Partners Kevin Newell, 35, and Flo Blackbourn, 21, run Wiggy & Friends Animal Rescue and are embarking on a mission to help the Aberdeen’s injured doos.
They are asking people to help them map the city’s colonies so their Pigeon Patrol can check up on the birds’ welfare.
The idea was inspired by the New Arc animal rescue centre in Ellon.
And it is hoped the project will help alleviate some of the pressure on New Arc by dealing with pigeons in the city.
Kevin said: “They do an amazing job with the thousands of animals they get through the door.
“They don’t always have time to get out and pick up animals.
“We’ve taken quite a few injured pigeons in during the summer.
“There’s large populations of pigeons all over the city.
“We’re calling on people to let us know where they are.
“We’ve created a rapid response first aid kit for pigeons. If a pigeon is ill we’ll catch it and treat it.
“The idea is we’ll go out and try and help these pigeons.”
Kevin, who has his own business Humane Wildlife Solutions, and Flo, a zoology student, run the rescue centre from their home in Old Aberdeen.
He added: “We just work out of our home. We’ve got a little outhouse in the back that’s been converted into a wildlife hut.
“We play pigeon noises to them so they feel like they have contact with other pigeons and not just us.
“The biggest problem with pigeons is their feet when they get string or bits of hair wrapped around their toes.
“If that doesn’t get treated or cut off their toes can eventually drop off.
“A lot of the cases we’ve had the birds have either flown into cars or windows and they suffer from concussion.
“They can recover from concussion but it’s usually a slow process.”
The centre is named after Wiggy the pigeon who the couple treated when he had an injured wing.
The public is being asked to help map pigeon colonies
Kevin said: “Wiggy had damaged his wing.
“He eventually ended up losing half a wing.
“He stayed with us for two months and we managed to rehabilitate him and get his wing treated.
“He also had string around his foot which we treated.
“We got him to a point he was fit, healthy and strong and he went to the New Arc.”
“A lot of people absolutely hate pigeons but once you get to know them they’re all little people with their own characters and traits.
“We’re not a long-term facility.
“We’re like the ambulance service.”
So far around a dozen colonies have been mapped, including George Street, the railway station, Denburn underpass, Woolmanhill Hospital and St Nicholas Street.
Kevin added: “There’s a lot of pigeon colonies in the city.
“Each colony is usually quite small.
“On average from the ones we’ve found so far there’s probably eight to 15 pigeons in a colony.
“We’re doing patrols of all these different sites and we see if there’s any ill or injured pigeons or babies fallen out of the roost.”
Keith Marley of the New Arc said: “I think it’s an excellent idea.
“It’s a big task, but Kevin’s got the experience to know where the most likely spots are.
“They’re doing all the hard work in going out and getting them.
“They’ve only got limited facilities but they’re doing a great job.”
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.
When pigeons see Avro the peregrine falcon, they flee.
It’s a smart move: not only are peregrine falcons the fastest animal on earth, capable of reaching speeds of 390 km per hour in a dive, but pigeons are a staple food source for peregrines in downtown Vancouver.
That’s the kind of predator-prey relationship TransLink hopes to tap into to keep SkyTrain stations free of pigeons, which caused 142 train delays in 2017.
As part of a new six-week Translink pilot project Avro has been riding the SkyTrain everyday with his handler, Kim Kamstra, scaring pigeons away from the tracks and stations by simply looking at them.
On any given morning in December, Kamstra says there would be more than 70 pigeons at 22nd Station in New Westminster. Three weeks into the pilot project, there are none.
“Instinctually it’s a predator-prey relationship,” he said.
“But it’s humane because [Avro] is tethered to my fist. He’s not flying off to kill any animals. The smart pigeons exit really quickly.”
It’s the first method that has worked, according to Vivienne King, president of SkyTrain.
“We’ve tried nets, we’ve tried spikes, we’ve even tried mimicking the sounds of the falcons … and the pigeons keep coming back.”
But so far, the fear of a real falcon has kept them away, said Kamstra.
The pair start their day at 22nd station, then ride the train to VCC-Clark, Burrard, Renfrew, Rupert, and Holdom. At each stop, Kamstra walks around the station with Avro perched on his fist.
“We start travelling to each station randomly because that’s very upsetting to the pigeons, knowing this predator shows up randomly,” he said.
But the pigeons will eventually realize Avro is not actively hunting any of them, said Kamstra.
“Surprise,” he said. “I’ll change birds.”
Kamstra co-owns Raptors Ridge Birds of Prey Inc. and has 20 working birds in his roost. He brought another falcon to various SkyTrain stations on Tuesday to keep the pigeons “on their toes,” he explained.
He says he has more than enough raptors and handlers to patrol the entire SkyTrain network, but it will be up to TransLink whether to expand or even continuing funding the program.
Three visits to each station every day for six weeks is costing Translink $18,000, according to King.
When the project ends on January 28, staff will then analyze the resulting data and bring it to the board, who will decide whether the project is worth continuing.
