by johnnymarin | Aug 8, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Pigeons may be a common sight — and nuisance — in major cities, but they’re a relatively new problem for Gander, where officials are not at all happy with avian visitors that have made a home out of a town depot.
“They seem to be relatively prolific, if you give them a good nesting place and a source of food,” said Gander mayor Percy Farwell.
Over the last decade, pigeons have nested in Gander’s salt storage facility, to the point where they have now created a hazardous working environment town staff.
“We have to deal with this issue here,” said Farwell, “because our staff are being forced to come in and breathe the air in here and it’s not the best place in the world to be.”
Farwell said the risks to staff who are exposed to the pigeons can be serious.
“Typically it would be forms of lung infection and so on, that may or may not even be noticed depending on how severe it would be,” he said. “There’s two or three different diseases that are typical and we just need to eliminate that risk for our workers.”
Prevention strategies
The Town of Gander is collaborating with animal services such as the SPCA, as well as pest control services to figure out the best way to remove the unwanted guests.
“There have been some efforts made around netting and mesh and stuff to try and keep them out of the rafters, but they’ll always find other ways in,” Farwell said.
“The risk here too is if you notice a location where they’re able to get in and you simply go and seal that up — well, now you’ve sentenced them to a death up there, because they can’t get out.”
Still, Farwell said pigeons are considered pests, which is a why a pest control company is being hired.
The CBC’s Melissa Tobin talks to Gander Mayor Percy Farwell about the infestation of pigeons at the town’s public works depot and how they plan to deal with the problem. 6:10
At some point soon, the company will start trapping and removing the birds.
“We’re trying right now to improve the situation for the benefit of the workers here and try to mitigate it the best we can at the new facility.”
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 | Aug 7, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
While many of us think of the weather as merely a guide for our wardrobes, there are numerous industries, like aviation and energy, that depend on meteorology for their business.
A drought, for instance, will certainly have an impact on hydroelectric facilities in California and on farmers and ranchers.
That could be why many Americans spend so much money on instrumentation to track the weather for their homes and businesses.
Animals seem to have an innate knack to do just that. Enter American racing pigeons.
The birds can live up to 20 years and, like thoroughbred racehorses, are fed the finest grain and treated with tender loving care.
Central Coast resident Mike Brazil, who passed away last year, bred and trained American racing pigeons for more than 50 years.
He would drive more than 450 miles to Northern California to release his flock along with other groups of pigeons.
After traveling northward in a specially designed trailer, the athletic and highly trained birds were raring to get into the air and fly back home.
Upon release, the pigeons go straight up in the sky, like a rocket out of Vandenberg Air Force Base, and circle overhead for a few moments to get their bearings and judge the winds.
“The sky can turn nearly black with so many pigeons in the air at once,” Mike once said.
American racing pigeons rely on the sun, landmarks, Earth’s magnetic field and even smell to navigate their way home.
Most impressively, they use their own instinctive ability to find the location of tail winds in mere seconds, unlike meteorologists with the most sophisticated weather analysis tools who may take hours.
The airspeed of a racing pigeon is roughly 45 mph. With tailwinds, their actual ground speed can reach nearly 100 mph for brief periods.
During the spring and summer, the winds through the Salinas Valley are often out of the northwest at the surface, heading toward the southeast below the temperature inversion layer.
The winds are often strong and persistent, perfect conditions for pigeons.
Eric Wessel has seen his pigeons flying along Highway 101 near the ground, brilliantly avoiding obstacles with a twitch of their tails or a beat of their wings.
If a cold front is coming down the coastline, the winds near the surface are often out of the southeast and blowing toward the northwest, producing strong head winds for the birds, while the winds higher up in the atmosphere can actually be blowing in the opposite direction.
Somehow, the birds know that, and they can be seen as tiny specks streaking across the sky as they take advantage of the tail winds.
Most researchers agree the birds probably have an internal compass to navigate by following the Earth’s magnetic field.
Scientists have discovered clusters of nerve endings wrapped around magnetic iron oxide on each side of the pigeon’s upper beak, which may act as that compass.
Racing pigeons are affected not only by the weather at the surface of the Earth but also by space weather.
On cloudy days, solar storms can disrupt a pigeon’s natural compass, causing it to lose its way.
