by Pigeon Patrol | Sep 28, 2015 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, UltraSonic Bird Control
Millom council chambers, offices and kitchen have been closed since Friday while pest control workers investigate the site in St George’s Road.
Councillors vacating the office after a meeting on Friday afternoon were told the kitchen and the upstairs rooms would be locked, after pest control uncovered a significant amount of faeces in the loft space.
Cumbria county councillor for Millom, Brian Crawford, was one of the councillors instructed to take a different exit.
He has warned exposure to dried pigeon droppings can be fatal.
Cllr Crawford said: “There’s a danger of the droppings drying and become airborne. My question is, how long have the pigeons been up there?
“People have said they had been hearing noises up there and there are staff who use the office very often. It’s quite alarming as they may have been exposed to it for some time.
“There can be some quite serious diseases from pigeon droppings. You could be dead in two weeks from inhaling dried droppings.
“It’s a quite serious, major issue and from my memory it’s never happened before. I’ve been on the town council for seven years and it’s the first time I’ve heard about pigeons being in the loft space.”
A clean-up crew was due to be dispatched today to make the offices safe as Cumbria County Council said the mess poses a human health hazard.
A Cumbria County Council spokesman said yesterday: “There is an issue which has been flagged up. They have had pest control look at it at the end of last week.
“Pest control can see where the pigeons are getting in via a missing slate. The droppings are being cleared out tomorrow.
“As a precaution staff have been told not to use parts of the upstairs of the building, including the kitchen.
“The pigeon droppings are in the loft, which is being done this week because there is the potential for it to be a health hazard.”
Building work to prevent further vermin infesting the loft is due to take place this week.
Tomorrow’s town council meeting will take place in the Pensioners’ Hall, Mainsgate Road, Millom, as a result.
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 Pigeon Patrol | Sep 26, 2015 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
PIGEONS roosting under a railway bridge have got residents in a flap after depositing droppings all over pavements.
The winged offenders have been causing trouble from the railway bridge which crosses Gorgie Road near Tynecastle Stadium and Gorgie City Farm.
Calls have now been made for anti-bird netting to be installed to prevent the birds from roosting – following a successful similar method of defence in Abbeyhill.
Regular passers-by have written to Marco Biagi about the pesky pigeons and the Edinburgh Central MSP has taken up the case.
He said: “Unwanted deposits have been developing underneath the bridge which residents are unhappy about.
“I heard about it first when I was out during the referendum from a resident in the area.
“I decided to send round some surveys between Christmas and New Year on the subject and people got back to us saying it was a real problem.”
He pointed to the success of netting under the Abbeyhill rail bridge, near the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Biagi said: “I just thought if it is good enough for the Scottish Parliament then it should work for my constituency too.”
The threat of pigeon droppings has been raised with Gorgie Dalry Community Council a number of times in the last year, said chairwoman Fiona McLean.
She said: “We had a walkabout with the environmental wardens and this was one of the things that was raised.
“Under the railway bridge there are pigeons roosting and there is clearly a mess on the pavement.”
Concerns have been raised in the past over the state of bridges at Newcraighall park and ride, and Bingham.
A spokesman for Network Rail said: “The management of pigeons is the responsibility of local authorities and we regularly work with councils to facilitate access to structures to allow preventative measures such as netting to be installed.”
A city council spokesman said the authority would get in touch with Network Rail to discuss the matter.
In March 2013, dozens of dead pigeons were found
rotting under North Bridge after becoming trapped in a
net designed to stop them roosting.
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 Pigeon Patrol | Sep 25, 2015 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes
When someone mentions pigeons, the reaction of most within earshot is more likely to be “rats with wings” than “true marvels of the natural world.”
Filmmaker Scott Harper wants to change people’s minds with his new documentary The Secret Life of Pigeons, which rejects the prevailing avian-rodent notion and seeks to re-install the lowly pigeon on the much-loftier perches it enjoyed in centuries past.
The Secret Life of Pigeons, which airs Thursday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. on CBC’s The Nature of Things, is a rather fascinating examination of a creature that was once considered noble and even heroic, but is now more likely to be regarded as a nuisance or simply ignored completely.
Consider the history: it was the pigeon, not the dog or cat, that was the first animal to be domesticated, and this highly intelligent bird has served many important roles in human history. Pigeons were used as messengers in the military campaigns of Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan; they delivered the results of the first Olympic games in Greece; during the 20th century, their keen homing instincts were exploited to transport military intelligence across battlefields, medicines to distant clinics and financial information to Wall Street traders.
