by johnnymarin | Jun 17, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
In 2012 and 2013, difficulties were encountered with homing pigeons that were being released for daily exercise directly beneath the approach to runway 11.
There were also problems with removing abandoned planes which had sat on the airfield for more than 15 years.
The changes mean the council can ban people from releasing birds, for example homing or racing pigeons, from properties within three kilometres of the aerodrome, and enable more powers to remove abandoned aircraft.
The law also bans fires and firing guns on or over aerodromes.
The law covers facilities in Toowoomba that are under the control of the local government, also including Millmerran and Pittsworth aerodromes and the emergency helipad at Crows Nest.
Toowoomba Regional Council infrastructure committee leader councillor James O’Shea said the issues with the pigeons and abandoned aircraft were overcome through existing laws, but the new law would provide more clarity when dealing with similar situations in the future.
“In the case of the homing pigeons, proactive management in accordance with the council’s safety management system stopped any pigeons from being harmed or flights delayed,” he said.
“Council also negotiated with the owner of the pigeons to avoid any safety issues for aircraft or pigeons.”
Cr O’Shea said the new local law was released for public consultation, including the Toowoomba and District Pigeon Federation.
Toowoomba City Aerodrome is home to more than 25,000 aircraft movements a year.
An aerodrome is a location where flights take place, regardless of whether they involve cargo, passengers or military, with an airport a type of aerodrome.
Local Law No.6 (Aerodromes) 2017 was officially gazetted on Friday, repealing Local Law No.39 (Public Aerodromes).
Local Law No.39 was in effect prior to council amalgamations, with a continuing local law made in September 2011 to include coverage of aerodromes falling under the Toowoomba Regional Council umbrella.
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 | Jun 13, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
They’ve been called “flying rats” and are often the unwelcome guests to a beautiful stroll in the city. Needless to say, pigeons are one bird with a bad rep.
But for photographer Andrew Garn, pigeons are creatures of dazzling beauty who conquer tremendous odds each day by surviving in often hostile urban environments. His new book,The New York Pigeon: Behind the Feathers, offers a fascinating look at the history, anatomy, and unexpected beauty of these ubiquitous birdies.
Here, Garn shares with BuzzFeed News a selection of pictures and words from his new book as well as his thoughts on why people have misconceptions of pigeons.
I’ve always been drawn to underappreciated subject matters. For me, there’s a challenge in revealing the beauty in things that people often overlook. It’s easy to photograph flowers or models, but it’s much harder to photograph things that people don’t consider glamorous.
I didn’t want this to just be a book of beautiful portraits of pigeons — I want people to learn more about them so they can appreciate how amazing these birds truly are.
The New York Pigeon is really a public relations vehicle for the birds: I want this to open people’s eyes to pigeons and be able to show them how beautiful they are.
I think one misconception that people hold about pigeons is that they spread disease. I mean, if someone were to lick their poop, then yes, you would probably get sick. But then again, if you licked to poop of any animal, you’d probably get sick too.
Some people also think that they’re dirty, but that’s also not true. These are birds that are constantly cleaning themselves. In the wintertime, when it’s really hard to get fresh water, they’ll even sit out in the snow to clean their wings and feathers.
The major problem in urban areas is that people think they’re helping pigeons by feeding them bread, but in reality they are really hurting them. Pigeons are so adaptable — they’ve lived alongside humans for over 5,000 years — and with that adaptability they’ve become accustomed to eating any type of food. I’ve even seen them eating chicken wings, which is kind of creepy.
But the problem with bread is that it has no nutritional value and it weakens their immune system. A lot of the times when you see a sickly looking pigeon, it’s because it’s eating bread all the time!
I was born in Manhattan and never really had any feelings toward pigeons. To tell you truth, I was sort of ambivalent. My guess is that 10% of people really hate these birds, 80% of people really don’t care at all, and the other 10% truly love them. These are the people who feed them, care for them, and keep them as pets.
Really, I think that’s a thing about growing up in NYC — I really don’t think I ever even noticed nature, much less the birds of the city. I didn’t see the cycles of nature or notice it that much. The epiphany for me was really focusing in on this project. It just kind of hit me.
Since beginning this project, I became a licensed bird rehabber and have really become caught up in the entire world of pigeons and pigeon people. I actually raised a baby pigeon from an egg, which is no easy feat! For a mother to do it is a tough — much less a human. Since that first day that I spent with them, I was totally hooked.