After about eight to 10 hours of flying southward from Northern California, the birds arrive at their Central Coast homes and are carefully logged in to determine who won the race.
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 | Aug 5, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
As the fight between a Ponoka man and federal veterinary officials continues over imported pigeons, concerns over whether the birds can transmit Avian Influenza to other species seems overblown.
Earlier this month, Guido Pfiffner was informed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that the 61 breeding pigeons currently in quarantine would need to be destroyed by July 13, unless the German government could validate that the birds were swab-tested for Avian Influenza (AI).
Dr. Faizal Careem, an associate professor of virology at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, in the Department of Ecosystem and Public Health, explained that the issue isn’t as easy or as black and white as it may seem.
“Influenza is kind of a strange virus. If one refers to textbooks, it says that pigeons are not susceptible to this virus and can not be carriers,” he said.
“But, since 1944 there has been tons of literature — both field and experimental studies — and they all say that pigeons are susceptible.”
In the past 74 years, 24 countries across four continents have conducted a total of 32 field studies and 22 experimental infection studies stated Dr. Careem.
“There are multiple studies, multiple authors and multiple countries involved, so I trust that data,” he added.
Dr. Careem explains that, in general, pigeons that carry the virus or antibodies — indicating previous exposure to AI — won’t show signs or symptoms.
“The most susceptible to the virus are wild waterfowl and shore birds, though the majority will only carry the virus and show no clinical signs. Pigeons are the same,” he said.
However, he noted that the virus is detectable in pigeons if it is present even though there are no clinical signs showing.
That testing is usually done in two ways: through taking a swab of the bird’s rear end or the nasal cavity; or via a blood test.
Carrier or transmitter?
Where the confusion comes in is on whether pigeons will transfer the disease to other bird species.
“There are some experimental infection studies that have been done with pigeons injected with the virus and then monitored to ensure they were excreting the virus. The pigeons were then co-habitated in the same cages as chicken and turkeys,” he said.
“What they found then was that none of the chickens or turkeys were infected.”
One reason for those results, as evidenced in the experimental findings, was that the pigeons didn’t secrete large enough doses of the virus to induce an infection into the far more susceptible birds they were placed with.
“Pigeons do have enough receptors that allow the virus to get into the birds, the issue is now that they have some form of natural resistance. That means the virus may be controlled to what may a be a low grade infection,” he added.
He also explained that it usually takes about a week for an AI infection to run its course in a pigeon and between 14 and 21 days for antibodies to show whether there is an infection or not.
Now while two big Avian Influenza strains — H5N1 and H7N9 — have made the news in recent years, there are literally hundreds of possible combinations as Dr. Careem noted there are 18 H subtypes and 11 N subtypes.
Yet, as influenza viruses are well known for mutating, Dr. Careem believes if the virus better adapts to pigeons it may well see the birds secrete vast amounts of the virus — large enough to infect other birds.
“That can happen, but we don’t know as there is no experimental evidence to suggest that is or has occurred,” he 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 | Aug 4, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Homing pigeons — those birds with the remarkable ability to find their way home over vast distances — have fascinated city-dwellers for over half-a-century.
Decades ago, the birds were an iconic symbol of New York City, with coops lining rooftops and racing clubs taking to the skies. Although less common today, pigeon fliers still exist.
We recently ran into Pete, of Staten Island’s Mulligan’s Place Loft, as he released 60 homing pigeons for their first training flight.
Fliers begin training homing pigeons a few weeks after birth. At first, they carry the birds in wooden crates a mile or so away from their home lofts, and release them to see if they can learn their way home. With each training flight, the distance the pigeons must travel is increased.
The first training flight for Pete’s pigeons will require them to travel about two miles — from Grymes Hill to their loft in Rosebank. Watch the video above to see the pigeons take flight.
Mulligan’s Place Loft started flying pigeons competitively in the early 1980s, and has garnered over 100 national awards, according to its website.
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 | Aug 1, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
THE SIGHT of a gull eating a dying pigeon in a town centre has provoked a storm on social media and calls by a community leader for a region-wide approach to managing the seabirds.
The herring gull, was seen dragging the injured pigeon out of the road on to the pedestrian crossing opposite the B&M store and the SeaQuarium on East Parade in Rhyl.