These days, however, the urban-pigeon population mostly just takes up space while struggling daily to survive — a tricky proposition that depends almost exclusively on handouts from humans.
Harper interviews several scientists who have become staunch defenders of pigeons, and their input provides some intriguing revelations about the intelligence and natural gifts of the birds.
Among the information offered is a new understanding of what gives pigeons their unique homing ability, along with first-ever footage of a pigeon’s in-flight perspective, thanks to a tiny harness-mounted camera that allows viewers to take to the skies with the bird.
The Secret Life of Pigeons takes its exploration beyond the “lowly” feral-pigeon population, reaching out into realms in which these creatures are beloved rather than detested. Harper visits with several pigeon “fanciers,” who raise showbirds with such exotic breed designations as African Owl, Short Faced Helmet, Voorburg Shield, English Trumpeter and German Beauty Homer.
“We’ve taken it to a whole other level,” says Manitoba cattle rancher Clint Robertson, president of the Canadian Pigeon Fanciers Association, “We’ve developed birds that aren’t even close to what the feral pigeon is anymore. This is an intense hobby of selectively bred birds that have evolved over thousands of years into something that has suited the taste of each individual breeder.”
Equally passionate about pigeons are the folks who breed them for racing — a relatively small-scale pastime in Canada, but a huge industry in other parts of the world, where purses can reach the million-dollar mark (in South Africa) and prize birds can sell for hundreds of thousands.
Most impressive, however, are the segments of the film that outline how intelligent and adaptable pigeons are — Harper includes re-enactments of a couple of scientific studies that show how the birds communicate over vast distances to ensure that available food supplies are distributed equally among the greater pigeon population.
The theory of “ideal free distribution” suggests — and is backed by solid evidence — that pigeons will disperse in a manner that guarantees equal access to food sources.
“You can never feed pigeons more,” says Luc-Alain Giraldeau, dean of science at the University of Quebec at Montreal. “You can just attract more pigeons.”
Rats with wings? Hardly.
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 Pigeon Patrol | Sep 24, 2015 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes
Concerns about a pigeon problem in Warminster town centre are growing with the population of the birds multiplying alarmingly.
And the burgeoning bird flock is said to be caused by people feeding them.
Town councillor Paul Batchelor says the pigeon population has doubled in the last 18 months and birds are not just gathering on the Old Town Hall but on other town centre buildings as well.
Cllr Batchelor, who runs Batchelors Cycles in Market Place, believes people are still not heeding the advice to not feed the pigeons and said he has been approached by several businesses and residents concerned about the issue.
Warminster Town Council has previously looked at drastic solutions to the long-running pigeon problem, including using a Harris Hawk or a contraceptive feed, but the ideas were dismissed by a feral pigeon expert.
Cllr Batchelor said: “It is noticeable that the pigeon population has doubled in the last 18 months and they only multiply according to the food supply they get.
“If the population is doubling then there must be people out there doing a good job of feeding them. I understand that people just think they are harmless creatures, but they carry disease and create a mess on our pavements.
“We do need to make sure the town centre is a safe environment for people, but I can see an increasing number of pigeons on roofs of buildings other than the Old Town Hall.
“It can be someone having a bit of crust leftover and throwing it to pigeons, which may seem harmless, but only makes the situation worse. Traders and people in the town are noticing and have raised the issue with me.”
Warminster Town Council discussed the issue at a meeting earlier this month, where councillors agreed that the pavements are a disgrace, especially outside eating establishments.
Because of concerns that droppings are creating a health hazard, Cllr Batchelor is going to ask the finance and assets committee on November 3 to put forward money for warning signs.
Cllr Batchelor added: “I have asked for an item to be put on the agenda about having signs put around the town to warn people about feeding pigeons.
“We need to educate people about the issue before taking more radical measures.”
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 Pigeon Patrol | Sep 23, 2015 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, UltraSonic Bird Control
BLYTHE, California — Authorities say safety netting could have prevented the death of 64 birds at a Southern California solar energy plant.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise says the birds died this month at the Genesis solar plant near Blythe after getting mired in wastewater evaporation ponds that contained an oily toxic chemical.
The California Energy Commission says safety netting designed to keep birds away from the plant was destroyed by high winds in August and never replaced.
Roger Johnson, who oversees environmental compliance for the commission, says new netting’s been ordered but won’t be installed before year’s end.
