God’s pleasure, presaging sickness (because they stayed longer during mild weather) or promising bounty. Either way, they were chaotic, not orderly — and “this new world cried out for order, discipline and overmastery through agriculture,” Foster writes. “The New World was to be a spiritual and material enterprise: colonisation obliged conversion. Native abundance, at first marvelled at, was to be harnessed and pruned; Nature was to be appropriated, exploited and marketed.”
Our knowledge of what happened to the species does not diminish the magnitude of its tragedy. The vastness of the passenger pigeon flocks shifts, horrifyingly, to the scope of their massacre, a “slaughter of the innocents, as one market gunner admitted.” The birds had long been consumed — the Potawatomi people, for instance, were among its hunters — but in the mid-19th century, harvests turned into “carnivalesque org[ies] of destruction,” and eventually the killings were “dispassionate, organised, ruthless and of an industrial scale.” Pigeoners, aided increasingly by the expansion of the railroad and information networks that let them know where to go, descended on nesting sites and mass-executed the birds using sledgehammers, fire, clubs, and guns. No destructive force seemed taboo. “As many birds as possible were killed or captured, irrespective of demand or need,” Foster writes. Milliners and taxidermists were among the beneficiaries of the killings.
Foster, a literary critic, presents this American tragedy as one of anthropocentric ego. He writes acutely and, perhaps appropriately for the subject, often in dense columns of winding prose. Even as he cites historical facts and ornithological details, there is an underlying poetry to his descriptions; the story he is telling is, ultimately, a eulogy. Most hauntingly, a subtextual question pervades Pilgrims of the Air: As temperatures rise, which species must we eulogize next?
One of the book’s most powerful poetic devices is the metaphor in its title. The birds were pilgrims and explorers; Foster writes that Ectopistes migratorius, the passenger pigeon’s scientific name, translates to “wandering wanderer.” Passenger pigeons “might embody American wilderness in which they exercised the unfenced freedom of nomads or rootless pioneers,” Foster writes, although “their nesting sites were nevertheless called cities.” As industry and pigeoners encroached, “the pilgrims of the forest became fugitives,” and within mere decades, the wandering, and the wonder, were over.
As Anne Schmauss discussed in The Santa FeNew Mexican earlier this week, 2018 has been named the Year of the Bird by the National Audubon Society, National Geographic, and other institutions. This year marks the centennial of the protective Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which arrived too late for the passenger pigeon but did save the snowy egret and other species. “The Year of the Bird might be just the wake-up call we all need to protect our birds and ourselves from the mounting threats against our world,” Schmauss writes.
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 | Feb 2, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
During one my visits to my uncle’s house, I saw a number of crows on an electric wire at 6:30 am. There must have been at least 25 crows waiting for something. When they saw my uncle, all of them started creating a symphony with their cawing. He slowly went near the gate and dropped bird feed on the ground. There were flocks of pigeons, sparrows, and crows feeding on the food without any fear of my uncle. Mesmerised, I took a step forward. To my surprise, the pigeons and the sparrows continued on their feed but the crows just flew away with fear. I’m not an ornithologist or even a birdwatcher, but crows have always intrigued me. When I asked my uncle why the crows flew away, he told me:
“Crows don’t trust humans! It took a good three months effort and a clear planned strategy to gain their trust”
You must be wondering what the connection between a crow and a technology-spooked customer is!
Many customers, like crows, are still afraid of new technologies and computer-based aids, such as shopping website, a driverless car, cloud storage, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, etc., which use AI and ML extensively to benefit the end customer.
This is because of three primary reasons:
- Security– This is mainly because of reports of fraud, identity theft, data loss and other security breaches regularly making the news. However, the fact is that online shopping is safer than ever before, and new and emerging security technologies, methods and standards are being implemented every day to safeguard the customer.
- Privacy concerns: This is mainly because of extensive usage of collecting user data, sometimes not required to enhance customer experience.
- Safety: New technologies are not time-tested so when integrated to products, safety is one thing which drives users away from the product/service.
- Fear of the unknown: What I don’t know, I don’t trust syndrome. No benefit of doubt to new technologies is mainly due to lack of knowledge or information about the new technology.
For the customer to move in their decision-making journey to buy your product or service, you need to identify and remedy the friction points in the purchase path. You need to engage and provide appropriate inputs at the make or break relationship building points. This moment of truth is the promise that a customer can relate to your brand; it is the assurance that you will “show up” or “come over” to address their needs or manage their issues/complaints and not risk disappointment with the outcome.