The incident was photographed by Mark Challoner, deputy manager of the nearby Apollo Bingo, who shared the image on the 5,000-strong Facebook group, Rhyl Forum.
It led to 304 responses, with differing views on how to deal with the gulls.
Mr Challoner said: “I was just at the top of High Street when it happened, so I can’t be sure the seagull attacked it, but you could see it dragging it on to the footpath and the pigeon was defenceless against it.
“I shared it on social media because I just felt I needed to get things off my chest.
“In the space of that day, I saw three people on different occasions walking down high street and the birds swoop down and took food from people’s hands and in one case a little toddler in a pram.
“I had one swoop down on me and I didn’t even have any food. These are vicious creatures now.”
Rhyl town councillor Tony Thomas, who is also Denbighshire County Council’s lead member for housing, regulation and the environment, said: “On behalf of the [county] council, I have written to Welsh Government about seagulls in respect of what can be done across North Wales and we are awaiting a response.
“I am currently pushing through a bylaw for the public not to feed the seagulls, but this will take 12 months.”
Cllr Thomas added: “Seagulls are a protected species but as we all know, their desire for a food source is insatiable.
“I live by Splash Point in Rhyl and as soon as a car pulls up on the front the seagulls are there waiting for any leftovers which are often tossed out to them.
“Culling would prove fruitless and any action to sort out the situation would be expensive and only temporary.
“Realistically there is no easy answer, but public education can reduce the problems.”
Some Rhyl Forum users said this was a typical sight in the town as the herring gull is known to eat other birds and carrion as part of its normal diet and they called for strong action to deal with the birds.
Martin Barker wrote: “By the Blue Bridge, we see the seagulls nudge the pigeons into the water then dive down and drag them to the shore to eat.”
Lynda Fisher posted: “They are disgusting dangerous vermin and one actually killed and ate a bird on the roof opposite my house last week.
“We are over-run with them and culling is overdue. At least prick the eggs.
However, the majority of the comments have rallied to the defence of the seagulls.
Sandra Bassett wrote: “It’s eating to stay alive; it might not be pleasant to watch, but it’s nature.
“Would you be so offended by a lion eating a deer? People have made them the way they are.
“We over fish from the seas and dump our rubbish and overflowing bins all over the land and then get annoyed about birds that have every right to be there.
Allyson Jones agreed: “It’s a seaside town. You’re going to get seagulls, they are struggling to eat so attack people with food.
“They were here before people. Animals eat animals. That’s how the world works.”
Joseph Coleman wrote: “Who would clean up that pigeon otherwise? Environmental health would probably take weeks to sort it and RSPCA won’t touch it. The seagull is actually helping clear up the mess.”
Responding to the feedback, Mr Challoner said: “I’m surprised there is more in favour of the seagull than against it, but personally I feel there has to be something done in the town to try and control things.
“I have been to many other seaside towns and there is visibly more gulls around here in Rhyl and they are more vicious.
“I agree its their environment and they have a right here as much as us, but I don’t remember it being this bad a few years back.
“Do we see this in Colwyn Bay, Llandudno or Blackpool? No, not half as bad”
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 | Jul 30, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Did you know the feral pigeon is a very common resident of Alberton that was introduced to South Africa?
The feral pigeon is a wild living form of the domestic rock dove that is found in Europe and North Africa. They are the descendants of homing pigeons brought to South Africa early in the 1800s. The feral pigeon is highly variable in colour. Different breeds of feral pigeons are all the same species and can reproduce with all the different breeds. Many of the colour forms range from dark grey to pure white. The main colour form in South Africa is largely grey with a brush of iridescent green and pink on the neck.
Feral pigeons retain the nesting habits of their ancestors, which nested largely on cliffs. With the increase in human settlements, a new breeding location became available to the pigeons: buildings. The pigeon makes use of the ledges and roofs of manmade structures to build their nests on. The feral pigeon is therefore largely dependent on humans for its survival.
Feral pigeons are able to breed throughout the year due to an adaptation known as crop milk. Crop milk is produced by the parents and fed to chicks which lessen the need for bringing food back to the nest. The pigeon is one of only three species of bird that produces milk.
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)
