Palo Alto closes road for pigeon waste cleanup

Parts of Embarcadero Road leading up to Stanford University will be closed about every night for the next two weeks.

The reason? Pigeon waste.

Hundreds of pigeons live in the beams underneath the Caltrain tracks, causing a “dirty and unsightly problem,” according to a city of Palo Alto news release.

The road and walkways will be closed between Emerson Street and El Camino Real, near the Town & Country Village and Palo Alto High School.

The cleanup and maintenance will take place between 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. from today through Dec. 1 and Dec. 5-8, city officials said.

Detours will be in place and the public should expect minor delays. And, contractors will try to keep noise to a minimum.

The city’s Public Works Department plans on installing bird netting during the closure to deter the birds from roosting in the structure in the future, city officials said in the news release.

The netting is in response to the continual cleanup costs associated with the birds living in the I-beams underneath the tracks.

 

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)

Shiga-toxin producing E. coli: Another reason to avoid pigeon poop

Avoid pigeon poop because of this emerging disease:

Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli infections in humans cause disease ranging from uncomplicated intestinal illnesses to bloody diarrhea and systemic sequelae, such as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Previous research indicated that pigeons may be a reservoir for a population of verotoxigenic E. coli producing the VT2f variant.

We used whole-genome sequencing to characterize a set of VT2f-producing E. coli strains from human patients with diarrhea or HUS and from healthy pigeons. We describe a phage conveying the vtx2f genes and provide evidence that the strains causing milder diarrheal disease may be transmitted to humans from pigeons.

The strains causing HUS could derive from VT2f phage acquisition by E. coli strains with a virulence genes asset resembling that of typical HUS-associated verotoxigenic E. coli.

Whole-genome characterization and strain comparison of VT2f-producing Escherichia coli causing hemolytic uremic syndrome

 

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)

Woman who slipped on pigeon poop gets €25,000

A bar assistant who slipped in pigeon poop at the open air restaurant in which she worked at Dublin’s Heuston railway station, has been awarded almost €25,000 damages against CIÉ.

Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Raymond Groarke, heard that Leann Walsh (25) tended tables on the decking outside the Heuston Refreshment Rooms.

Barrister Karl Finnegan, counsel for Ms Walsh, told the court she had been working outdoors on May 15, 2013, when she stepped in pigeon faeces and her right leg went from under her. Mr Finnegan said she fell on her knees and back, suffering soft tissue injuries to her ankle, knees and lower back.

Gerry Ryan, counsel for CIÉ, told the court the Irish Rail Company had entered a full defence. Barrister Sarah Corcoran, for the Heuston Refreshment Rooms, said her client had denied liability.

Ms Corcoran told the court the problem of pigeons was a serious one for her client, who had asked CIÉ to deal with the matter.

Judge Groarke, awarding Ms Walsh, of Merrion Court, Blackhall Street, Dublin, €22,500 damages with special damages of €2,148, said he would make an order in favour of the restaurant against CIÉ.

He said the restaurant had tried to get CIÉ to deal with the problem but CIÉ had decided not to take appropriate steps.

 

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)

Don’t Let Your Co-op Become a Pigeon Coop

Sane New Yorkers regard them as rats with wings, and they make use of the many tools to combat pigeon on their property. But things get complicated when a neighboring property owner doesn’t care that pigeons are emitting toxic piles of excrement in a shared space between buildings.

Such was the case on the Upper West Side, where pigeons set up housekeeping on a grocery store’s outdoor air vents and cooling system. Residents of a co-op that shares a courtyard with the grocery store hired an exterminator, but the nests remain. The store’s management did not respond to calls. What’s a co-op board to do?

“The mere presence of pigeon droppings in the courtyard is an unsanitary condition” and could be grounds for a violation, Kempshall McAndrew, a real estate lawyer at Anderson Kill, tells the New York TimesAsk Real Estate column. The board should keep the courtyard free of pigeon droppings in case an inspector visits.

Beyond that, McAndrew advises the co-op board to call the Department of Health and Mental Hygienedirectly, bypassing 311. The board should photograph the area, documenting the nests as the source of the problem. It should also keep records of calls to the grocery store and of the exterminator’s efforts.

If such measures fail? The board could sue the grocery store for an injunction and for monetary damages.

 

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)

Man Falls Off Ladder After Stealing 40 Pricey Pigeons With A Bucket On His Head

Miami police are looking for a man who stole pricey pigeons from a store while wearing a bucket on his head. The store’s owner says the same thing happened in May and if it continues, he’ll be out of business. Surveillance footage shows the robber searching through cages inside a gate before he finds the birds he wants. He collects the animals in one enclosure and then sets up a ladder to escape. Outside in the parking lot, he climbs a fence before falling off a ladder with the birds in hand.

 

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)

Peregrine falcon’s high-rise perch in Concord

A couple of weeks ago I answered a letter from Greg Thornbury, who thought he was seeing a peregrine falcon flying around high-rise building where he works in Concord.

I checked with Glenn Stewart at the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group, who said he wasn’t aware of any peregrines in that area, but that it was very possible.

Stewart says peregrines can thrive in developed areas because of the plentiful supply of pigeons. The tall buildings also mimic the cliffs that peregrines prefer for nesting sites. There are pergrines on Mount Diablo that often are seen in Lime Ridge Open Space that stretches from the base of the mountain in Walnut Creek into Concord.

Thornbury was able to get a photo of the bird and Stewart identified it as an adult peregrine falcon.

“It is a wonderful thing that a person can take a picture like this from a downtown office building,” Stewart says. “Gives a whole new meaning to urban wildlife.”

The Concord peregrine may nest on Mount Diablo, but come into the city to feed during the winter.

DEAR JOAN: I thoroughly enjoyed reading the letters about the foods some animals crave. As the wife of a veterinarian and a veterinary hospital owner for over 30 years, I have answered many emergency calls concerning ingested items.

With the holiday season coming, I would like to add some non-food items that we personally come across this time of year.

Never leave rubberbands, plastic foam peanuts, ribbon (especially the curling type), pieces of plastic or tinsel lying around. Once we treated a dog, a Lab, that had eaten a string of Christmas tree lights. All of these and much more can cause serious harm to pets, and frequently the lodged item will require emergency surgery, not a very merry event this time of year.

In addition, on the days after Thanksgiving and Christmas, we see turkey, ham and garbage overdoses. Please hide your leftovers!

May I add a few words in defense of veterinarians and their “exorbitant” bills? Nothing frustrates a veterinarian more than the Sunday afternoon emergency call when the owner says the animal has been sick since Friday and it may have eaten something bad. All a vet can offer at this point, without support staff, is a recommendation to the best emergency clinic in the area. It takes several employees to help x-ray and assist an emergency surgery. Veterinary emergency clinic services are life-saving, but expensive.

A veterinarian completes the same amount of schooling as an M.D., but unlike R.D.s (real doctors, as we jokingly call them), a veterinarian also must have the skills of a surgeon, a radiologist, a pharmacist and a pediatrician, just to name a few.

They must be able to diagnose and treat many different species, and that explains why a veterinary hospital, unlike a doctors’ office, is a full-service hospital, complete with a surgical suite, in-house lab, x-ray, pharmacy, and specialty pet food store. No one wants to drive their unhappy pets around to specialists, and my personal co-pay on my health insurance is just about the same as our office call.

 

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)