by Ryan Ponto | Jan 21, 2017 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent
For most birds, wings are for flying. For penguins, they’re for swimming. But for Rock Pigeons, they’re also for clapping. Startle a flock of Rock Pigeons, and you’ll hear something like this: Rock Pigeon wing claps.
When Rock Pigeons erupt into flight, some of them may slap their wings together above their bodies. It’s called a “wing clap.”
A male Rock Pigeon will do this when courting. He’ll posture and coo alongside a female …
… then fly sharply upward in an aerial display. The brisk series of claps is a shout-out of his courtship plans to the female watching from the rooftop.
Short-eared Owls have evolved wing-clapping, too. These medium-sized owls fly by day on long wings, rounded at the tip. And mostly they fly slowly, gracefully, like enormous moths. But when a male displays to a female or attempts to warn off an intruder, he snaps his wings together below his body in a burst of two to six claps per second, producing a sound that sounds remarkably like…applause.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jan 12, 2017 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent
DOWNTOWN — Sarah Thompson knows she’s not alone in her appreciation of Chicago’s massive pigeon population.
“Most wildlife runs away when you’re near it, but pigeons will just walk next to you, and they don’t care,” said Thompson, the creator of “Chicago Pigeon Society” Facebook group. “You’re able to watch them while you’re close to them.”
Thompson, a former Lakeview resident who works in the Gold Coast, created the page in mid-2013 simply because she’s “always liked pigeons.” Her group has only a handful of members, but there are at least two other Facebook pages devoted to pigeons in the Windy City: “Chicago Pigeons,” which has more than 1,000 followers, and “Pigeons of Chicago,” which has a few dozen.
The “Chicago Pigeons” administrator declined to comment, while the admin for “Pigeons of Chicago” did not respond. Both of those pages, like Thompson’s, feature photos of pigeons flying, hanging out and feeding on Chicago’s streets.
Thompson’s favorite pigeons are the ones who chill at Connors Park near her office in the Gold Coast. She visits the park during the work week around lunch time.
“Sometime people feed them, even in front of a sign telling them not to,” Thompson said.
Thompson said a pigeon landed on her head once as she waited for a bus on the North Side. But that experience didn’t faze her in the least.
“I like that they’re not afraid of people,” she said. “They’re kind of underappreciated. People think of them as pests, but I think they’re interesting.”
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 Ryan Ponto | Jan 11, 2017 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent
NEW CUMBERLAND — While the sight of pigeons may be nice to some, for others, including city officials, it has created cause for safety and structural concern to some of the buildings.
The topic of pigeons was discussed during last week’s City Council meeting. Several dozen of the birds often are spotted sitting along rooftops of buildings and other structures throughout the city.
Mayor Linda McNeil said she has often seen the pigeons — on one occasion numbering close to 100 — waiting for food. She also acknowledges the risk of structural damage to buildings, along with safety and health concerns, for residents due to the pigeons.
“There are, probably the last time I looked at them and saw them, there’s probably a hundred pigeons roosting on top of a building waiting to be fed,” McNeil said. “And they go down to be fed and come up and they wait until the next feeding.
“In the meantime, they roost on that one building and neighboring buildings, and it causes property damages to the roofs and to cars, and it’s just a big health concern.”
McNeil said council will need to look into ways to have property owners and landlords be more responsible in preventing the property damage and health issues due to the pigeons.
In a separate matter, but related to safety issues, council is in the process of creating a new ordinance, which requires an occupied residence in the city to have electric, gas (or both), water, trash pick-up service and sewer service.
“There are buildings here that have people living in them who sometimes have no water, sometimes use generators for their electricity, and for safety issues, we have to assume our responsibility in creating this ordinance and saying, ‘If there is an occupied residence in our city limits, it has to have electric, gas or both, water, trash pick-up and sewer service.”
McNeil said in the ordinance, in the early stages, building owners and landlords can face fines for being in noncompliance.
