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Human infestation with bird mite

Human infestation with bird mite, but What are bird mites?

Bird mites are found in the warmer regions of the world, including Australia.

There are several species of bird mite but the most common species affecting humans is the domestic Starling mite, Ornithonyssus bursa from the family Macronyssidae.

Bird mites are:

small (less than 1mm long) mites with 8 legs
very mobile
semi-transparent in colour until blood has been digested when they appear reddish to blackish
oval in shape with a sparse covering of short hair.

Bird mites are naturally found where birds (such as pigeons, starlings, sparrows and poultry) and their nests are located.

However, in the first few weeks after birds leave their nests, bird mites may infest homes in search of a blood-meal from humans. Bites from bird mites can cause severe irritation.

This is a report of a case of bird mite infestation which occurred in Wollongong in mid-December 1996. The individual suffered hundreds of bites, most of which were marked by itchy red papules 3-4 mm in diameter. Tiny mobile parasites (< 1 mm) collected from the skin and adjacent bedroom wall were identified as bird mites from the family Gamasidae, most probably from the genus Ornithonyssus. The source of the infestation was a starling nest under the eaves adjacent to the bedroom. The report summarises the ways bird mite bites can be distinguished from other insect and arachnid bites. If bird mite infestation is not correctly diagnosed, families who attempt to repeatedly treat it as if it were lice or scabies may incur considerable expense until the source of infestation is eliminated.

Bird mite

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Parasitic bird mites

What are Parasitic bird mites? Mites in the genus Dermanyssus are external parasites of birds, rodents and other mammals. The most common member of this group is the Chicken Mite that infests poultry roosts and wild bird nests. The chicken mite feeds primarily at night when the birds return the nest or roast area. They hide during the day in nearby cracks, crevices and other protected sites. These mites are known to infest homes and bite people when bird nests are built on homes. Repeated bites can result in a rash and intense itching. Adult mites can live four or five months or so without a blood meal and they can persist in the home after the source has been removed.

Control of these parasites in homes begins with locating and removing the source of the infestation. If the residence has a history of rodent problems, measures must be taken to reduce the rodent population. Another source may be pet rodents like gerbils or hamsters. Once the nest or source is removed the surrounding area should be treated with a residual insecticide like Dursban (Ortho Home Pest Insect Control). The inside of the home can be treated with synergized pyrethrins (Raid) if the mites are found throughout the house.

Controlling these mites in chicken coops, barns and other structures where chickens roost is more difficult. Sprays containing Rabon and Ravap should be applied to all surfaces and litter near where the birds roost at night. Birds can be treated with insecticides registered specifically for this purpose in severe cases. Be sure to treat the vent area where some mite species are known to favor.

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Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca to keep the Parasitic bird mites away from your home.

Woman Quarantined With Bird Mites

June 6, 2008— — A Long Island woman was put in a quarantined hospital room Thursday night after emergency workers came to her home and found her skin crawling with nearly invisible parasites that doctors believe are bird mites.

The woman, Nina Bradica, 45, of Levittown, N.Y., called 911 complaining of chest pains. Police and firefighters placed the woman in a protective hazardous-materials suit to transport her to a county hospital.

“She is in stable but less-than-comfortable condition,” said Dr. Ken Steier of Nassau University Medical Center. “Based on what was found in her home, this may be a bird mite infestation. We’ve collected three specimens that appear to be mites and have sent them to the CDC.”

Bird mites are tiny parasitic insects about a half a millimeter long and are usually invisible to the the naked eye. People infested with mites break out in red bumps that can cause intense itching and irritation.

Steier said Bradica is in “a clearly marked quarantined room. Those entering must wear caps, gowns, gloves and shoes and no one is permitted to come in direct physical contact with her.”

He said there were “no documented cases of bird mites causing severe internal illnesses” but called them a “nuisance that produce extreme itching and scratching. They can live in your clothes, sheets, linens and closets. They don’t really suck your blood, but live on the skin.”

Steier said there was a nest of wild birds on the roof of Bradica’s house that connected to the woman’s bathroom through a vent.

“Mites are ubiquitous in wild birds of all types,” the doctor said. “They live on birds and when the birds leave their nests they look for a mammal host; sometimes those mammals are humans.”

She is being treated with “intravenous fluids, local skin care and benedryl for the itching.”

When contacted by ABC News, Bradica referred calls to her lawyer, Kenneth Mollins.

Mollins said Bradica was a tenant in the home, which records indicate is owned by Louis and Nancy Demetro.

The lawyer said the home was divided into two apartments with another individual living in the other apartment.

Mollins said his client had complained for months to the landlord about the infestation and had shown the mites to an exterminator.

“She doesn’t plan on moving back into house,” he said.

County public health officials will not characterize the infestation until tests confirm the bugs are actually bird mites.

“Objects that appeared to be mites were collected and sent to a lab,” said Dr. Maria Torroella Carney, the Nassau County Commissioner of Health.

“It is still unknown what is really there. Out of that concern, we will act with caution. We still don’t know what we’re dealing with here,” she said.

Carney said investigators will be looking at the home to determine if there was a bird’s nest on the roof and if that was the cause of the infestation.

“Presumably, if there is a nest in the home, the potential for mites is there.”

Carney said that the infestation appeared to be localized to Bradica’s home and there was “no public threat and no need for alarm.”

She said Bradica’s neighbors had not been warned of any potential threat.