Let’s look at the characteristics of a crow, a bird from the family of Songbirds, to which other birds such as Jays, Magpies, Parrots, and Ravens belong.
- Crows are so intelligent that they have unique capacities that only humans share among all animals on earth. They have similar advanced vocal learning abilities too. Crows have reasoning derived from causes, flexibility, thinking ahead and imagination. Crows are able to use these to plan ahead in great detail.
- Crows use advanced abstract concepts and extreme personal awareness. They use analogies which help them solve higher-order, relational matching tasks spontaneously.
- Crows remember people and cars for years and have metacognition and counting.
- Crows have object permanence; which is the ability to remember the existence of an object when it cannot be observed by sight, sound, touch, smell, or any other way.
- Crows have been found to understand mental time travel and have very complex inner mental life. The characteristics used are content, structure, and flexibility. They have complex memories of experiences including a description of what happened and the time and place.i. Experiments show that crows remember where and when they hide different types of food. They are aware that some of the food is still edible and some has been hidden for too long, and they go only for the edible food. This means they remember how long ago they buried it and how long the food is good. They are able to tell the difference between similar occurrences at other times and locations.
ii. Crows are able to plan for breakfast the next day despite many different circumstances. They prepare food for tomorrow when they know they will not be given breakfast without any past training. These are spontaneous and instant mental events.
- Another advanced behaviour of crows involves gaze and gesture. Crows have extremely accurate vision and gesture through positions and gaze. They respond to human gaze and gestures if they aren’t threatening. These cues from human gaze to find food are much faster if the bird knows the human.
- Crows are quite sophisticated in protecting their hidden supplies but they do not hide from their close family and mates.
These characteristics and behaviour are very similar to an intelligent customer on the internet who is hesitant to adopt newer technologies. What works to gain the trust of the crow might be applicable to the technology-spooked customer. So, let’s look at these techniques:
- The best way to get on a crow’s good side is through the stomach! Find some food that the crow seems to like.
Food for the customer is useful data to make him/her feel comfortable about the technology.
Referrals, recommendations, technology know-hows including some potential threats and benefits should be fed to the new target customer. Providing tips on security to consumers who visit your site can help them understand how much of their online security is in their own hands. It can also create a sense of goodwill. Customers will be happy to learn these tips, and may be inclined to spend more time with you.
- Put out the peanuts consistently and don’t look directly at the bird when you do so initially
When you are providing data to the customer, though you are collecting lot of personal information and his learning behaviour, ensure you don’t make it obvious to him as his biggest concern is solution compromising his privacy.
- Crows might take their own sweet time to come and take the food you have served. But be patient.
When you provide added services to the customer, he might not acknowledge in the beginning. Have patience and give him enough time to feel comfortable to adopt the new technology or solution.
- Crows watch other birds (such as sparrows, mynahs, etc.) feed on the food before they start to eat
The zero moment of trust (ZMOT) of the new customer gets largely influenced by ultimate moment of truth (UMOT) of other customers shared experience. Ensure you have demonstrated right references and recommendations.
- Stock the food and ensure you don’t run out to feed the crows
Once you start the engagement with the customer, ensure you have enough data points to keep him engaged. Frequent push of information is key to sustain the customer.
- Establish a regular feeding schedule and over time crows will get more comfortable with you and start to expect food from you, and from there, you can build a bond of trust
When he starts adopting new technology and solution, start engagement very slowly, build the trust and then have a different customer experience solution to keep him engaged on the new platform/technology. Also give consumers more confidence to work with a provider that researches the security of websites and issues certifications of authenticity like VeriSign
- Once the trust is formed, you can look at the crows in their eyes and build a bond but don’t try to get too close.
Once the bond is built with the customer, use data analytics and machine learning to give him more data to customise your service to his personal needs and usage behaviour. Make it more private for him. This will make him addictive. Always be dependable, steadfast, and observant. Ensure you use smarter predictive technology but be sensitive when it becomes pervasive. Avoid intrusion into your customer life in areas, which are not related to your product or service.
The most common concern among potential online shoppers is data loss, which the customer refers to the exposure of credit card numbers, names, addresses, and other data that online merchants routinely collect from shoppers. New technologies, such as end-to-end encryption, do help ensure the safety of consumer information as it travels over the network, and businesses are increasingly investing in such technologies. If customers do not know about these technologies, no investment in the world will encourage e-commerce-shy customers to shun their inhibitions. So, it is very important to let consumers know what kind of security measures are being taken to protect their personal data.