If you’ve ever touched or held a bird you’ll notice that they seem so fragile. That’s because they’ve evolved to be incredibly lightweight; there’s nothing extraneous on a bird — I mean, most birds evolved to even not have penises since that would just be extra weight!
The really crazy thing about pigeons is their breast muscle. To control their wings, these use the huge muscles that are one-third their body weight, so if a human were to have a similar breast muscle, it would be somewhere around 6 feet deep in relation to our bodies!
And when they fly, pigeons have maneuverability almost unlike any other birds. Sure, falcons can fly faster and hummingbirds can hover, but pigeons have the ability to move almost like a helicopter. That skill comes from their native habitat, cliffsides, where they have almost no protection from predators, so they have to be able to get out of the way pretty quickly. It’s an evolutionary thing.
Pigeons are also very compliant and smart, which makes them the perfect subjects for studying. They weigh roughly 1 pound; they’re docile and they’re not really the nervous type. In fact, the Journal of Experimental Biology has over 1,100 published studies about pigeons — everything from navigation to motion.
And of course, psychologist B.F. Skinner’s behavior modification series came from working with pigeons. He taught them to guide missiles with a better accuracy than humans and to even find people at sea with better accuracy than humans working with binoculars. Lately, pigeons have even been taught to read X-rays and can spot cancer in patients with a 99% accuracy rate, which is higher than most radiologists.
When I started work on the book, I began photographing on the street using a portable studio box, but that entails grabbing a pigeon and actually placing it in the box — which is not very practical. People on the streets would come up and start yelling at me, saying, “What are you doing?!”
When I finally got very close to the pigeons, I was immediately captivated by their iridescence and feather patterns, not to mention their unique personalities!
Up until that day, I had been looking at them as objects; I had actually forgotten that they are birds! And beautiful birds at that!
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Jun 9, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
Q. Pigeons are everywhere, but has anyone ever seen a baby pigeon?
A. No. They are mythical creatures born in adult form, like the Greek goddess Athena when she sprang from the head of Zeus.
Just kidding, of course: Pigeons are secretive birds, and as such like to build their nests in hidden locations. What’s more, it takes only a month for a chick — properly called a squab, informally known as a squeaker — to become fully developed and leave the nest, limiting the time you have to come across one.
The feral pigeons that inhabit the city today are the descendants of wild rock pigeons, also known as rock doves, which are native to Europe, northern Africa and southwestern Asia.
Wild pigeons build their nests in places unlikely to be disturbed by other animals, such as on cliff faces. Window ledges, rooftops and scaffolding serve as stand-ins for their cosmopolitan relatives.
When a male pigeon looks for a mate, he finds a good nesting spot before launching into his mating call. If he is successful, the female remains at the site while the male brings twigs and other materials to build the nest.
Both parents take turns incubating the eggs, which typically come in pairs and take 16 to 19 days to hatch. The chicks are born helpless, covered with yellowish-brown fuzz; nourishment comes from a white substance called “pigeon milk,” which their parents regurgitate into their mouths.
One New Yorker who has seen her share of squabs is Rita McMahon, co-founder and director of the Wild Bird Fund, a nonprofit that rehabilitates wildlife of all kinds.
On a recent afternoon, several large birds roamed freely around the organization’s Upper West Side headquarters, including a juvenile swan named Warrior who had found himself frozen in ice in Prospect Park. (“They’re just young and stupid,” Ms. McMahon said. “They don’t know winter yet.”)
There were no baby pigeons, however. Ms. McMahon estimated that squabs account for one-sixth of the 6,000 birds her team treats each year. The flow is fairly consistent, as pigeons, which have an expected life span of two to three years, mate year-round.
Many patients arrive with broken legs. That’s because squabs nearing maturity go through an angst-filled teenage phase, which can result in a desire to leave the nest prematurely.
“If they come out too early and they don’t have the wings, all the flapping in the world isn’t going to keep them from hitting hard,” Ms. McMahon said.
This risky period requires the parents to navigate between protecting the squabs from harming themselves and letting them go free. If their young become overly dependent, for example, they could have a difficult time making it on their own.
Human guardians can be faced with the same challenge, as one Metro reporter for The New York Times discovered last year when he raised a pair of baby pigeons in his bathroom.
“You get very attached to them,” Ms. McMahon said. “They are charming.”
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 | May 19, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
Q: Why don’t pigeons migrate?
A: That’s an interesting question and part of the answer lies in the fact that these birds are not native to the United States. Settlers brought rock pigeons to this continent in the early 1600s. On their home grounds in Europe, North Africa and Asia, they don’t migrate but live and nest on rocky cliffs. They’ve adapted to urban life well, treating tall buildings as their home cliffs. Their strong homing instinct makes them easy to train as homing, racing and messenger birds. Similarly, another nonnative species, the house sparrow, is nonmigratory, as well.
