by Ryan Ponto | Jan 13, 2017 | Animal Deterrent Products
TOWN bells have historically been a part of our culture as one of the earliest ways to call people together or warn of imminent danger.
Before the advent of telephones and social media, the bells would call us to work, prayer and sound out celebrations for special events.
Even when the telephone took over as the first means of spreading information, the bells helped everyone keep time, and ensured a town ran smoothly.
As such it was an important job and it lay with the timekeeper.
Fifty years ago in Haddington, that job fell to 62-year-old William Barber, who, reported the Haddingtonshire Courier in 1967, was facing a particular problem with lazy pigeons.
The town clock, often relied on by the townsfolk, was being knocked out of time by pigeons who apparently had taken to resting on its hands.
Mr Barber revealed that their favourite resting place had become a problem.
He said: “Often a pigeon will land on a hand which is going down and the weight of the bird will make the clock go fast, but if the pigeon is sitting on the hand while it is going up, it will more than likely stop the clock altogether.”
Haddington Town Council’s attempts to deter the pigeons saw netting introduced to try and keep them away, but it quickly deteriorated as the pigeons used it for nests.
Mr Barber must have seen it all in his years as the official timekeeper of the town clock.
At the age of 62, he had climbed the steep stone stairs into the steeple every week for 27 years to wind up the weights which drove the hands, correct the faces and clean any obstructions.
He took over the mantle from his predecessor James Pringle, a well-known Haddington watchmaker and jeweller, when he retired, having studied at his side for a number of years, learning all the old clock’s idiosyncrasies.
The Town House, from which the clock tower rises, was built in 1748 and designed by William Adams. The steeple itself was added in 1830 and designed by Gillespie and Graham. As late as 1967, it involved some heavy work to keep the clock in check.
Working on the same principle as a grandfather clock, the weights were suspended on steel hawsers and winding them up was not as simple as turning a handle. Instead, they used machinery adapted from agriculture to move them.
And the clock itself had its own clock – a small electric one which controlled when the faces of the larger clock were lit up.
Mr Barber revealed that pigeons were far from the only problems faced as he tried to keep time for the town.
He said: “The clock is not terribly accurate but it is unusual in that it strikes the quarter, half and hour. There are not so many town clocks that do this. Besides the pigeons, there are many other factors which dictate whether the clock goes fast or slow. The weather can affect the clock badly. Quite often snow or ice sticks to the face and stops the hands from going round.”
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 Ryan Ponto | Jan 9, 2017 | Animal Deterrent Products
Faunal extinctions are calamitous events. There is something tremendously unsettling about the passing of a species into oblivion, especially if there are local implications.
Such was the case with regard to the passenger pigeon, which officially became extinct a century ago. Historically, the bird was a prominent part of Ontario’s avifauna. Anecdotal evidence confirms it occurred in Ontario in enormous numbers.
Accounts of its historical abundance defy belief. In the 1840s, it comprised fully 40 per cent of the entire total bird population of North America. It bred in 45 of Ontario’s 55 counties, often at communal rookeries comprising tens of thousands of nests.
There is astonishing eyewitness evidence of its staggering numbers.
“A grand migration of passenger pigeons (took place at Niagara-on-the-Lake) including a flock one-mile wide and 300 miles long … that took 14 hours to pass by,” reported a soldier at Fort Mississauga in 1860.
In 1832, flocks of passenger pigeons migrated over Toronto for four consecutive days and Royal Ontario Museum records indicate the smallest of the flocks comprised 500-600 individual pigeons.
According to C.J.S. Bethune, in 1858 he encountered a 10-acre stubble field “literally blue with pigeons so thick that one could hardly see the ground.”
A huge pigeon rookery along both sides of the Speed River, from Guelph to Rockton, in 1835 had so many pigeons that “trees were broken down by the weight of the pigeons … (and) wagonloads were shot for food,” a local historian confirmed.