But no matter what the decision is, there is one thing both animal welfare advocates and SkyTrain are asking people to do – stop feeding the pigeons.
“The problem is we deal with all of this, the pigeons move on, and then people feed the birds,” said King.
A sign at Burrard Station warns people that feeding birds is against the law. Not only does it attract pigeons back to the site, but it is also bad for pigeons’ health, and the health of bigger animals that eat pigeons, said Kamstra.
“Please, please, don’t feed the birds,” said King.
“We’re trying to make the system a little safer for everyone.”
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.
A company that provides dead animals for study and dissection is facing 25 charges of animal cruelty due to the way they allegedly killed the animals. If found guilty, the owners could face up to $25,000 in fines and/or up to six years in jail.
AsNewsweek reported in November, the biological supply company Bio Corporation was the subject of hidden video and an investigation into their practices. The video, shown above, wassecretly recorded by an undercover representative from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA. The footage showed workers at the company’s Alexandria, Minnesota, facility apparently drowning fully-conscious pigeons, injecting live crayfish with latex and claiming that they sometimes would freeze turtles to death. The complaint, The State of Minnesota vs. Bio Company BDA Bio Corporation, claims that these methods are inhumane and illegal.
The company says that most of the animals they acquire are brought to them already dead. But according to the undercover video, the company was obtaining some live animals and killing them at the facility in ways that the US Department of Agriculture consider illegal.
In a statement sent to Newsweek, Bill Wadd, co-owner of Bio-Corporation, said,“We understand that we were the subject of an undercover sting-type investigation,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, the animals observed in that investigation, including the pigeons and the crayfish, put our operation in a bad light.”
PETA took the video to the local police department, and then to a district judge, who insisted that the Alexandria police investigate. Newsweek published the footage on November 21, 2017, and the following day the Alexandria Police Department sent a detective to interview the owners of Bio Corporation and investigate the facility. The Alexandria Police Department did not immediately respond to an interview request for this article.
Officials reviewed the complaint, the affidavit from the undercover witness of the alleged abuse, the video and testimony from the detective who visited the facility. On December 29, 2017, they filed 25 misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty, specifically regarding treatment of the crayfish and pigeons, against the company.
Wadd said the company obtains pigeons ethically and euthanizes them humanely. Situated in an agricultural area, Bio Corporation collects pigeons from people who legally kill or capture them in order to protect their avian livestock, like turkeys, chickens, ducks and geese from diseases that pigeons can spread. The pigeons are usually dead when they get there, but sometimes the workers kill them, according to Wadd.
“We have a policy to euthanize these birds with gas but actually water submersion is a better and arguably more humane method because of the short time necessary to complete the process,” Wadd wrote.
Wadd said that the birds die after only 10 to 20 seconds. But drowning is not considered an acceptable form of euthanasia, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), because it causes unnesseary suffering. The AVMA has standards of humane euthanasia that legally must be followed by certain USDA-certified companies such as Bio Corporation.
“That said, we are using the gas now because of the complaint,” Wadd added. He also wrote that they intend to order only dead crayfish from now on.
Representatives for the company are due in court on January 31, 2018. They continue to sell pigeons online for between $9.85 and $12.15 each.
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.
Wattle seeds, along with those of gorse and broom, are popular with bronzewing pigeons, which will often be seen on the ground underneath these plants in late summer.
Pigeons are able to break down the extremely hard outer shell of the seeds to make use of the nutrients inside.
Currawongs, on the other hand, regurgitate wattle seeds and other indigestible matter in the form of pellets.
The pigeons have a digestive system that uses small stones in the gizzard to grind the seeds.
These perform a similar function to teeth.
A currawong’s digestive system is not able to crush such seeds.
As far as wattle seeds are concerned, the currawongs seem to eat only blackwoods, which apparently contain some nutrient in the red outer “funicle” surrounding the hard black seed that the birds seek out.
The blackwood seeds are thus spread by currawongs, but not by pigeons.
Most wattles, like the blackwood, form their seeds three or four months after spring flowering, but there are a few that take twelve months.
The wirilda and the lightwood are two others producing mature seeds twelve months after flowering.
These three wattle species produce their flowers later in the season than most others.
The bronzewings will feed underneath the wattles, gorse and broom for several months.
Because of their hard casing, wattle seeds can be viable for 20 years or more after falling.
LEADEN FLYCATCHER
A scarce and irregular small bird visitor to the Ballarat region is the leaden flycatcher, named for the lead-grey colour of the male.
A pair nesting at Brown Hill have attracted a lot of interest.
In appearance both the male and the female leaden flycatcher are very similar to the male and female satin flycatchers. At Brown Hill the two species are living close together, so the differences between the two can be more clearly appreciated.
The status of the leaden flycatcher in the Ballarat region is not clear.
It has visited and nested a few times, but perhaps it is a regular but un-noticed visitor here in small numbers, missed because of its similarity to the more common satin flycatcher.
The habitats of the two are usually different, with the leaden flycatcher preferring drier sites than the gully-loving satin.