However, authorities say the 10 acres of ponds are being drained and people stationed around them to keep the birds away.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Sep 21, 2015 | Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, UltraSonic Bird Control
EDMONTON – Alberta’s energy regulator is investigating after waterfowl landed – or tried to land – on three Athabasca oilsands sites Tuesday.
An oilsands facility seen from a helicopter near Fort McMurray, Alta., on July 10, 2012. Environmental groups are giving Alberta’s energy regulator a rare pat on the back over its decision to delay approvals for certain types of oilsands projects over concerns about the intensity of development. Oilpatch critics say Alberta energy regulator is denying them right to speak
“The companies that have reported the incidents are Syncrude Canada at that Mildred Lake facility, the CNRL Horizon facility – their tailings pond – as well as Suncor Energy’s tailings pond,” said Ryan Bartlett.
The Public Affairs officer for Alberta Energy Regulator said the AER began hearing reports from companies around noon Tuesday and they continued until nightfall.
Syncrude told Global News 30 birds were recovered from one of its tailings ponds. The company claims all deterrents were operational.
CNRL said about 60 birds landed on its tailings pond. The company is still determining exactly how many died. It said its deterrence systems were working, but that there was extreme fog in the area.
Suncor said about 120 birds tried to land on one of its tailings ponds Tuesday, but deterrents were operational. However, six birds landed.
“We observed increased bird activity in the region,” said Will Gibson with Syncrude. “As a result of these observations, our bird deterrent system went into heightened alert.”
“The deterrent system was already deployed with noise-makers on every pond and our radar system was operational,” he said, adding more staff were sent out to monitor the birds around the operations.
“We can confirm that we’ve recovered 30 oiled waterfowl from our ponds in the past 24 hours,” said Gibson.
“We don’t want our operations to harm wildlife so we’re going to be reviewing our systems to see if there’s additional areas to improve on what we’ve already implemented.”
Syncrude, which operates one of the biggest oilsands sites north of Fort McMurray, was fined $3 million for the deaths of more than 1,600 ducks when they landed on its tailings pond in 2008.
Greenpeace Canada’s Mike Hudema says the province needs to get rid of tailings ponds altogether.
“The systems that they put in place to try to keep birds off are not working.”
“Industry has known for quite some time that these systems aren’t working, so birds continue to die in these tailings ponds, animals continue to die.”
“The only way to keep birds and animals safe – in, really, what is a toxic brew of chemicals – is to get these tailings ponds off the Alberta landscape.
“That’s something Premier Stelmach promised to do and of course, we’ve seen absolutely no movement on it.”
“Albertans are getting very frustrated,” said NDP leader Rachel Notley. “They want to be proud of their province, but instead they’re frustrated with the government that – through their neglect – watches the problem grow.”
Hudema says the government needs to regulate the move to dry tailings.
“The government put a directive in place to try to slowly eliminate them from our landscape and not a single company is meeting that directive at all. We’ve seen no enforcement from the government.”
The regulator stresses it is investigating the incidents.
“We’re there to ensure the companies are responding appropriately to the issue,” said Bartlett, “and to investigate what may have caused the incident, to make sure that their waterfowl deterrent systems were in place and were operational at the time.”
In a statement to Global News, CNRL said “multiple factors” led to the birds landing.
“During the early morning hours of Nov. 4, 2014, an unforeseen weather event of extreme fog conditions resulted in migratory waterfowl to land on the tailings pond despite the full operation of our waterfowl deterrent system.
Multiple factors contributed to the waterfowl landings that included the severe weather event, the timing of the waterfowl migration late in the season, and poor visibility.
Our waterfowl deterrents, including radar units, Long Range Acoustic Devices along with an array of propane cannons and effigies, were functional and effective, deterring many waterfowl from landing.
Unfortunately, we are saddened that approximately 60 waterfowl were not deterred and we are currently in the process of confirming the final affected number. The event was reported to Alberta Environment and Sustainable Development and the Alberta Energy Regulator on Nov. 4.”
“It does seem odd that it’s occurring all at the same time,” said Bartlett. “We’re investigating what the causes may have been.”
Depending on the type of AER investigation, the process could take several months.
Environment Canada, Fish and Wildlife, and Environment and Sustainable Resources have all been notified.
Neither Alberta’s environment minister nor the energy minister would comment, saying the AER would take the lead. Premier Jim Prentice said he was disappointed, but said he’ll withhold judgement until the results of the AER investigation are released.
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)
Cllr Crawford said: “There’s a danger of the droppings drying and become airborne. My question is, how long have the pigeons been up there?