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What Are In Starling Droppings

What Are In Starling Droppings? Dropping accumulation under roosts can encourage histoplasmosis fungus to grow in the soil. When disturbed, spores can become airborne, and people can breathe them in. Most people have no apparent ill effects. A few develop respiratory disease and a very few develop disease of other organs.

Histoplasmosis fungus is common to soils in the eastern and central United States. As many as 80 percent of people tested in these areas prove to have already been exposed without knowing. It is important to note that the birds (and bats) associated with this disease don’t carry or spread it; they simply provide the rich nutrients that can allow it to grow and proliferate. Many factors will go into whether or not conditions are right for this as well as how people might become exposed. Certainly soil disturbance plays an important role in risk of exposure.

People diagnosed with histoplasmosis typically work where bird or bat droppings accumulated (poultry farmers, contractors clearing old buildings) or explore caves where bats lived rather than merely live near starling roosts. Despite the very small risk of harm to people, histoplasmosis has been used to justify killing starlings where the nuisance of large roosts annoys people.

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Common starling problems and solutions

You may be looking at this article because you recently have starling problems. In the short article we are going to share with you what are some common solutions for starling problems.

Prevention Starling

It’s best to keep starlings out before they start to build their nest. Ask yourself, “Have they nested in a vent before?” “Is there a cavity on the house they might like?” Seal any openings before they appear and start building. If you discover them building before eggs are laid, remove the nest and appropriately cover the opening they were using.

Sealing openings

Use hardware cloth, metal flashing, or commercial vent covers to seal opening, (the commercially available ones are probably the easiest to work with). Lighter material, such as plastic netting or window screening, rarely keeps determined starlings out. Any vent covering you use for starlings should be checked periodically to make sure the vent is working properly and is not impeded by a build-up of any material, such as lint from a dryer.

Identifying an active nest

You’ll know there are chicks in the nest when you hear the sound of begging nestlings. Active nests are also often marked by a fan-shaped trail of smeared droppings below a corner joint or other entrance to a cavity. Birds using vents make noise that the vent itself tends to amplify. Act right away if you hear scratching and shuffling.

Nests in building cavities and vents

Starlings will use any hole they can get into if it leads to a suitably sized cavity. Dryer, stove, and bathroom vents are ideal. A vent with a metal flap may not deter them: they can hover or perch while raising the flap to get into vents.

Vents with nests inside may not function properly. This can be inconvenient or, in some cases, unsafe. The nesting material may need to be removed immediately.

Sometimes young starlings get caught in vents, falling into open spaces that they can’t escape. This may be especially true of microwave and stove hood exhaust vents. To help a starling out of one of these vents, you may need to remove the hood or microwave, so you might want to call a professional.

If eggs or young are already in the nest, can this vent be left unused until they fledge? If so, treat this nest like a nest in an attic or similar cavity.

Nests in attics and similar cavities

If you find eggs or young birds in attics or similar cavities, leave them be. You may have to wait about 12 days for eggs to hatch and up to 3 weeks for young to leave the nest. Check the nest frequently—once the young leave the nest, remove the nesting material, and seal the openings.

Removing the nest

If young are present in a vent or other space, and there is no option to leave them there until they fledge, the parents can still raise their young in an alternate nest.

Make a substitute nest from a wicker basket, a plastic gallon jug, or a birdhouse designed for medium-sized woodpeckers.
Cut an U shape opening in the plastic jug and flip the “door” up to keep rain out.
Attach the substitute nest as close as possible to the original nest, but in as much shade as possible.
Carefully remove nesting material and nestlings, and place in substitute nest.

Noisy nestlings usually attract the parents who will continue to care for them. Watch the substitute nest to see that the adults return. They should not take more than a half hour or so, as growing young birds need constant feeding. If the adults do not return to nestlings, contact a wildlife rehabilitator in your area for advice.

Finally and importantly, if it was a vent that you vacated, promptly install a vent cover to keep other starlings, and other birds, out.

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What about Starlings

What about starlings? Starlings are cavity nesters and will use vents and ducts in homes to build nests and raise young

European starlings are widespread across North America. They eat a wide variety of foods and are willing to use a wide variety of places to nest and roost. This flexible nature helps them thrive in cities and suburbs as well as on farms. They are one of only a few birds who live in otherwise barren industrial urban wastelands.

Starlings only nest in cavities and are happy to use those provided by people—stove, dryer, and exhaust fan vents, for example—are popular nest sites, along with the bird houses we put up.

But people also complain about starlings getting in the trash. And settling in numbers onto lawns, where they are undoubtedly providing a service by eating insects.

More seriously, large flocks—up to tens of thousands of birds—sometimes roost in urban places where their noise and droppings are extremely unwelcome.

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Woodpecker Problems

There are top 3 woodpeckers problems woodpecker problems

Woodpecker Problem #1 – The most commonly given reason for woodpeckers hammering on your home is that they are searching for food, however this is NOT correct. Woodpeckers are most likely not searching for food when hammering on your house. If you have wood shingles, you may want to have an inspector look for insect problems, but it is unlikely an insect problem that you have could be a woodpecker food source.

Woodpecker Problem #2 – Woodpeckers are hammering (or drumming) to announce their territory, much like a cardinal singing his song i
in spring. The drumming is loud, but generally not very destructive or as long-lived in duration as the third reason. This is most common in late winter and through the breeding season, i.e. late-February though June.

Solution: This kind of activity can best be stopped by making the drumming site unsuitable for noisemaking. This can be done by covering it with noise-deadening material such as canvas, foam rubber, a sheet, newspaper, heavy plastic, or ¾ inch bird netting attached to the building across the focal area. For specific exclusion methods, see Woodpecker Exclusion Method section below.