In addition to several rookeries in Oro-Medonte, a profusion of reports illustrate immense flocks at Blyth, Huron County, at Goderich, at Sunnidale, Simcoe County and in Guelph.
At Clearview, near Lake Huron, “vast clouds that darkened the sun” were reported in the mid-1850s. In 1870, pigeons were so plentiful that one market gunner reported he shot “400 before 10 a.m.”
Apparently, people back then thought the pigeon population was inexhaustible. According to researcher P.H. Ehrlich, “the birds were netted, baited with salt, shot at nests, clubbed, live-trapped and later shot in competitions … pigeons were sold for food for 50 cents per barrel.”
One market gunner reported he shot three million pigeons over a 30-year period. In 1878, at a Michigan pigeon rookery, 50,000 were shot each day for almost five months, according to Pete Petosky a former Michigan Department of Natural Resources official.
Eventually, the pigeons could not withstand the relentless slaughter.
The last surviving rookery in Ontario was confirmed near Kingston in 1898 (20 birds and 12 nests). Two specimens were collected at Toronto in 1890 and the last confirmed Ontario specimen was shot by Otto Reinecke near Niagara Falls in September 1891.
The last wild adult in North America was shot in Illinois on March 12, 1901.
Three captive passenger pigeons survived in the Cincinnati Zoo a few years later: one died in April 1909, another in July 1910 and the last living passenger pigeon (Martha) died on Sept. 1, 1914.
All that remain of the billions of passenger pigeons that once darkened the skies over North America are 1,535 skins and 16 skeletons.
Passenger pigeons were about 15 inches long. They fed on fruit, nuts, berries and seeds. Scientists think it might be possible to re-create the species using advanced DNA technology.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jan 1, 2017 | Animal Deterrent Products
Incoming US President Donald Trump threw a cat among the European pigeons this week after he said that the EU was heading for breakup and that he didn’t care much if that were to happen.
In interviews with British and German newspapers, Trump said a whole lot more too. He described Britain’s decision to split from the EU as a “great” move, and that more countries would follow the Brexit; he called German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door immigration policy a “disaster”; and on the NATO military alliance, the new president said it was “obsolete”.
The following day, EU leaders were huffing and puffing with rage and exasperation that Trump should dare be so disrespectful.
“Trump’s NATO, EU comments spark fury, fear across Europe,” reported the Washington Times.
Germany’s Merkel and French President Francois Hollande told Trump to mind his own business. EU foreign policy chief Federica Morgherini claimed that European states followed their own independent course and did not need Washington anyway. Former French prime minister Manuel Valls, always prone to histrionics, even went as far as decrying Trump for “declaring war on Europe”.
The hilarious thing is that Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, and the EU leaders have been for months claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin is the one who is secretly plotting the breakup of the European bloc and the transatlantic alliance.
But after all this rabid scaremongering against Russia, it is an American president, Donald Trump, who is publicly declaring that the days are numbered for the transatlantic status quo.
Russia did indeed welcome Trump’s comments about NATO being “obsolete”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “NATO is truly a relic of the past… its entire structure is dedicated to the idea of confrontation; of course, it can hardly be called a modern structure that meets the ideas of stability, sustainable development and security.”
Moscow also said that it welcomed the opportunity to normalize relations with Washington as Trump has indicated. He has intimated that he is prepared to lift economic sanctions that Washington imposed on Russia since 2014 over the Ukraine conflict.
Despite their pretentious bluster, the truth is that European leaders of all political shades have been absolute lackeys to Washington for the past several decades. Not one European state has dared to stand up to American foreign policy misconduct.
In reaction to Trump’s latest broadsides, European leaders are piously claiming to be independent from Washington. Nothing could be further from the truth about the current and past crop of European politicians.
Germany’s deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel hit back at Trump’s savaging of Merkel’s “disastrous” immigration policies. He said that the real cause of the refugee crisis in Europe was America’s military interventions in the Middle East and Central Asia. Well, yes, that is true. But if Sigmar Gabriel knew that was the real cause, then why hasn’t Germany – the most powerful EU member – stood up to Washington to oppose its relentless warmongering.