Meanwhile, another building that was brought up for discussion was right down the road the funeral home, that being the current New Cumberland Municipal Building.
Prior to serving as headquarters for city hall, the building served as the former New Cumberland School — which housed classes for students in first through 12th grade — and had been taken over by the city following the school’s closure, with many of the rooms rented out to businesses.
McNeil said council will need to make a decision regarding the building’s future noting the upcoming departure of the Hancock County Board of Education.
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 Ryan Ponto | Dec 31, 2016 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent
Last week the Japanese islands were attacked by a great cold wave blasting south from Siberia. Even in the Kanto area nighttime temperatures dropped below freezing, and some of the more shaded ponds are now covered by a thin layer of ice. In the sekki, a traditional Asian calendar system that divides the solar year into 24 equal segments based on changes in weather and the natural world, we are still in the Shokan or “Small Cold.” This Friday, however, will mark the start of the Daikan or “Big Cold”!
But there is no cause for concern. The Daikan will last only until the Risshun or “Start of Spring” on Feb. 4. In fact, the winter Doyo starts today. Doyo are 18 day periods preceding the official start of each of the four major seasons. They are considered to be unstable times when the weather and other factors can change rapidly without warning.
Japanese traditional almanacs advise extreme caution when starting new projects during one of the Doyo. For people thinking of getting into bird-watching, however, right now is actually a great time to begin. Birds are easier to spot when the trees are leafless. Also, with food in the forests depleted, birds are far more likely to spend time on open fields and lawns.
All that is needed to start birdwatching is a pair of binoculars. For beginners I recommend 8-power magnification. More powerful models suffer from blurring due to hand shake, and also afford a very narrow field of vision, making it hard to fix them on a small bird. Weight and size are always a trade-off with image quality. Models with large front lenses produce brighter images, but are bulkier and heavier.
All birds are excellent subjects for study, even the ubiquitous feral pigeons and native turtle doves, both of which are common in local parks and gardens. Feral pigeons, called dobato or kawarabato in Japanese, are all derived from a species known as the rock dove, native to Europe and the Mediterranean, which was domesticated at least 5000 years ago and perhaps even much earlier. The first pigeons were brought to Japan between 1500 and 1000 years ago.
Pigeons have a fine homing sense, and when taken away and released will fly straight back to their home loft. Throughout history humans have capitalized on this ability by using them to carry messages. Specially bred and trained pigeons also compete in races, and pure white strains are released ceremoniously at weddings, anniversaries and other auspicious occasions.
Feral pigeons come in a variety of colors and markings, but those close to the original wild rock dove have dark gray and green heads and chests, with lighter gray bodies. The wings are light gray, with two black stripes on the upper surface. The base of a pigeon’s top bill is covered by a patch of waxy skin, called a cere (romaku), that protects the nasal cavities. Most members of the Columbidae or Dove Family (hatoka) have ceres, as do parrots and parakeets, and many birds of prey.
The eastern turtle dove is about the same size as the domestic pigeon, but has a gray or pinkish-gray head, neck and chest, and the brownish wing feathers are tipped with a beautiful shade of rufous. For this reason this species was formerly known in English as the rufous turtle dove.
At this time of year the bill and cere are black or dark gray, but during the spring and summer breeding season the cere, as well as the bare skin surrounding the eye, turn purplish. At any time of year the kijibato’s best field mark is a patch of light gray and black lines clearly visible on the side of the neck.
To Japanese ears these doves’ soft cooing sounds like “De-deh-poh-poh.” Hato or bato are the generic Japanese terms for dove or pigeon. The turtle doves’ formal name is kijibato or “pheasant-dove,” but most local people call them yamabato or “mountain-dove.” The kijibato is native to Japan, and is considered to be the same subspecies as that found across central and eastern Asia. The birds in the Ryukyu Islands, however, are designated a separate subspecies.