Woodpecker Problem #3 – The third reason entails the real “nuisance” issue. It is called excavating (or chiseling) whereby either a male or a female constructs a nest or roost hole with a cavity that would typically be placed in trees. This is the most common cause of damage and can be very destructive. If you see a hole at least 2 inches in diameter, you most likely have a woodpecker that is excavating a nesting cavity. Unfortunately, some woodpeckers try to place such a cavity in the side of a house, barn, utility pole, fence post, or other man-made structure.

Solution: Problems of this nature may be avoided by leaving dead snags or by hanging woodpecker nest boxes. Installing a bird box, much like a bluebird or purple martin box, at the site of excavation with either deter the bird or it will use the box for nesting. Many stores sell bird boxes for those not choosing to build their own. For other exclusion methods, see following section.

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How to prevent woodpeckers from damaging your home?

How to prevent woodpeckers from damaging your home? Here are some tips on how you can get rid of woodpeckers and other insects near your home if they become problematic and pose high risks.

Remove prune branches or large trees near your home and on areas where they peck so that they will be encouraged to stay in a thicker cover because they will feel more exposed and vulnerable when you remove the trees. As a result, they will be redirected and will be discouraged to peck your home.
Provide an easier food source to them instead of allowing them to find insects on your home. Jelly, Suet, and mealworms are some of the food sources that you can consider.
Give them a ready-made cavity by creating a birdhouse for them, especially if their activity is a prelude to nesting. Place it near or over the area where the pecking has occurred.
Replace shingles or use wood putty to cover the holes that are already drilled woodpeckers.
Prevent any insects from invading the weakened area and disguise the site by painting or staining the repair over.
If the woodpecker activity becomes out of control or insects are already feeding on the wooden structure of your home, it is better for you to hire pest control professionals to inspect your home. Woodpeckers will feed somewhere else if insects will be eliminated.

If these simple redirection strategies still don’t work, here are some stronger way to get rid of them completely:

Add reflective objects that are bright enough to scare them away. Wind chimes and recorded bird alarms can also help to scare them.
Wooden areas where they find it attractive to peck can be covered with netting, cloth, or foam. Fishing line or chicken wires can also be added, 1-2 inches away from the surface to keep them from reaching the wooden structure of your home.
Use decoys such as carved or plastic owls and hawks can also be placed on areas where they are pecking so they can be deterred.

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Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca to prevent woodpeckers from damaging your home

Why Do Woodpeckers Like To Hammer On Houses?

Woodpeckers usually hammer on houses for one of four reasons:

Because it makes a satisfyingly loud noise that proclaims the bird’s territory and attracts a mate. If the birds are drumming for these reasons, they will most likely stop once breeding has begun in the spring (they don’t drum when looking for food).
Because the bird wants to excavate a nest or roost hole. If the woodpeckers are creating a nest cavity, the hole will be round and large. Nesting holes are usually built in the beginning of the breeding season between late April and May. If you need to evict woodpeckers from your home, aim to do so either before or after the nesting season.
Because it is feeding on insects living in the siding. If the birds are looking for insects, the holes will be small and irregular. You may have to call an exterminator to get rid of the underlying insect problem. Woodpeckers are particularly fond of the larvae of carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, and grass bagworms. .
Because they are storing food. If you are located in the West, Acorn Woodpeckers peck dozens or hundreds of acorn-sized holes into large trees or houses, and stash a single fresh acorn into each one.

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Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca for any woodpeckers hammer problems

How can I get woodpeckers to leave my house alone?

Once you know why woodpeckers are hammering on your house, you can develop strategies for stopping them. Take a look at Can Woodpecker Deterrents Safeguard My House? for ideas on how to deal with troublesome woodpeckers. Wood Pecker Problems

Researchers at the Lab of Ornithology have performed studies relating nuisance woodpeckers. One study, External characteristics of houses prone to woodpecker damage, found that lighter colored aluminum and vinyl sidings are less likely to be damaged by woodpeckers. Another paper, Assessment of Management Techniques to Reduce Woodpecker Damage to Homes, tested six common long-term woodpecker deterrents: life-sized plastic owls with paper wings, reflective streamers, plastic eyes strung on fishing line, roost boxes, suet feeders, and a sound system which broadcasts woodpecker distress calls followed by the call of a hawk. Researchers found that nothing deterred woodpeckers all the time, and only the streamers worked with any consistency.

Homeowners have reported some success deterring woodpeckers with windsocks, pinwheels, helium balloons (shiny, bright Mylar balloons are especially effective), strips of aluminum foil, or reflective tape. Other people keep woodpeckers away by covering an affected area with burlap or attaching bird netting (the kind designed for gardens and fruit trees) from overhanging eaves to the siding. If you use netting, make sure it is taut and set at least 3 inches from the siding to avoid birds pecking through it. Close off openings on the sides to prevent birds from becoming trapped between the netting and the house.

You may also want to plug the holes with wood putty to discourage further activity. If a woodpecker has dug a roost hole into your house, make sure there are no birds inside before sealing it up.

Never use any sticky “repellent,” such as Tanglefoot Pest Control, Roost-No-More, or Bird Stop, outdoors. These types of products can fatally injure birds and other animals.

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Revival of the Passenger Pigeon?