Fortunately, the Brown Hill birds are nesting at about 10 metres high, and are relatively unperturbed by the photographers and observers.
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.
If elk may join our black tails as representatives of the deer family in Butte County, it is unlikely that the largest deer species of all will join them.
The moose (Alces alces gigas, Alaska), at about 1,400 pounds, 6.9 feet at the shoulder, with 79-inch, 79-pound antlers, is the largest of the 41 species of deer in the world. There’s no place to put them in heavily populated California, where the large Roosevelt elk is trying to maintain an existence.
Moose are now found mostly in Canada where there may be a million, but in Colonial days they were plentiful in the Northeast states where they thrived in forested wetlands. The settlers named them elk in reference to European moose that were called elk. It was 1606 before that confusion was cleared up.
By 1870, less than 20 percent of moose habitat remained, and by 1980 only about 100 moose were present in those Atlantic states. Restocking and protection has allowed a surge, and Maine now leads the way with about 76,000 moose.
My home state of Missouri had vast losses of deer, beaver, turkey, otter, and passenger pigeons before a conservation program was created, and many species have been restocked, except for the pigeons that are gone forever.
That story of carelessness with natural resources was prevalent for a lot of species before conservation laws were established. It chills nature advocates to see the greed and thoughtlessness apparent in mankind when uncontrolled use of natural resource choices reign. Governmental administrations presently in 2018 are somewhat similar in attitude.
I know a few moose still exist in Yellowstone National Park where I had my moose encounter. I saw one feeding on the other side of the river and rushed down to take a picture, but the monster didn’t like it — and began swimming toward me! I beat a hasty retreat.
The great palm-shaped antlers are very impressive. Moose are rather sassy, and aside from hippopotamus, injure more people than any other animal in the world, even bears and wolves combined. Behind bison, moose are the second largest land animal in North America and Europe, and the only solitary member of the deer family.
Imagine climbing into the scenic autumnal mountains of Alaska above timberline to hunt a moose. My cousin Albert Tolle’s son Curt Tolle retired from the Navy to the island of Kodiak, Alaska, and has become a big game hunter and outdoor fan, accustomed to hunting the Alaskan mainland mountains for moose since there are none on Kodiak.
Curt expresses extreme appreciation for the wilderness of the far north, describing the grandeur of timberline country in the fall as “the most beautiful place on earth.” Curt said, “Moose are by far one of my favorite animals to watch — very majestic and noble and I feel more than a bit of remorse when I take one, but no meat goes to waste and we are always thankful to fill the freezer with beautiful fresh chemical-free protein.” That rings of Missouri farm life in the 1940s.
Curt remembered my interest in geology, and gathered a box of colorful specimens from a high elevation mountain for mailing. Rocks of the world, like animals of the world, are indications of distant habitats pinning the world together and telling a story of faraway places.
I’ll never get to all those wonderlands, but I see samples through rocks and pictures, and believe they exist. I believe man has been to the moon and saw no moose there! It’s called faith with little evidence.
“Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe … The whole wilderness seems to be alive and familiar, full of humanity. The very stones seem talkative, sympathetic, brotherly. It is always sunrise somewhere.”
— John Muir
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.
Residents guilty of minor offences are being targeted by an order originally brought in by then Home Secretary Theresa May to clamp down on serious antisocial behaviour.
But an investigation by Mail Online reveals some councils are using the Community Protection Notice to target householders for petty misdemeanours such as feeding birds or listening to the radio loudly.
Since it was introduced in 2014 breaching a CPN is a criminal offence and can result in a court appearance and fine of up to £2,500.
One victim was grandmother Rose Rodell, who was told she would risk a criminal record if she continued to feed pigeons in her pwn council house garden – and anywhere else in the seaside town of Sidmouth in Devon.
The grandma of four eventually came to an agreement with the council to restrict her activities.
“I felt sick and sad when they told me I couldn’t feed the birds,” said the 72-year-old.
“I’m not a horrible person or a criminal. I just felt sad for the birds that relied on me.”
Campaigners have reacted angrily to the “nannying agenda” of councils slapping fines on misdemeanours such as slamming doors and feeding cats.
“This is officialdom gone mad,” said Rory Broomfield of the Freedom Association, a libertarian pressure group.
“Councils should concentrate on delivering services to their residents rather than looking to crack down on the everyday activities of ordinary people.”
The data from 190 local councils show that at least 29 people in England and Wales in the past four years were told they risked a criminal prosecution for feeding birds – many in their own gardens.
And almost 300 more received letters warning of fines and court action for putting their wheelie bins in the wrong spot for collecting or putting rubbish in the wrong container.
Simon Blackburn, of the Local Government Association, defended the use of CPNs.
“Councils will only ever use these tools to address issues that are having a clear detrimental impact and which residents have raised concerns about,” he said.
“Crime and anti-social behaviour varies from place to place and that is why councils, who know their areas best, are responding in different ways using different tools and approaches.”
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.
