by johnnymarin | Oct 15, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
The psychologist BF Skinner put pigeons in a box to study their responses to stimuli. One cohort were given grain if they pecked a button and they quickly worked out the mechanism by which they were being rewarded. In another group, however, grain was dispensed entirely randomly, with no input from the pigeon having any effect. Rather than clocking this distribution as entirely senseless, Skinner found these pigeons instead contrived ever more elaborate patterns of behaviour to get the desired effect. Some walked in circles, others pecked at the walls, each thinking they had intuited some replicable method of attaining their desire. I think of that second group of pigeons a lot, pacing anti-clockwise round our bedroom, humming as I rub my son’s temple in a desperate attempt to get him to sleep.
The issue of sleep is one I’ve not really broached in this column since – whisper it – my son had previously slept quite well in his early days. We have friends with toddlers who’ve never slept three hours in a single block, so we know how obnoxious that sounds. But for a brief, exalted time that now seems to wave to us from a distant past, he did exactly that. And we held this like a shameful secret, fearing the magic of this particular arrangement would be broken if we said it aloud. Or, like Superman’s parents, feared our beloved Clark would be taken away from us so that his super powers would be studied.
But that was then. Now, we spend our nights pondering over the wisdom of evolution, to have made these small, delicate objects simultaneously so reliant on sleep and so bad at realising this fact. My son resists sleep so enthusiastically, I’m starting to think that being closely cuddled and softly shushed is, for him, roughly equivalent to taking cocaine.
One thing that does help is music. Partly to make it more pleasurable for me and partly because I’m the worst, I feed my son a steady diet of recursive ambient music by people who sell tote bags at their gigs. Autechre’s Vletrmx21 is one of my favourite songs, now slowly curdling in my brain from applying it several times a day like an antiseptic scrub for his waking mind. If you were to look in on me putting him down for a nap, it would be to that track. It sounds like the dying siren of a rescue droid, drifting through the dust of a dead planet, seeking signs of life.
But the abstruse electronica I’ve been peddling turns out to be nowhere near as effective as my wife’s secret weapon. It renders my son unconscious as reliably as chloroform. It’s the strangled tones of Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman straining their way through the Love Medley from Moulin Rouge.
Perhaps, were he to spy our son’s fate, some poor pigeon, tracing futile circles in a distant lab, will thank his lucky stars.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Oct 14, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
NEW ALBANY, Indiana — When Stephen Price agreed to let one of his tenants bring home a gaggle of pigeons, he didn’t know what he was getting himself into.
To be fair, the tenant, Robert “Painter Bob” Maskalick, warned him.
“He always told me, he said, ‘One day, you’re going to inherit these,'” Price said, sitting in the backyard of a house he owns on the corner of East Main and Vincennes streets in New Albany.
Maskalick built coops for the 40-or-so pigeons, kept them fed and periodically let them fly free. The birds, a mixture of roller and homing pigeons equipped with a natural GPS and survival sense, always came back.
Price thinks the birds helped Maskalick, in his early 60s, live longer than he would have otherwise. Maskalick, who had a heart condition, died about a year ago.
“I think they actually gave him several years longer, because it has a calming effect,” Price said of the pigeons. “If you ever would come out here and sit and watch, it’s like watching an aquarium or something … It calms you down, it mellows you out.”
The soft, rolling coo of the pigeons is something like a lullaby. With strangers around, they cock their heads and perch on edges. Most of Price’s pigeons are white, glistening in the low, late-afternoon sun, peeking through the wire. Others are white with black speckles, or the signature deep blues with small patches of shimmering green.
Price used popcorn — a pigeon favorite — to coax them out one day last week. Each one flapped its wings through the open gate before swiftly changing direction and landing atop the coop. They stayed there — free, but safe. Price said the birds know when darkness is near, and that the setting sun means predators are lurking. So when he releases them in the evening, they stay close, despite their ability to fly hundreds of miles away.
Still, Price has lost pigeons to hawks.
“It’s nature, but it’s very morbid,” he said.
Other than needing protection from harm, pigeons are “durable” birds, Price said. They need little more than food and clean water.