Revival of the Passenger Pigeon? Not to be confused with the carrier pigeon (a domesticated bird trained to transport messages), the passenger pigeon is believed to have constituted 25 to 40 percent of the total U.S. bird population at one time. Its main nesting area was in the region of the Great Lakes and east to New York, where it relied on mixed hardwood forests to protect and sustain its massive flocks of up to 5 million birds at a time on a diet of beechnuts, acorns, chestnuts, seeds and berries, along with worms and insects in the spring and summer. Passenger pigeons built low-hanging, flimsy nests that often left eggs on the ground, but were able to successfully reproduce thanks to their sheer numbers: Predators such as raccoons, foxes, possums, hawks, eagles and snakes could gorge themselves on pigeon eggs without exhausting the supply.

This system, known as “predator satiation,” quickly broke down when humans became the species’ primary predator. Though humans had long used passenger pigeons for food to some extent, and farmers had killed them for causing damage to crops in such huge numbers, this didn’t reduce their numbers–until a mass slaughter by professional hunters began in the 1800s. Ironically, the birds were particularly vulnerable to such hunting because they nested in such large numbers. With no laws restricting the number of pigeons killed or the way they were taken, hunters placed baited traps or decoys, shot at nesting sites, knocked the birds out of their nests with long sticks or placed pots of burning sulphur under the trees so that fumes would daze the pigeons and cause them to drop out of their nests.

By the 1850s, hundreds of thousands of passenger pigeons were being killed for private consumption or sale, sometimes for as little as 50 cents a dozen. The cheap pigeon meat was fed to slaves, among others. By 1860, people noticed that the number of passenger pigeons had decreased, but no action was taken to stop the mass killing. Passenger pigeons had largely disappeared from American skies by the early 1890s, and the last known sighting in the wild occurred in 1900. “Martha,” the last known surviving passenger pigeon, lived all of her 29 years at the Cincinnati Zoological Society. After her death in 1914, she was frozen into a 300-pound block of ice and shipped to the Smithsonian Institution, where she was mounted for display as part of the museum’s bird collection, one of the largest in the world.

Now, nearly a century after Martha’s death, scientists believe they can bring her species back to life, using techniques worthy of the 1990s science-fiction/action blockbuster “Jurassic Park.” With funding from Revive and Restore, a group dedicated to the de-extinction of recently lost species, the young biologist Ben J. Novak is spearheading efforts to use DNA taken from passenger pigeon specimens in museums and fill it in with fragments from a living species, the band-tailed pigeon. The reconstituted genome would then be inserted into a band-tailed pigeon stem cell, creating a germ cell (an egg-and-sperm precursor). When the germ cell is injected into young band-tailed pigeons and these pigeons reproduce, their offspring would come as close as possible to expressing the passenger pigeon genes. The “de-extinction” process is different from cloning, in that it uses a variety of DNA from different passenger pigeons, meaning that the offspring produced would be as unique as any bird from an original passenger pigeon flock.

Most experts acknowledge that recreating the passenger pigeon in this way is technically possible, based on the success scientists have had mapping the woolly mammoth genome by using elephant DNA, among other experiments. But significant challenges still exist, particularly when it comes to reintroducing the passenger pigeon into the wild, given the vastly different ecosystem it would encounter in the modern world. Much of the bird’s breeding and wintering habitats are gone due to deforestation, and its primary breeding season food (beech mast, the nuts of a beech tree) now exists only in limited quantities. And with likely flocks of only a few thousand of the new pigeons (as opposed to 5 million) the species’ mass tactics of survival wouldn’t be able to protect them from predators.

Novak, for one, told the Washington Post that he believes people are sufficiently committed to the de-extinction of the passenger pigeon to overcome such obstacles. History may help his cause, as the extinction of the passenger pigeon did play a significant role in arousing public interest in the need for stronger conservation laws. In any case, only time will tell, as scientists estimate it will take at least a decade to produce a flock of new passenger pigeons large enough to release into the wild.

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Japanese pigeon skips local race, lands on Vancouver Island instead

A Japanese racing pigeon truly went the distance, after he overshot a 1,000-kilometre race in his native country and instead traveled across the Pacific Ocean and ended up on Vancouver Island.

The remarkable bird was tracked back to Japan, where he was released May 10 in the northern province of Hokkaido to take part in a local race.

The one-year-old bird was set to compete along with 8,000 other pigeons in his native land, but instead was discovered on June 6 at Canadian Forces Base Comox near Courtenay, B.C.

The bird was turned over to the Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society, where staff nursed him back to health.

Maj Birch, founder and manager of MARS, told CTVNews.ca Friday that the male bird was very ill.

“He was very weak, very thin and we did a test and found that he had a very heavy parasite load,” she said, adding that the bird was treated with a combination of fluids, food and medication.

Birch said she is not sure how the pigeon was able to make the trans-Pacific crossing, or which route he took. She added that this is not the first bird from Japan to end up on British Columbia’s shores.

“We don’t actually know whether he took that route or whether he managed to catch a freighter or several freighters” she said.

“There’s no way of knowing that, so we can only imagine that he had a wonderful journey,” she said with a laugh. “Because he was found at our air force base, maybe he rode the plane.”

Thanks to a tag on the bird’s leg, the society was able to identify and later contact the owner of the champion pigeon.

Owner Hiroyasu Takasu said he was shocked to hear the bird had survived.

“(Birds) usually reach their limit in a week, with no food or water. This is a superior pigeon,” he told ABC News.

He noted that only around 20 per cent of the birds that raced last month were able to finish the race.

He added that the bird was never given a name, because pigeons are only named after they return home.

However, Takasu declined to have the bird returned to Japan by plane, citing fears that excessive travel might put added strain on its health.