The fact is that the EU has gone along with each and every US-led war around the world over the past 25 years. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya among others.
Look at Syria, for instance. The EU has imposed economic sanctions on that forsaken country, in line with Washington’s agenda for regime change, thus exacerbating the exodus of refugees. If the EU had some independent backbone, as it likes to pretend, then it should have firmly opposed the US-led covert intervention in Syria. But it didn’t. The EU is fully complicit.
The pernicious role of Britain has to be acknowledged here. No other member of the EU has been such an avid cheerleader for NATO and American atlanticist sway over European affairs. Britain has loyally followed the US into foreign wars, thereby dragging Europe into such follies. If Britain had not been a member of the EU, perhaps the bloc might have had more critical foreign policy, one that was more critical of Washington’s lawless depredations.
Ironically now, Britain is leaving the EU after 43 years of membership. But it bequeaths a legacy of subservience to Washington that all remaining EU members find themselves bound by.
Perhaps the clearest example of European servility to US foreign policy is its acquiescence to Russophobia and the hostile expansion of US-led military forces along Russia’s borders.
European governments have colluded with Washington to meddle in the affairs of Georgia and Ukraine and then seek to cover up the tracks of conflict by blaming Russia for the unrest. Moreover, the EU slavishly followed Washington’s lead to slap economic sanctions on Russia. Those sanctions have caused minimal disruption to America’s economy, but they have wreaked havoc on European farmers, workers and businesses.
The incumbent European governments are pathetic. Special mention must be given to French President Hollande, the most unpopular leader ever. To illustrate the puppet status, recall the Mistral helicopter-ship deal worth about $2 billion with Russia. Hollande axed the contract and hence hundreds of French jobs because the Americans instructed him to do so, allegedly to maintain a unified sanctions policy on Moscow.
Europe is facing several key national elections this year, in the Netherlands, France and Germany. As with other EU countries there is a popular revolt against the status quo. The mainstream media paint the opposition parties as extremist and racist. The media also claim that Russia is covertly subverting European democracies. This is just scapegoating. Closer to the truth is that ordinary EU citizens are fed up with governments that are in hock to a foreign power – Washington.
The atlanticist “alliance” has been nothing but a euphemism for Washington to dominate politically, financially and militarily over Europe. To the point where Europe has trashed its historic links and natural relations with Russia.
After decades of kowtowing to Washington, there is now a new US president who is snubbing the “loyal Europeans” and showing disregard for atlanticism.
Trump’s comment that he trusts Vladimir Putin equally with Angela Merkel is surely a sharp putdown to Europeans who have allowed his predecessors to dictate disastrous policies for the EU.
Under Trump, the US may well move to cancel its sanctions on Russia. What will European lackeys do then? Keep their own futile anti-Russian sanctions that are wrecking their economies, or sheepishly repeal the sanctions because the Americans have done so?
But by then it will be too late for the EU. The European Union is already teetering on implosion because for decades its leaders had no courage or vision to serve the interests of their citizens instead of Uncle Sam’s atlanticist designs.
Trump’s indifference towards European subservience and the NATO project is a potentially promising new direction to a more balanced international configuration, especially with regard to restoring relations with Russia.
It may not work out, of course. Trump has plenty of enemies at home among the Washington establishment who see atlanticist domination of Europe and antagonism towards Russia as a cornerstone of US global hegemonic ambitions.
Nevertheless, Trump’s skepticism towards the EU and NATO is setting the cat among the European pigeons. Because it is exposing them as impotent flunkies who have ruined their countries by prostrating themselves as pathetic dependents on American patronage.
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 Ryan Ponto | Dec 27, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products
Chennai: Being a resident of Chennai, one knows very well about the thousands of pigeons that are being fed every day at the Marina beach.