“They’re just really tough birds,” but soft as pillows, he added.
After Maskalick died, Price, who lives a few houses away and owns several nearby properties, took on the role of pigeon caretaker. He admits he’s considered getting rid of the birds, but he’s too attached to go through with it. His adoration is never more evident than when he talks to the pigeons in a steady, high-pitched tone.
“You gotta talk real nice to them,” he explained.
It’s a tactic Price has learned by doing, just like he learned almost everything else about pigeon care-taking. He’s also gotten insight from fellow pigeon people who drop tips here and there. And yes, there are plenty of fellow pigeon people. Later this month, Price and his daughter (who happens to be a longtime bird lover) will go to the National Young Bird Show in Louisville. It’s one of the country’s largest all-breed pigeon shows, according to the event’s website.
Rick Kilgore, president of the Indiana Pigeon Club and owner of more than 100 pigeons, said it’s a well-respected show competition that attracts people from all over the world.
Kilgore has raised pigeons since he was about 6 years old. He likes the challenge of improving a breed (there are hundreds of pigeon breeds) and the friendly competition of a show or race.
The Indiana Pigeon Club has 40 to 50 members and keeps growing, Kilgore said. More 4-H kids are staying interested, and it’s those kids who will keep the hobby alive.
For now, Price just enjoys the company of his pigeons.
“I tell a lot of the guys who rent from me this … in life, stay grounded and you’ll be happier,” he said. “… By living simple and doing really simple things, it’s amazing how happy you can be by doing literally almost nothing.
“You just have to kind of relax and enjoy it.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Oct 11, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
In Bangkok in all areas forbidden to feed the “flying rats”. Violators face imprisonment of up to 3 months. In the capital of Thailand came into force a law banning the feeding of pigeons in all 50 districts of the city. In public areas of Bangkok have already appeared warning signs in Thai, Chinese and English.
For violation of the law to local residents and foreign visitors are threatened by punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or a fine of 25 thousand baht. Bangkok authorities introduced the ban to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, vectors of which are the “flying rats”.
Thus the mayor of the Thai capital, Asawin Kwanmuang said that the administration does not seek to strictly prosecute offenders. The authorities want to use the promotion to draw people’s attention on the real threat from pigeons, said the mayor, writes turizm.ru. Feeding the pigeons is prohibited in another major city in Thailand – Chiang Mai.
Moreover, similar bans worldwide. For example, can be fined for the bread thrown to the birds in some districts of Paris in the Central areas and squares of Venice, Florence, Geneva, London, Helsinki.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Oct 8, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Enterprise and Daleville business owner Kiko Arana spoke about his love for racing pigeons at the Lions Club meeting on Sept 12.
He races pigeons in the homing pigeon family, which can instinctively find their way home from great distances. They are different from the normal pigeons you’ll see on the sidewalk.
Due to that instinctive ability, these pigeons have a history of being used to deliver messages for both military and civilian use, according to Arana.
According to a New York Times article, the “first message-bearing pigeon was loosed by Noah. The ancient Romans used pigeons for chariot races, to tell owners how their entries had placed. Genghis Khan established pigeon relay posts across Asia and much of Eastern Europe. Charlemagne made pigeon-raising the exclusive privilege of nobility. The Rothschild fortune is said to have been seriously augmented by a pigeon bearing news of the British victory at Waterloo.”
These pigeons were widely used throughout World War I and according a Wall Street Journal article, the French military was seeking to return its pigeons to active duty in case of an electromagnetic attack.
Arana’s biggest interest in the birds, however, is their ability to imprint the location of their home. Arana said that no one really knows for sure how homing pigeons find their way home, but he has a theory.
“I’m a believer that—more than anything else—the smell is what brings them home,” Arana said. “They’ve done a lot of experiments but when they block the sensors in the nose, they (the pigeons) cannot make it home.”
It’s also this sense that allows people to race homing pigeons.
The pigeons are released at set location and use this ability to navigate back to the club house. The pigeon that makes it back to the club house the fastest is the victor.