- Neighbour crows may get wind of what you are doing and challenge the family that normally occupies your yard
Once the customer gets addicted, there are his other trusted peer group who might influence him to get away from the newfound love of your solution/product. Ensure you engage with his peer group earlier in the cycle to build a better trust circle around your target customer.
- Too much food to the crows can get out of control and your house might become a communal site
Ensure you keep your service/product exclusive and controlled. Once it becomes a commodity, both early adopters and late adopters might be repelled with everyone using the service. Ensure value and brand doesn’t get diluted.
So next time before you introduce a new product or a service in an area which is new to the customer, sharpen your customer engagement skills by studying the behaviour of a crow and first gain its trust!
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 | Jan 31, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
The Alexandria City Attorney’s Office has filed criminal charges against Bio Corporation, whose workers were shown drowning fully conscious pigeons and injecting live crayfish with chemicals in a PETA video exposé of the classroom dissection supplier.
Based on PETA’s evidence and following an investigation by Alexandria police, Bio Corporation has been charged with 25 counts of cruelty to animals under a Minnesota statute that makes it a crime to “willfully instigate or in any way further any act of cruelty to any animal or animals.” The first hearing in the case is scheduled for January 31 at the Douglas County Courthouse
“These criminal charges send a strong message to the cruel, secretive animal-dissection industry that it’s not above the law,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “The only sure way for caring educators and students to guarantee that they’re not supporting cruelty is by opting for superior virtual-dissection methods.”
PETA’s exposé also showed workers discussing how frozen turtles shipped to the facility sometimes came “back to life” and were refrozen. Workers without respirators injected dead animals with buffered formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen, and faulty formaldehyde lines sprayed them in the face. In response, PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
TeachKind, PETA’s humane education division, has sent letters urging the dozens of school districts nationwide that have purchased dead animals from Bio Corporation to eliminate dissection from their schools. PETA offers free dissection software through its educational grants program. Non-animal educational tools have been shown to teach anatomy as well as—and, in many cases, better than—dissection.
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 | Jan 25, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
It seems like this bird is the hardest avian party-goer ever: the morning after New Year’s Eve celebrations, it was found resting its forehead against the rear window of a car.
On New Year’s Day, a resident of Vladikavkaz, Russia, walked to his car to find a pigeon asleep on his rear window. The man spoke to the bird gently, as though talking to a friend the morning after the excesses of New Year. “Hey, bro! Wake up, bro! Are you alright?” he asked the pigeon. Several seconds later, the pigeon finally came to senses and flew away.
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 | Jan 22, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Mariwan Namiq Hama, 36, has been raising pigeons as a hobby since he was a small child in Erbil.
Out of many pigeons he breeds in his home, one in particular is of great interest to him. He says his 25-year-old pigeon is purebred, one that is not for sale.
“I love it a lot. Most of my pigeons have descended from this one. It is a very good and beloved pigeon to me,” he said, as he kissed the blue and white pigeon.
“To me, pigeons signify love, reconciliation, and peace,” he explained.
Hama, known as Mala Mariwan among his friends, is grateful that his neighbours are not concerned about the presence of his birds, some as expensive as $2,000. Some pigeon lovers even regularly visit his house.
Once, he had invited some of his friends over, but later realized that his pigeons had been poisoned.
“Some of my pigeons died overnight. More pigeons died in the evening,” Mala Mariwan said as he recalled the incident
He could not capture the culprit since at the time he did not have CCTV camera installed.
“This made me upset because I love them. It was a big sin,” he lamented.