This led to some initial searching to find the pigeon a home, as he is essentially considered an “illegal alien” who arrived on Canadian shores without being imported, Birch said.

“I was concerned that there may be issues in trying to find a home for him here,” she said, adding that the society is not a sanctuary but a rehabilitation centre.

Luckily, an official with the Mid-Island Racing Club in Nanaimo, B.C. has agreed to adopt the bird. The club is reportedly considering breeding it to produce more “superior” pigeons.

This may be a smart move, as it was the pigeon mother who reportedly won the local Japanese race.

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Pigeon King scam, 7-year prison term for Galbraith

Pigeon King scam, 7-year prison term for Galbraith.

KITCHENER – The folksy force behind a huge pigeon-breeding scam targeting conservative religious communities was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison.

Arlan Galbraith, 67, was convicted of fraud for luring hundreds of Canadian and U.S. farmers – mostly Mennonites, Amish and Hutterites – to raise birds at lucrative buy-back prices.

Investors lost an estimated $20 million when Pigeon King International, based in offices in a Waterloo commercial plaza, collapsed under its own weight in the summer of 2008.

Galbraith, who got his hands dirty and often did media interviews in overalls, insisted the eight-year-old business was a legitimate venture that was sabotaged by critics jealous of his success.

But after a month-long trial in Superior Court in Kitchener at which he entertained onlookers while representing himself, jurors concluded otherwise in December.

They accepted the prosecution’s contention the business was an unsustainable pyramid scheme that required more and more new investors to pay existing ones.

Crown attorney Lynn Robinson, who argued for up to 12 years in prison, called a former salesperson for the company to explain why Galbraith targeted traditional communities for sales.

Bill Top, who later resigned and actively warned people about the pigeon scam, said he once heard Galbraith and his former wife ridiculing those groups for their simple lifestyles.

“The strongest comment he made … was they were aliens and he didn’t know why they would live that way in this day and age,” Top told the hearing. “He thought it was a joke.

“It was business. It was money in his pocket. I don’t know if there was a

While promoting the scheme, Galbraith portrayed himself as the saviour of the family farm for giving farmers an opportunity to make money breeding pigeons.

Under the terms of five or 10-year contracts, he agreed to buy all the offspring back at rates virtually guaranteeing lucrative profits.

Early investors were told he intended to sell pigeons to hobbyists interested in them for sport.

But by the end of the scheme, Galbraith’s pitch had morphed into establishing a vast network of breeders to process baby pigeons for meat and rival the chicken industry.

Although he had plans drawn up for a plant in a remote area of northern Ontario, it was still years away from being built.

In the meantime, Galbraith’s obligations under the buy-back deals had mushroomed to more than $350 million.

Had investors been found to cover that amount, jurors were told, the commitment over the next decade would have been more than $3 billion.

Despite bringing in $42 million in the last four years, Galbraith also went personally bankrupt after the collapse of the company. As a result, there was no hope of restitution for victims.

“There is no money at the end of the rainbow to give back to these folks,” Robinson said.

After ignoring pointed advice from judges and representing himself at the complicated trial, Galbraith finally hired a lawyer for the sentencing.

David North stressed Galbraith didn’t live a lavish lifestyle or sock away money, redistributing it instead to other investors. Farmers who got in on the deal early actually made money.

Arguing for a sentence of less than six years, he also said Galbraith has lost up to 40 pounds since going into custody following his conviction.

“It would be a crushing sentence for someone who is quickly becoming an old man,” North said of the prosecution’s call for nine to 12 years. “And to what end, to what end?”

Looking gaunt and worn in a dark suit hanging off his frame, Galbraith was uncharacteristically silent when given that opportunity to address Justice Gerry Taylor before the prison term was imposed.

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homing pigeon mystery solved

Homing pigeon mystery solved. According to Keeton, a mystery of pigeon released at Castor Hill and the town of Weedsport consistently took the same wrong turn when they departed. Meanwhile, birds that were released from Jersey Hill tended to head off in random directions, but with one exception: all of the birds that departed from the hill on 13 August 1969 returned home successfully having taken the correct bearing. Explaining that Keeton had already ruled out the possibility of a disturbance in the local magnetic field, Hagstrum recalls, ‘Bill asked if we geologists had an idea what might be going on at these sites’. Pigeon Mystery

Several years after Keeton’s lecture Hagstrum came up with a possible solution to the problem when he read that pigeons can hear incredibly low frequency ‘infrasound’. Explaining that infrasound — which can generated by minute vibrations in the planet surface caused by waves deep in the ocean — travels for thousands of kilometers, Hagstrum wondered whether homing pigeons are listening for the distinctive low frequency rumble of their loft area to find their bearing home. In which case, birds that could not hear the infrasound signal, because the release site was shielded from it in some way, could not get their bearing and would get lost. Hagstrum decided to investigate the meteorological conditions on the days of unsuccessful releases to find out if there was something in the air that could explain the pigeons’ disorientation. In The Journal of Experimental Biology, he publishes his discovery that Keeton’s lost pigeons could not hear the infrasound signal from their home loft because it was diverted by the atmosphere.

However, to make this discovery, Hagstrum had to first reconstruct the atmospheric conditions on the days when pigeons had been released from the three locations. Having successfully installed a complex acoustics program — HARPA — with the help of USGS computer scientist Larry Baker and using accurate temperature, wind direction and speed measurements taken at local weather stations on those days, Hagstrum reconstructed the atmospheric conditions. Then, he calculated how infra sound travelled from the loft through the atmosphere, refracting through layers in the air and bouncing off the ground, to find out if Jersey Hill was shaded from the loft’s infra sound homing beacon and how the signal from the loft was channeled by the wind and local terrain to Castor Hill and Weedsport.