It is a humane initiative by a Rajasthani family that shows its benevolence towards every living being on the planet. Standing there amid the thousands of birds is surreal. It is a photographer’s paradise and a magical experience for every child.
But you don’t have to trek all the way to Marina for this experience. On the small terrace on top of a serene apartment at Ramasamy Salai, K K Nagar, Ashok nagar, Chennai, K Harish Kumar feeds hundreds of wild pigeons every morning. The reason, he says, is that it simply makes him happy and the rest of his day is made.
Harish has been a resident of K K Nagar for the past 40 years. As a landscape consultant by profession, he is an admirer of nature and every living being on earth. His ideas, such as the ‘Birthday Trees’, wherein a person would plant a tree every birthday, was a way to help and care for nature.
While commuting to places, he always carries a packet of biscuits for his four-legged ‘friends’ on the streets. “There isn’t a street that is without dogs that come to play with me and expect the biscuits I have in the bike,” smiles Harish.
What started as a handful of wheat for a couple of pigeons, which sat on his balcony, has now became several kilograms of wheat for almost 500 pigeons every day. During his childhood days, Harish raised pigeons, which made him very fond of them.
Even though he is unable to create a loft and have homing pigeons on his own, he is more than happy just to feed feral pigeons (Columba livia) that come to his terrace. “It gives me peace when I see about 500 pigeons fly around the terrace and have their fill,” he reminisced.
He has been observing their flying pattern and behaviour even as he feeds them. On the day Cyclone Vardah hit Chennai, the pigeons cramped together in any crevice they could find. And when the rain and wind stopped for a while, the birds flew haphazardly, unlike the synchronised flying formation they indulge in on normal days. This, he says, is because of the tremendous stress the birds underwent during the storm.
Almost 10 kg of wheat is used on a single day. Harish, who gets the grains by spending from his own pocket, says that he has been buying around 300 kg of wheat every month. “Nothing goes waste. Every grain is polished off by the pigeons,” laughs Harish.
A pitcher of water is regularly filled several times in a day, which is actually a birdbath.
Along with his spouse, Harish hopes to never let any animal, bird or plant go without proper love and care. Any injured or sick animal is given asylum in his house and he takes care till they are cured.
He jests, “The only drawback of 500 pigeons eating 10 kg of wheat every day is the menace they are to the neighbour’s cars!”
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 Ryan Ponto | Dec 18, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products
If one thing was vital to the the new kind of modern warfare in the First World War, it was communications.
The Industrial Revolution had brought wireless transmission of signals with it and the huge armies of World War 1 needed to be in contact constantly to be successful in the field.
In this special episode we introduce you to the birth hour of modern military communication and signals.
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 Ryan Ponto | Dec 14, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products
7 auctions closed this Sunday, raising no less than 492,350 EURO in total. The highlight of this weekend was the auction of Gevaert-Lannoo, which raised an impressive 221,925 EURO.
Freialdenhofen & Sons – 18 pigeons – 1,964 EURO/pigeon
Father Freialdenhofen and his sons Heiko & Dirk have been one of the top players in the extreme long distance. As every year, they sell a group of young birds of their best breeders in an exclusive PIPA auction. They sold 18 young birds at an average of almost 2,000 EURO per pigeon. The most expensive pigeon was a youngster of Forrest Gump, which goes to The Netherlands for 3,400 EURO. The auction raised 35,350 EURO in total. A remarkable number of Chinese and Taiwanese fanciers joined the bidding, as 12 out of 18 extreme long distance pigeons were sold to these two countries. The pigeons were sold to Taiwan (6), China (6), The United Kingdom (3), Slovakia (1), Russia (1) and The Netherlands (1).