Many birds have a crop (ebukuro), a part of the gastrointestinal tract where food is stored before being digested. In the pigeons and doves a semi-liquid substance, called crop milk or pigeon milk, sloughs off from the inner lining of the crop. Crop milk is very rich in both protein and fats, and is used to feed the squibs, as pigeon chicks are called.
Both males and females produce crop milk, which allows the Columbidae to raise their broods without depending heavily on insects and worms.
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 Ryan Ponto | Dec 30, 2016 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent
Scottish Parliament bosses look set to carry on flying hawks at Holyrood to scare away pigeons despite saying the number has come down as much as it is ever likely to.
Birds of prey were brought in eight years ago as a deterrent after other measures such as bird wire, netting and anti-roosting spikes all failed.
A year ago, the parliament said the £16,000 a year contract was due to be reviewed and Holyrood bosses were considering ending it.
Monthly monitoring had shown there were between 11 and 18 pigeons regularly on the Holyrood campus and officials felt it may not be possible to reduce it any further.
But no review has yet taken place and now the parliament says the future of the contract with NBC Bird and Pest Solutions will only be looked at when the bigger high-level maintenance contract comes up for renewal in October 2017.
And despite the previous suggestion that the use of birds of prey would probably come to an end, parliament officials now say it is likely to continue.
But MSPs questioned why Holyrood should carry on paying out money if the hawks have now done their work.
The pigeon problem plagued the Holyrood building right from the start with its many nooks and crannies proving attractive perches.
Pigeon poo and feathers were blown through vents on to researchers’ desks and some birds even got into MSPs’ offices.
Monthly monitoring reports for the past year, released under freedom of information, no longer give average totals for the number of pigeons counted at the Holyrood campus but do highlight hotspots, particularly the MSP block.
Some of the politicians working there urged a review.
Lothian Tory MSP Jeremy Balfour said: “If the contract runs out this year, it is a good time to review the whole situation. Just to renew it automatically would be a mistake.
“It’s quite a lot of money and if we have reached the optimum number [of pigeons] and the situation cannot be made any better, it is not the best use of public money.
“I will write to the chief executive and seek clarification of the position and ask if we have now got as much as we can out of it.”
And Lothian Green MSP Alison Johnstone also urged a review.
She said: “It’s important we know how effective this spending is. We should not continue with a contract that costs £16,000 a year unless we are clear it is proving effective.
“The evidence base must be available and I would welcome site of it to help parliament come to a decision as to whether or not this ongoing expenditure should be continued.”
A parliament spokeswoman said there were no plans to end the NBC contract early.
She added: “Like many buildings in Edinburgh, a small number of pigeons visit regularly.
“We are aware the problem can never be fully eradicated and it is likely we will continue with the current approach.”
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 Ryan Ponto | Dec 17, 2016 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent
Summary: Having lost their expensive birds to theft, many say that police seldom pay attention to their ‘pigeon theft’ complaints. A rash of racing pigeon thefts across the city have left many breeders high and dry. But cases where the stolen birds were in large numbers, it is considered a serious crime. Many instances over the last few weeks had shown that there was very little help from police in rescuing the birds, breeders said. Even if the police manage to apprehend the thieves, the task of proving ownership of the birds is onerous.
Even if the police manage to apprehend the thieves, the task of proving ownership of the birds is onerous. — File photo | Photo Credit: R_Shivaji Rao more-in A rash of racing pigeon thefts across the city have left many breeders high and dry. Having lost their expensive birds to theft, many say that police seldom pay attention to their ‘pigeon theft’ complaints. For years now breeding of exotic birds has been lucrative business for professional breeders.
However, of late, protecting these birds from thieves has become a difficult task. Many instances over the last few weeks had shown that there was very little help from police in rescuing the birds, breeders said. According to them, police authorities have their hands full with law and order cases and seldom show any interest in recovering the stolen birds. R.T. Venkatesh, a resident of Marai Malai Nagar, has been a bird enthusiast and a breeder for several years.
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)