Amazingly, on all of the days when the birds vanished from Jersey Hill, Hagstrum could see that the loft’s infrasonic signal was guided away from the ground and high into the atmosphere: the birds could not pick it up. However, on 13 August 1969, the atmospheric conditions were perfect and this time the infrasonic signal was guided directly to the Jersey Hill site. And when he calculated the paths that the loft’s infrasonic signal traveled to Castor Hill and Weedsport they also explained why the birds consistently took the wrong bearing. The terrain and winds had diverted the infra sound so that it approached the release site from the wrong direction, sending the birds off on the wrong bearing.

Explaining that the birds must use the loft’s infrasonic homing beacon to get their bearing before setting the direction for their return flight according to their sun compass, Hagstrum says, ‘I am a bit surprised that after 36 years I finally answered Bill Keeton’s question to the Cornell Geology Department’, adding that he is particularly pleased that he was able to use Keeton’s own data to solve the pigeon mystery.

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Rare pigeon heist in Abbotsford

Rare pigeon heist in Abbotsford a group of pigeons

Police have charged a 29-year-old Abbotsford man with stealing some rare pigeons, and they believe he may be part of a ring responsible for numerous livestock and fowl thefts in the Fraser Valley.

William James Balice was arrested on Canada Day after 365 birds, mostly pigeons, were reported stolen June 28 from a farm in the 2700 block of Lefeuvre Road. He has been charged with possession of stolen property and break and enter.

Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said the stolen purebred pigeons are highly sought-after by the bird-show community and sell for $60 to $100 per bird. The breeds taken included the American Roller, the Muffed Tumbler, the West of England Tumbler and Helmet.

Balice was allegedly found in possession of some of the birds, and had listed them for sale on craigslist.

MacDonald said the rarity of the pigeons made them easy to identify, but tracking down the other missing animals has been more difficult.

Abbotsford Police created a position, called LEO (livestock enforcement officer), to deal specifically with the thefts of chickens, pigeons, ducks, goats and sheep.

The incidents began last fall. Two Abbotsford sites were hit in November and February, resulting in the heist of 5,300 pigeons that are sold as meat — known as squab – for $4 to $10 each.

Also this year, close to 20 Boer goats were taken from a property on Downes Road, and hundreds of chickens were stolen from two Abbotsford farms at the end of May.

In Langley, the thefts included 22 lambs, six ducks and 65 chickens from three properties in March. One of those farms was also targeted in December, when 17 ducks were taken.

A farm in Chilliwack was hit in November, when seven pregnant goats were stolen. Six of them were later located on a property in Langley. At the time, Chilliwack RCMP estimated that 60 goats had been swiped from the community.

Balice next appears in Abbotsford provincial court on Friday on the charges related to the pigeon heist. He is also scheduled to plead guilty that day to a previous charge (from March 18) of driving while prohibited.

Balice is also among a group of five charged with break and enter, theft and trespassing in Maple Ridge on March 29, and is next due in Port Coquitlam provincial court on July 13.

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Darwin right proved by pigeon genomes

Darwin right proved by pigeon genomes. Humans have shaped the domestic pigeon into hundreds of breeds of various shapes, colours and attributes — a diversity that captivated Charles Darwin, who even conducted breeding experiments on his own pigeons. Now, a number of domestic and feral pigeon genomes have been sequenced for the first time, giving scientists a resource for studying the genetics of how these traits evolved. pigeon perched on a bar.

The study, published online today in Science¹, gives insight into the genetics of both ‘fancy’ domestic breeds and plain street pigeons and supports their common origin from the wild rock dove (Columba livia). “We go from having virtually no genetic or genomic resources available for the pigeon to being able to map regions associated with particular traits,” says team member Michael Shapiro, a biologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

All in the family

The Utah team, along with Jun Wang and colleagues at BGI-Shenzhen in China and scientists at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, sequenced a complete ‘reference’ genome from a breed called the Danish tumbler. The researchers also sequenced the pigeon genomes of 36 different fancy breeds and of two feral birds from different regions of the US.

The study fills in knowledge about the relationships between breeds, many of which are centuries old with origins in the Middle East. Darwin argued that all domestic pigeon breeds descended from the wild rock dove. Shapiro says this study puts data behind that argument, as all the breeds sequenced are more similar genetically to one another than to another, closely related, species of pigeon, C. rupestris. It also found that street pigeons are genetically similar to racing homing pigeons, which frequently escape into the wild.

Ornament and utility

One question is whether similar traits in different breeds, such as flouncy leg feathers or short beaks, are caused by the same genetic mutations. The researchers analysed head crests, feathers growing in the reverse direction to normal that vary from short tufts to outrageous manes that envelop the head. Breeding studies by pigeon fanciers suggested that head crests were caused by a simple recessive mutation. Using software developed for finding genes that underlie human diseases, the researchers analysed crested and uncrested breeds, and discovered a mutation in a gene that matched the crests in all cases. The results suggest that the mutation evolved just once in the species.

Head crests, Shapiro said, are “one of many traits that we see in domestic pigeons that have a correlate in lots of natural species of birds,” where they are used in courtship and displays of aggression. Further research will be able to discover whether the same gene is involved in creating crests in other species. In similar fashion, Shapiro says, scientists can use pigeon genetics to study the emergence of more complex traits.