The races in the area are in 75, 150, 200, 300, 400 and 600 mile lengths with the longer races taking multiple days for the pigeons to return.
Pigeons average about 50 miles per hour during the races, according to Arana.
He entered his first race in 1977 in Puerto Rico and has been racing ever since.
Though his birds still race in other parts of the country, Arana said the club he used to race for here, the Wiregrass Racing Pigeon Club, is inactive. He said he hoped that teaching people about racing pigeons would help create newcomers to bring the club back to life.
He brought one of his pigeons to the meeting and showed it to all the members of the Lions Club.
“I wanted to release the pigeon but then I remembered it was hunting season,” Arana said.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Oct 1, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
It was a quiet morning. I was sitting at the table, eating my mandatory bowl of gruel — I mean, my delicious, fiber-filled, multigrain, plant-protein, good-for-me bowl of cereal — when I glanced out the window and saw that a half-dozen or so pigeons had descended on the backyard to peck away at whatever morsels had fallen out of the bird feeder.
“Oh, I love pigeons more than anything in this world,” I said out of reflex, “except oatmeal.”
I allowed myself a small chuckle at pulling out a “Sesame Street” line that seemed appropriate, when my moment of Zen ended with the pouring of reality’s cold water.
“Those aren’t pigeons,” my breakfast companion said. “They’re doves.”
Tomayto, tomahto … doves are just pigeons from a gentrified neighborhood, I decided. For that matter, I wasn’t eating oatmeal, either.
By then, though, my consciousness had floated downstream and I found myself contemplating the lover of pigeons and oatmeal.
I thought about Bert.
And, consequently, of Ernie.
The BFFs have been living together for nearly 50 years now — not that there’s anything wrong with that — and lately have suffered another oh-so-2018 kerfuffle that has upset their domestic tranquility.
Yep, their sexuality is being called into question.
Again.
This time, it was a former “Sesame Street” writer … who joined the show 15 years after Bert and Ernie appeared on the scene … who admitted that whenever he wrote for the pair, he did so from the perspective of them being a gay couple.
This, of course, brought the usual denial from the folks behind “Sesame Street.” Media members chimed in on various aspects of the long-running controversy — as sincere pleas for inclusivity rang out, conservatives blasted progressives for usurping the identity of a couple of Muppets, and soapbox pronouncements abounded about why it was important for children to see a loving LGBTQ2+ couple on their TV screens.
This bonfire quickly became a conflagration (Too soon? Sorry) when Frank Oz, who created Bert, was asked about the current flare-up and said that the pair were not gay … or straight, for that matter.
“They’re not, of course. But why that question? Does it really matter?” Oz asked. “Why the need to define people as only gay? There’s much more to a human being than just straightness or gayness.”
And, because this is how the world works these days, a full-fledged Twitterstorm broke out — with some of those who found they could identify with B&E as they were discovering their own identity said sure, Oz might have created Bert, but being the creator doesn’t stop the creation from becoming whom it will be.
After all, God created Elton John.
It was back in 1976 that The Artist Formerly Known As Reggie Dwight came out, announcing in that far-from-progressive time that he was bisexual.
“Saturday Night Live,” never one to miss an opportunity for drive-by social commentary, made note of Sir Elton’s less-than-surprising declaration on Weekend Update, following up with the related story that “Speedy Alka Seltzer came out of the medicine cabinet and admitted he was bicarbonate.”
Of course, Speedy Alka Seltzer wasn’t a real person … as opposed to, say, Bert and Ernie.
Earlier this year, the Tony-winning musical “Avenue Q” — a puppet-filled show that offers a somewhat darker take on a “Sesame Street” universe — ran at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre.
Through the puppets Rod and Nicky, it offers its own take on the sexuality question of BFFs who live together forever — only with such a heavy-handed dose of what can only be called in-your-face-ism that by the time Rod announces that he’s gay, it’s not only no surprise, but on the night I attended it drew almost no reaction from the audience.
The puppeteer-actor pulling Rod’s strings, so to speak, milked the audience repeatedly until a mediocre round of applause was deemed sufficient enough to allow the show to continue.