Van Toor Brothers – 130 pigeons – 1,442 EURO/pigeon
This auction marked the end of the Las Vegas dynasty, as all the pigeons (minus a round of unflown youngsters) were sold today, raising no less than 187,425 EURO, with an average of 1,422 EURO for 130 pigeons. The most expensive pigeon are Olympic Tamara x Olympic Santa Ana, which were sold for 13,400 and 11,400 EURO respectively, to a Chinese and a Belgian fancier. Some Taiwanese fanciers have been quite successful with the Van Toor pigeons in recent years, which explains why no less than 36 pigeons will be shipped to Taiwan. The 130 pigeons were eventually sold to China (43), Taiwan (36), Belgium (9), The United Kingdom (9), France (6), Slovakia (5), USA (5), Spain (3), The Netherlands (3), Poland (3), Germany (2), Serbia (2), Japan (1), Bangladesh (1), The Philippines (1), and Sweden (1).
Gevaert-Lannoo – 54 pigeons – 4,110 EURO/pigeon
The eye-catcher of this weekend and also in previous weeks was the auction of the Gevaert-Lannoo racing team. They had potentially their strongest season ever in 2016, and they decided to contact PIPA to sell their entire racing team, along with a small group of unflown youngsters, or 54 pigeons in total. The 2 stars of this auction were sale 1 and sale 2 of part 1. The first is a hen that won 4 provincial or zonal second places, the second is a cock that won the title of 6th Nat. Ace Pigeon KBDB longer middle distance young birds last year. Bidding for sale 1 (Princess 95) started at 16,000 EURO Sunday morning, and the bidding continued until 2 hours and 30 mins after the official closing time. No less than 13 fanciers placed a bid, and the pigeon eventually got sold to a Chinese fancier for 39,000 EURO.
Sale 2 (Prince 26) was even more remarkable, with a start price of 10,4000 EURO on Sunday morning. The bidding continued until 3 hrs and 30 minutes after closing time, with 12 fanciers trying to win the bid. Another Chinese fancier eventually placed the winning bid of 39,000 EURO. The other pigeons were very successful as well, with sale prices as high as 17,400 EURO, 10,800 EURO, 10,400 EURO, and 9,600 EURO. The 54 pigeons eventually raised 221,925 EURO in total. The pigeons were sold to China (33), Taiwan (9), Belgium (6), Germany (2), Italy (1), Japan (1), Poland (1) and Romania (1).
Jo Bauters – 7 pigeons – 1,914 EURO/pigeon
It was the first time that Jo Bauters organised an online auction on PIPA, and it was a successful one with an average of almost 2,000 EURO per pigeon or 13,400 EURO for 7 young birds. The two most expensive young birds are a brother and a sister of the 1st National Ace Pigeon KBDB longer middle distance YBs 2016, which were both sold for 3,400 EURO to China and Portugal respectively. The 7 pigeons were sold to Taiwan (4), China (1), France (1) and Portugal (1).
Thibaut-Boons – 10 pigeons – 1,490 EURO/pigeon
This has been one of Belgium’s strongest middle distance combinations for years, and they will be joining the upcoming Olympiad as well with their 1st Olympiad Pigeon Cat. B. This time they only sold a group of young birds, which raised an excellent 1,500 EURO on average or 14,900 EURO for 10 young birds. The most expensive one was a daughter of Victor, which goes to Taiwan for 2,600 EURO. The 3 most expensive pigeons will be going to China & Taiwan. The 10 pigeons were sold to Belgium (7), China (2), and Taiwan (1).
Philippe Brantegem – 9 pigeons – 1,283 EURO/pigeon
Philippe Brantegem had his very first online auction as well, and it was quite a successful event with an average of 1,283 EURO per pigeon or 11,550 EURO overall. The most expensive pigeon was sale 2, which goes to a Belgian fancier for 1,800 EURO. 8 pigeons will be shipped to Belgium and 1 to Taiwan.
Mark Evans – 5 pigeons – 1,560 EURO/pigeon
Just 5 pigeons in this auction, with most notably a youngster of Mr. Blue x Special Blue (sale 1), which goes to France for 5,600 EURO. The 5 pigeons raised 7,800 EURO in total, and will be shipped to France (1), China (1), Belgium (1), Taiwan (1) and the USA (1).
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)