Leif Andersson, who studies domestic animal genetics at Uppsala University in Sweden, says that the work addresses a gap in our knowledge about pigeons, which has lagged behind that of chickens, pigs and dogs. Domesticated species are important tools for comparative genomics, with traits honed by humans over thousands of years. “The different domestic animals complement each other,” he says, “because they’ve been selected for different purposes.”

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pigeon racing cruel?

It’s a bit like an Olympic training camp. Only the athletes are pigeons.

Bad experiences in Trafalgar Square had led me to foresee a flutter of mangy birds in a loft strewn with droppings.

These birds are glowing with health and their sawdust floor is cleaner than my local pub.

The white ones are almost loveable.

The birds are all being raised by a professional pigeon fancier and trained on behalf of their owners for the thrill of the race.

But this seemingly innocuous sport is heading for a shock; it has been condemned by the radical animal rights group Peta as fundamentally cruel.

I found this accusation hard to credit at first, until a casual chat with a colleague.

Ethical dilemma?

She told me this extraordinary story. She used to live next door to a pigeon fancier. One day his winged competitors returned from a race, but one refused to re-enter the loft; it perched on the house roof, out of reach of its owner who wanted to register its ID from the tag on its skinny leg.

A simple solution was at hand, in the shape of an air rifle. He shot the bird and collected its corpse to complete his race record.

“You made that up,” I accused. “No I didn’t,” she replied.

So, back to Peta: This report does not investigate the many claims it has made about how pigeon racing is cruel

Instead, it raises some of the intriguing ethical issues, which fall broadly into three categories.

The first is the shoot-bird-on-roof variety. Peta’s video appears to show secretly filmed video of owners performing a ruthless genetic winnowing, selecting slow-flying birds and snapping their necks before tossing them into the bin.

The official voices of pigeon racing make no attempt to defend any instances of prima facie being cruel. Stewart Wardrop, manager of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association (RPRA), told me any proven maltreatment should be punished.

“There are 43,000 registered pigeon fanciers. In 43,000 individuals, there will be people who do silly and stupid things but the vast majority of pigeon fanciers look after and take care of their animals – why wouldn’t they?”

Charge number two is that pigeon racing is inherently cruel because it involves inevitable deaths – especially during races across the English Channel.

The protestors say in some Channel races, 90% of birds have gone missing, with many presumed dead. Stewart Wardrop’s figures are more conservative: a bad race would not normally lose more than 75%, he says. Sometimes only a few percent might go astray.

“My personal view is ‘no’, I don’t believe it is cruel,” he says.

But cruelty to animals is a slippery notion. We breed pigs and kill them all; but we eat them and to many people that confers moral acceptability. Should there be different ethical criteria for animals in sport?

We have banned cock-fighting, bear-baiting and fox hunting with dogs. We still lose a few horses in the Grand National. It’s rare but it provokes an outcry when it happens.

However, there are thousands of birds in a big race, so losing 75% of them in some events is noteworthy, even if many people consider pigeons to be no better than flying rats.

And while we’re on the subject of rats, let’s get hypothetical for a moment.

Suppose you were breeding rats to race them. What’s an acceptable rate of collateral damage? 5%? 10%? That’s one for debate.

High fidelity

The next category of accusation has already caused marital conflict among some of my anthropomorphically inclined friends.

It concerns the relative fidelity of male and female pigeons, and a process known as “widowing.”

Now, the pigeon is a monogamous creature. In the early days in a loft, male and female individuals all claim their own box as territory. As romance blossoms, the birds form pairs and they move in together to share the same box, kissing each other in what is, even for a hard-bitten hack like myself, a heart-warming sight.

In an avian version of the ideal egalitarian marriage, both male and female sit on the nest and both feed the hatchlings with milk produced in their crop, a projection from the throat. And they stick together in their pigeon pair.

The pigeon’s fidelity can be exploited in a process known as widowing, or widowhood, in which the pairs are split up and one bird is taken away to race back to the loft.

As Stewart Wardrop explains it, in a sprint race the stronger male birds will surge back to their hen and particularly their territory. But if the male birds are taken farther afield, they’re often tempted by pastures new.

Now consider the attitude of the female birds: separate them from their cocks and they will fly determinedly back to their love over hill and high water. So it’s typically the females that are entered into the prestigious race back to the UK from Barcelona.

After struggling to cross the Pyrenees, many of them appear to have their fidelity rewarded with an exhausted watery end in the Channel.

“The Barcelona race – the long distance races – are the pinnacle of the pigeon racing sport,” the RPRA man tells me. “Those pigeons are very experienced pigeons.”

The Barcelona fliers are not exactly volunteers: “No. They’re not volunteers but they do enjoy pampered lives, though. The pigeon fancier carefully weighs up, and he will only send out, pigeons that he thinks have a genuine chance of coming back and performing for him. I wouldn’t mind being a pigeon.”

close up of a wild pigeon

Stewart Wardrop says the whereabouts of the pigeons that don’t return is a mystery – perhaps many of them find new homes elsewhere. The association is hoping to learn more about this by fitting pigeons with tracking devices in a trial with two universities.

Jeremy Davies, who runs the Worcestershire training loft, agrees with him that widowing is acceptable.

“They are happy to race, you know,” he tells me. “You get a sense of feeling for the pigeon. If a pigeon is unhappy, it will sit there all glum. If it wasn’t happy, it would stay in Barcelona in the sun and wouldn’t come home!”

Both men consider the Peta allegations oddly misguided.