Frozen food
Q: We were surprised to see a male cardinal eating the freeze-dried mealworms we set out for the chickadees. Is this unusual?
A: Birds had to put on a layer of fat each day to fight the cold, and your cardinal figured out that mealworms are an excellent source of energy. Cardinals seem to be fairly adventurous birds that are willing to try new things — maybe this one noticed a chickadee carrying off a mealworm and was intrigued. Once the cardinal tried them, he found the dried worms to be a good way to stoke his inner furnace.
Owls in the ’hood
Q: A pair of great horned owls was hanging around our neighborhood this winter, and we could hear them hooting back and forth. The whole neighborhood is hoping they nest nearby, maybe in a large pine tree, and keep the rabbits under control.
A: Imagine having these large owls nesting right in the neighborhood. I think you and your neighbors can count on two things: Since they’re not nest-builders, the owls will need to adopt a nest built by another species (red-tailed hawk, crows, even squirrels) or a large break in a tree to settle into. And now that it’s spring, the owls will be feeding their voracious owlets, and rabbits may begin to disappear from the neighborhood.
Disappearing act
Q: We have robins nesting around our property from spring into July every year, and then they seem to disappear. Isn’t that too early for them to fly south? Where do they go?
A: Good question, and as you know, robins in our region raise at least two broods during the breeding season. As summer progresses and the second nesting period begins to wrap up, the males gather in parks and natural areas to feed and roost. As young robins become independent, they find these flocks. Females join them once they’ve finished raising their last brood. The robins will spend the final weeks of summer and fall fattening up and preparing for migration (although not all will leave).
Feisty red bird
Q: A male cardinal has been attacking our windows this past fall and winter. I know they will do this during breeding season, but he’s out there every day, attacking numerous windows. What gives with this bird?
A: You’re right, this behavior is not uncommon in the spring, when birds maintaining their territories will attack “competitors” they see reflected in windows. I checked with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and researcher Andrew Farnsworth says that your bird may be a highly dominant male who is trying to keep other cardinals out of his territory. Anything that cuts down on the reflectivity of your windows (cardboard on the outside, curtains closed inside, etc.) may help deter him.
Raptor meal
Q: We just happened to be looking out the window as a bald eagle held a struggling Canada goose down and began to rip off its feathers. The eagle fed for a while and then was joined by another, which we assumed was its mate. Were they pairing up this early?
A: I suspect that the hapless goose probably had an injury or illness that made it unable to escape the eagle’s talons. And at the time of your observation, early February, bald eagles had been building or refurbishing their nests for some weeks. Female bald eagles in our region begin laying eggs as early as mid-February. So the birds you saw were probably a nesting pair, and you may be lucky enough to spot the nest near your home.
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 | Apr 10, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
When Colin Hill was eight years old, a friend gave him a pigeon. ‘I brought it home and put it in the aviary with Mum’s budgies, but when my father came home he let it out and it flew straight back to my friend,’ he recalls.
‘When I appeared with it a second time, my father relented and built me a little pigeon loft at the bottom of the garden.’
It wasn’t long before Mr Hill acquired more birds and the obsession he calls ‘the pigeon bug’ bit harder when he realised it was possible to race the birds.
In the past, Mr Hill has owned up to 80 pigeons, but he currently has 28 – it takes roughly three hours a day to clean them out and exercise them.
‘I set up a deckchair in the garden and wait for them to come back. That’s the most exciting part, seeing them arrive and thinking of the distances they’ve covered,’ says Mr Hill, who’s raced pigeons from as far as Thurso on the north coast of Scotland and Pau in southern France.
Having recently been instrumental in setting up the ‘Pigeons at War’ exhibition, currently on display at Bletchley Park, Mr Hill points out that ‘not many people know that messenger pigeons saved hundreds of lives in the Second World War and 32 were awarded Dickin medals for gallantry’.
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 | Mar 26, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
LOS ALTOS — From the street, you’d never know what was hidden behind the tall fences and lush foliage of a large suburban Los Altos home. After walking through the garden gate, though, you know that Pandemonium Aviaries comes by its name naturally.
Amadeus, the one-legged Amazon Parrot, sings hello. Olivia and Ferguson, big ostrich-like birds called East African crowned cranes, screech a racket. African Greys, macaws, parakeets, rare doves and fancy pigeons each call out in their own language, above the rhythm of hundreds of fluttering wings.