It was an odd moment of live theater; then again “Avenue Q” is an odd show — knowing that it’s shoving homilies down the throats of the dinner theater audience, while simultaneously serving up a self-conscious heaping helping of social manipulation for us to chew on.
“Avenue Q” twisted this concept even further with a throw-away one-liner about the LGBTQ2+ production of “Oklahoma!” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival — which took audience members further out of their comfort zone as to what they were supposed to think about the performance, and the play, they were watching.
Eating my cereal, watching the high-rent pigeons, my mind wandered without necessarily getting lost until I landed upon a question: If we go to a cultural event to be entertained, do we feel intruded upon if served a side dish of political or cultural point of view?
In a landscape where Sofia Vergara can be in love with The Artist Formerly Known As Al Bundy, Joanie can love Chachi, and a Betazoid can love a Klingon — if “Sesame Street” went counter to the original concept of Frank Oz and Jim Henson and said that — yes — Bert and Ernie are more than BFFs, would it be greeted graciously as overdue affirmation, or would it open the door to another avenue for cultural tub-thumpers intent on putting their words into our mouths?
The word from “Sesame Street” is that Bert and Ernie, officially, “remain puppets.”
As do we all.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Sep 30, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
NEW ULM — Pigeon and poultry enthusiasts from near and far participated in the New Ulm Poultry and Pigeon Association show at the Brown County Fairgrounds Saturday.
For most veteran enthusiasts, it’s a time to renew old friendships and take their favorite birds to a show of about 900 birds, have them judged and visit in a place they’ve been coming to for many decades.
“I remember coming to a national show at George’s Ballroom in 1965. They put cages on top of the ballroom booths,” said Mark Peterson of Amboy. “(George’s Ballroom owner) George Neuwirth was a big pigeon guy. A band would play and he had a big crystal fountain shaped like a pigeon. George didn’t do anything small. He was a showman.”
Don Roscoe of Kasota recalled showing poultry and pigeons at the New Ulm Armory more than 50 years ago.
“I used to hunt in the fall besides go ot shows, but then decided poultry shows, most of which usually happen in the fall, were more fun than hunting,” said Roscoe, who taught geography at Mankato State University.
Staff photo by Fritz Busch Show-goers take a good look at chickens displayed among hundreds at the Brown County Poultry & Pigeon Association show at the Brown County Fairgrounds Saturday.
Art Rieber of Neola, Iowa, said he doesn’t mind driving four and one-half hours from his home, 30 miles northeast of Omaha, to New Ulm. Sometimes, he’ll drive even farther to pigeon and poultry shows, which are also held at the McLeod County Fairgrounds in Hutchinson.
“I can see the Woodman Tower (in Omaha) from my kitchen window,” Rieber said. “It’s about seeing the exhibitors. I’ve known these people forever.”
Doug Grams of New Ulm said he enjoys coming to shows and that his seven grandchildren are also interested in the poultry and pigeons.
Robert Kosek of New Ulm said he remembers selling a case of eggs each week from this chickens.
“They give me eggs year around and I enjoy meeting a lot of interesting people at shows and maintain friendships with them,” Kosek said. “I’ve got pigeon and poultry pen-pals from all over the United States.”
New Ulm Pigeon and Poultry Association Secretary Aaron Dittbenner of Morgan was busy at the show, keeping records of everything that goes on. He admitted he is busy preparing for the show about a week before it begins.
Some poultry breeders enjoy traveling to national shows during the winter months in places like San Diego, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Salt Lake City, Florida, Texas and Vancouver, Wa. Breeders who travel far to shows often use special mailing boxes ship their birds to distant places.
Dominique chickens, also known as Pilgrim Fowl or Dominickers, were transported across the country by early settlers. They were valued for their meat and brown eggs.
Years ago, their feathers were very sought after for pillow and mattress stuffing. In addition, they tend to be calm, personable birds, making them more successful as show birds or family pets.
Also known for their close feathering, the breed survived the Great Depression due to it’s hardiness and ease of up-keep, according to The Livestock Conservancy.
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)