Ingrid Newkirk, founder of Peta, believe it’s the sport that is misguided: “Pigeons are bright, clever and we happened upon the fact that pigeon racing can be horribly cruel.

“The females have had their instincts manipulated to get back to their mate and their brood. Flying the Channel is a frightening prospect for them – and many of them will perish.

“The pigeon racers we filmed refer to the Channel as a death trap – the ‘Bird-muda Triangle’. In World War II, they had to fly the Channel but they don’t have to die doing so now for a little bet.

“It’s like saying I’ll wager you to see if your toddler gets to the other side of the road.”

So who will decide whether pigeon racing goes the same way as bear-baiting and cock-fighting? I contacted the RSPCA but they said it wasn’t really their territory.

It’s hard to know whether sufficient numbers of people care enough about pigeons for the protestors to make headway. The average age of a British pigeon-fancier is in the 60s. Perhaps the protesters should just bide their time.

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Pigeon Message That Saved A World War II Bomber Crew

On 23 February 1942, a badly damaged RAF bomber ditched into the North Sea.

The crew were returning from a mission over Norway, but their Beaufort Bomber had been hit by enemy fire and crashed into the sea more than 100 miles from home.

Struggling in freezing waters – unable to radio an accurate position back to base – the four men faced a cold and lonely death.

But as the aircraft went down, the crew had managed to salvage their secret weapon – a carrier pigeon. The blue chequered hen bird, called Winkie, was set free in the hope it could fly home to its loft in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee, and so alert air base colleagues to their predicament.

During World War II, carrier pigeons were routinely carried by RAF bombers for this very eventuality, though in an era before GPS and satellite locator beacons, rescue was far from certain.

The pigeon was not carrying a message, but the RAF were able to calculate the position of the downed aircraft using the time difference between the plane’s ditching and the arrival of the bird – taking into account the wind direction and even the impact of the oil on Winkie’s feathers to her flight speed.

A rescue mission was launched and the men were found within 15 minutes.

Elaine Pendlebury, from the PDSA, said the carrier pigeon had been released as a “last ditch stand” when the crew realised they had no other options.

“I find it very, very moving really. These people would have died without this pigeon message coming through,” said Ms Pendlebury.

Winkie became the toast of the air base, with a dinner held in her honour. A year later, she became the first animal to receive the Dickin Medal – named after PDSA’s founder Maria Dickin – for “delivering a message under exceptional difficulties”.

More than 60 animals have since received the award, including 18 dogs, three horses and one cat. But pigeons still rule the medal roost, with 32 being given medals, all between 1943 and 1949.

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Pigeon smuggle, Caught by police!

Pigeon smuggle, Caught by police! close up of pigeon

Colombian police say they have captured a carrier pigeon that was being used to smuggle drugs into a prison.

The bird was trying to fly into a jail in the north-eastern city of Bucaramanga with marijuana and cocaine paste strapped to its back, but did not make it.

Police believe the 45g (1.6oz) drug package was too heavy for it.

The bird is now being cared for by the local ecological police unit, officers said.

“We found the bird about a block away from the prison trying to fly over with a package, but due to the excess weight it could not accomplish its mission,” said Bucaramanga police commander Jose Angel Mendoza.

“This is a new case of criminal ingenuity.”

The pigeon is thought to have been trained by inmates or their accomplices.

Police said carrier pigeons had been used in the past to smuggle mobile phone Sim cards into the jail.

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Pigeon Racing from japan flies across pacific to Canada

Pigeon Racing from japan flies across pacific to Canada pigeon racing pill

OTTAWA (AFP) – A plucky pigeon that flew across the Pacific Ocean from Japan will be bred by a bird lover in Canada hoping its progeny will be top long distance racers, an animal rescue official said Monday.

The pigeon was discovered tired and thin at a Canadian air force base on Vancouver Island in westernmost Canada and taken to an animal rescue centre near Comox, British Columbia where it was treated for a common bird parasite and nursed back to health.

“We believe it took off from land in Japan and got confused or got caught up in a storm and got lost before eventually hopskotching its way to Canada, stopping and sleeping on freighters along the way,” the Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society’s Reg Westcott told AFP.

A pigeon’s top range is typically 650 kilometers (404 miles). This one traveled 8,000 kilometers (4,971 miles).

The owner was contacted at a telephone number printed on a tag on the bird’s leg, but he did not wish to pay to have the pigeon flown back aboard a commercial jetliner, Westcott said.

The local Pigeon Racing Society offered to take in the wayward bird and set it up with some female birds. “I’m sure his offspring would be very good long range racers,” Westcott commented.

Canadian authorities, however, initially weren’t sure what could be done with the pigeon.

“They asked us whether he had travel documents and so on, and we said, ‘No, he flew here on his own,’ and so they labeled it a migratory bird, which allowed us to hand it over, without (having to fill out) a bunch of Customs paperwork, to the local pigeon racing society, which offered to give it a new home,” Westcott said.

In his 17 years caring for injured wildlife, Westcott said he has only come across one other pigeon that made the incredible two or three week voyage across the Pacific Ocean.

That one landed on a Canadian Coast Guard ship at the height of the avian influenza pandemic that saw millions of birds slaughtered to prevent the spread of the disease, and was eventually sent back to Japan at the owner’s expense, he said.

Westcott said he has also nursed a lost Brown Pelican from California, and a Citrine Wagtail songbird from Asia.

Birders from all over the United States and Canada flocked to Vancouver Island to get a rare glimpse of the Wagtail at the time, he said.

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