Michele Raffin — a Stanford Business School graduate, entrepreneur, writer and stay-at-home mom — never intended to become a self-described “crazy bird lady.” Twenty-two years ago, she opened up her backyard to rescued birds. Her mission pivoted toward endangered bird conservation and breeding.
“The birds changed me,” Raffin said. In the business world, she said, there’s much pushing and striving. The birds have shown her that it’s more important to connect and help others. “Who I was as a person became more important than external achievements.”
Now, she’s looking for the next generation of stewards to offer a new home for her flock of nearly 400 birds.
Shortly after, she responded to an ad seeking a home for another white dove, then found herself with a half dozen.It all started with an injured white dove — the type released at weddings — discovered on the side of a road. Raffin wasn’t sure she even liked birds, but she doesn’t want any animal to suffer. Thinking it had been hit by a car, she took it to the vet and visited the bird every day until it succumbed to its wounds, which she learned had been inflicted by a hungry hawk.
Raffin didn’t know the first thing about birds, so she met people who could teach her. She befriended a bird breeder in Sebastopol, who gave her some birds that needed a home. At his Christmas party, she met a whole brood of elite breeders and birders. Later, Raffin went to zoo school in West Virginia to learn what she could about bird husbandry.
Her goal was to take in birds that nobody wanted, find them mates, and provide species-appropriate housing. Housed as pairs or flocks, they’re never isolated. “Who wants to be all alone?” Raffin asks.
The death of a female green-naped pheasant pigeon led to an epiphany: The urgent need to restore populations. The bird’s mate started crying and wouldn’t stop, yet when Raffin tried to find him a new companion, she discovered that there were only 32 birds, worldwide, left in captivity. Tribal feuds and land rights issues make it too difficult to initiate conservation in their native New Guinea.
“I had no idea there were so few left,” she said.
Raffin already had a number of these colorful pigeons given to her by zoos, breeders, agricultural societies, and fish and game conserves. So she decided to use them to build a species “bank” — like a crop seed bank — to ensure that there was enough genetic diversity to support a healthy population. If the species became extinct in the wild, these captive-bred birds could help restore it, she dreamed.
In 2009, Pandemonium Aviaries stopped taking in strays and converted to a nonprofit devoted to conservation-driven breeding. It specializes in six species of endangered birds from New Guinea and the Philippines.
Her project has successfully bred birds even after they’ve been pets, and it has shown that captive birds can raise their own.And those green-naped pheasant pigeons? After solving some challenges, Pandemonium now has the largest flock in the world — four generations, with 14 distinct bloodlines. They thrive under Raffin’s care.
But the achievement hasn’t come easy. It takes four hours a day to feed the birds. Pandemonium depends on major donors like Whole Foods and Costco to provide outdated produce. The food — strawberries, blueberries and papaya — must be sorted and chopped, then doled out with seeds and grains, so each flock gets its ideal diet.
Raffin doesn’t treat them as pets, preferring to retain the birds’ knowledge, culture and integrity. A sign in the aviary reads: “You were wild once; don’t let them tame you.”
Carol Stanley, president of the Avicultural Society of America, said Raffin “has brought awareness of the plight of the birds in the wild to the public.”
“Michele Raffin has put her heart and soul into increasing numbers in the endangered species she works with at Pandemonium Aviaries,” Stanley said. “She is focused, tireless and steadfast in Pandemonium’s mission.”
But Raffin never expected to house the birds this long. She had hoped to reintroduce them back into their native environment in New Guinea but it has been mostly destroyed by mining and agriculture.
It’s not the ideal way to conserve, she knows. In the past, breeders tried to establish colonies in their native habitats. But Raffin’s birds were destined to be pets or zoo animals, which is why she created a U.S.-based conservation. And it worked.
Although New Guinea is not safe for her pigeons now, Raffin is confident the nation will someday discover ecotourism, and native habitats will improve.
Her dream is to someday see them fly in the wild.But, until then, they need to go somewhere, she says — somewhere with lots of room to fly. Her organization is seeking corporate or institutional sponsors to continue the conservation effort, preferably someplace warm like southern California or Puerto Rico, where solar panels and heat lamps wouldn’t be needed.
The Amazon Parrot in her native Puerto Rico offers inspiration: Its numbers plummeted to just 13 in 1975 after decades of forest clearing, but have since rebounded after captive breeding and release.
“People do want to protect animals,” Raffin said, “but the best way to do that is to protect their habitat, the environment.”
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)