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 | Jan 20, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
In November 2014, he hosted Mrs Patience Jonathan. Politicians like prayers and charms. So they hang around clerics and sorcerers. At that event, Father Mbaka poured prayers on Mrs Joanthan and showered praises on President Jonathan. He said President Jonathan was not inept. He said his opponents maliciously underestimated his good works. He wondered why anyone would blame Jonathan, rather than Boko haram, for the insurgency that had taken control of over 20 local government areas. He said it was unfair to make the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ demand on an innocent Jonathan rather than on Boko haram. Fr. Mbaka A month later, in December 2014, Father Mbaka did a somersault and dropped a bombshell. God, he said, had rejected Jonathan. God spoke to him and confirmed it with pigeons. He had released a set of pigeons to fly and fight for Jonathan. One or two of the pigeons refused to fly. He went to God with his curiosity. God told him the pigeon didn’t fly because the kingdom had departed from Jonathan. He could have stopped there. He is a messenger and no one would ask him for explanations. But Mbaka is not gifted with circumspection. He revisited his assessment of Jonathan’s stewardship. And recanted. He said Jonathan was actually as clueless as his opponents had pronounced. Many blinked in embarrassment at his named volte-face. He said everything Jonathan touched, had become infested with bad luck. He said he was compelled by God, so he was unabashed. He was vilified. Bishops accused him of gross insubordination. They said he had undermined the neutrality of the church in party politics. Some Jonathan’s supporters branded him a counterfeit prophet. They said the internal inconsistencies of his positions, exposed him as a charlatan. They pointed to a history of what they termed— other ill motivated and false political prophesies—and said he could be a victim of auditory hallucinations. Father Mbaka dismissed the insinuations that he had spoken out of bitterness as childish. Buhari, won in 2015. Mbaka has stood patiently with Buhari since. Father Mbaka is back in the news. This time he has not pigeonholed himself. He has left a lot of room for maneuver. He says Buhari was chosen but President Buhari has wandered. He thinks that Buhari has been hijacked and put in a bag by some evil men that surround him. He says the president must change or be changed. That could suggest that Buhari might yet get another chance. Perhaps if he showed firm leadership. That is one way of reading his prophecy. But Mbaka has another warning. He says the president must not contest the forthcoming elections. He is certain he would be put to shame if he did. This warning seems to foreclose the possibility of a second term under any circumstance. He says the man is not only sick but old. And because he is frail, everything in the country, he says, has gone frail. He concedes that Buhari has good intentions. But that he is physically too weak to see them through. He has allowed opportunists who pay lip service to corruption seize the reins of government. And rather than sweep away corruption and poverty with the brooms they came with, they have preoccupied themselves with sweeping public funds into their big bags. Mbaka, definitely, has not lost his theatricals. It would seem though that Mbaka always comes with grains of truth, delivered melodramatically in a bag of chaff. But since he always claims God, we must then believe that the incoherencies are spiritual permutations and combinations mortals like us would forever find difficult to understand. If President Buhari contests and wins, Mbaka yet wins. It would be said that Buhari listened and changed his ways. And God gave him another chance. If Buhari hearkens and chooses not to contest, then the prophet will also be true. He yielded to a divine revelation. Head or tail Mbaka wins this one. Some of Buhari’s supporters have denounced the priest. They think he is being used to create negative sensation. Some say he is badly ego driven. I know that Mbaka could rightly be considered a political man of God. It’s possible that he delivers what God tells him together with his own feelings. But it would serve Buhari and his team well to accept the prophecy as constructive criticism. What Mbaka has told with fanfare as prophecy is actually trite. There is nothing in that prophecy that is a revelation. There was nothing he told Jonathan in 2014 that was a revelation too. But Mbaka’s admonition is yet significant. Not because he has a sizable following in parts of the Southeast. No. He supported this president. When those who stuck out their necks and supported this president air their frustrations in hisses, in letters, or in prophecies, the president ought to listen. There is nothing in Mbaka’s prophecy that Aisha Buhari, the wife of the president, didn’t tell the BBC a year ago. Father Mbaka referred to the president’s wife as a frustrated and rejected god-given mentor to the president. The First Lady had declared she would not support her husband if he failed recover the reins of government from usurpers. She was frustrated. She is not alone. She came back a few months ago from her sick husband in London and announced that significant changes were imminent. She triumphantly proclaimed that the Jackals and Hyenas would be banished. Whatever her husband promised her in ‘the other room’ in London has become a failed promise. Mbaka likens the president to Jonah swallowed by a whale. The problem is that the Abuja whale appears not in any hurry to release its victim. Those around the president could boast that the president would win the national elections in 2019, easily. That could be correct. But they must be concerned that the president has failed to live up to the expectations of his many supporters around the country. That is neither good for the president and nor for the country. And performance must be more important than winning for winning sake. Fortunately for Father Mbaka, no Bishop would invite him for questioning. The council of Bishops could even possibly praise him for valor and forthrightness. The complex nature of Nigeria’s politics allows for such fundamental changes in attitude. Nothing is hinged on any moral principles. Father Mbaka thinks the governor of Gombe could be a good fit. Since he has unfettered access to God, why can’t he simply submit the man’s name for promotion and submit the names of the members of the cabal for punishment. If the men of God were firm themselves perhaps the politicians would sit up.
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)
