by Pigeon Patrol | Feb 15, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Spikes
The birds were so brazen during last Saturday’s All-Ireland football quarter-finals that a large flock remained on the pitch for most of both games, moving only when play came their way. Even then, they re-assembled close by.
They returned during the second half of the Kilkenny-Waterford game on Sunday and were joined later in the evening by around 200 seagulls.
A hawk was brought in this week to put the frighteners on the birds as the stadium gears up for two minor hurling semi-finals, followed by the Galway-Tipperary senior showdown, next Sunday.
An on-going seeding programme is the attraction for the pigeons, which enjoy lots of roosting space under the nearby railway bridge.
“Croke Park is a McDonald’s for pigeons at present. We are putting grass seed down on a continuous basis and they like to drop in for a treat. They obviously find it very tasty,” said stadium director Peter McKenna.
Nuisance
“They are a nuisance at any time, let alone on match days. We use a range of deterrents but it can be hard to get rid of pigeons. They get used to the various tricks so we have to keep changing them.”
A live, squawking hawk with a sharp eye and a menacing beak is among the top deterrents – hence his deployment this week as Croke Park gears up for seven successive weekends of All-Ireland hurling, football, camogie and ladies’ football action.
Continuous over-seeding is vital at this time of year to ensure the surface retains its lush surface.
Despite the recent Ed Sheeran concert, the pitch is in excellent condition, with McKenna describing it as “possibly the best it has ever been”.
Maintaining it is a major year-round operation, but it has been made easier in recent weeks by the excellent growing conditions.
“The weather has been ideal. We need to get as much growth as possible all the time so that not only is the surface in perfect conditions for the players, but that it also looks well with the various shades of green we can get on it,” said McKenna.
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 | Feb 14, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services
In a frenzy of homesteading the first summer I lived back here in my grandmother’s house, I planted four small blueberry bushes. The next summer, a couple of them were about three feet tall, and all four began bearing a cup or so of fruit among them. Every year since, in blueberry season, I would go out and check the berries, determining to pick them the next day. Every year, on the next day, the bushes would be stripped clean.
Lilies
Casa Blanca lilies nipped in the bud. Photo by Diane Blanks.
This year, as the berries began to ripen, I swathed the plants in heavy bird netting and anchored the plastic grid-work down with large galvanized metal staples. When I went out to harvest my crop over the weekend, the bushes were stripped clean. Next to them on the ground were two different kinds of animal droppings, like arrogant messages.
So I went in the house and Googled “animal droppings.” After peering at graphic diagrams of various kinds of scat (as we outdoorsy types call poop), I have now determined that my berries were eaten by Both rabbits and deer. But how they got under the netting I haven’t a clue.
They have also, by the way, nipped all the buds off the roses, lilies and phlox. Judging by the height of the plants, I’m sure the deer are the villains there. They’ve evidently been strolling between my flower beds choosing from the buffet. I am now mixing up the super-vile deer/rabbit repellent mixture that was waiting on the back porch for when I’d used up the vile “putrefied egg” repellant. The label on the new stuff says it will repel elk, too, should any wander into my yard to browse. This is Wawah!
Years ago, Mama had eight large blueberry bushes that my then-husband and I had doggedly moved to her field from a doctor friend’s weekend farm; he was thinning out his rows of plants and offered the bushes to us if we would dig them. Being a frugal type, my mother, instead of buying the pricey bird netting, went to a fabric shop and bought yards and yards of hot pink synthetic dress netting, which was on deep discount because absolutely nobody wanted a prom dress that color. For years thereafter, in blueberry season, the field behind the house boasted a huge, meringue-like froth of hot pink, anchored down by bricks. We picked quarts and quarts of berries. I don’t know if the varmints couldn’t penetrate the netting or if they were repelled by the color, but I may be looking for a fabric shop soon.
I hadn’t heard anybody use the word “puny” (meaning “sickly,” for readers from the flatlands) in everyday conversation in years. Heard it the other day and it sounded Good, sounded like my native tongue. Another phrase I have yet to hear, though, was one my mother was prone to use: “plumb hippoed,” meaning “hypochondriac.” Haven’t heard anyone use that one yet, but I’m waiting for the moment.
The rhythms and cadences of the place names of my native land were, and still are, welcome music to my ears. When I hear Deep Gap, Chestnut Grove, Elk Knob, Meat Camp, Cove Creek, Silverstone, Sugarloaf, Matney, Mabel, Triplett and Zionville, I know I’m where I’m supposed to be. I am centered in the Universe.
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 | Feb 13, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting
A BARCELONA town is waging war on its pigeon population by taking avian birth control in hand.
In a controversial bid to reduce its pigeon count, Badia del Valles’ town hall is scattering contraceptives to curb the spiralling population.
Automatic dispensers will periodically release 10 grams of Ovistop per bird which operates as birth control for the feathered pests.
Pigeons will be put ‘on the pill’ between July and December, the boom season for breeding, and the project has so far been dubbed effective by town hall sources.
The strategy is expected to reduce the pigeon population to 20% of what it is now over five years.
Since just two birds can give birth to up to 50 pigeons per year, overpopulation has been a growing problem.
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 | Feb 8, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting
crop out man
Birds of prey are to be used to scare nuisance seagulls and other pest scavenger birds away from a Galway landfill site.
The problem of seagulls and other pest birds is so great at the East Galway Landfill in Kilconnell, Galway County Council is looking for birds of prey to aid in curbing the nuisance.
The local authority has sought tenders for bird control services at the landfill site near Ballinasloe. The successful bidder will be asked to use deterrents, including birds of prey such as falcons and eagles, “to deter pest bird species form causing nuisance at the landfill site”.
In conjunction with the use of birds of prey, artificial deterrents such as balloons, kites and distress callers will be used to combat the problem of nuisance birds at the landfill.
The deterrents must be used when the contractor is on site, and when the contractor is not on site in order to comply with bird control conditions set-out in the waste licence for the facility.
Using birds of prey is considered an environmentally friendly way of combating the problem of seagulls and pest birds at landfill sites.
Gulls and other birds feeding at landfill waste sites can cause problems for neighbours of the site as well as to people working at the landfill, and flight paths.
According to the County Council, the successful company must fly birds of prey as a deterrent at the site every day that the contractor is present.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, scavenger birds such as starlings, crows, blackbirds, and gulls are most commonly associated with active landfills.
They can be a nuisance, transfer pathogens, litter and scraps to neighbouring areas and also be a hazard to aircraft. The EPA said, in its guidelines, that some birds resident on landfills are protected species and this protection must be respected at all times.
In recent weeks seagulls, in particular, have received bad press. In England, gulls have been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reason and the Prime Minister, David Cameron called for a ‘big conversation’ on aggressive menace gulls, which he encounters at Cornwall.
In Ireland, Fianna Fáil senator, Ned O’Sullivan last year said swooping seagulls were a scourge in Dublin, attacking young people and causing a raucous racket at night contributing to residents’ sleep deprivation.
His party colleague in the senate, Denis O’Donovan, last week called for a cull of seagulls because they were becoming a pest and nuisance.
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 | Feb 7, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeons in the News
The downtown area of the city of Fredericton is missing thousands of feathered residents.
Areas that would normally roost hundreds of pigeons are now empty.
The city says it has not worked to remove the birds and says their absence is concerning.
“I haven’t seen too many pigeons around,” said by-law officer Don Veysey who has worked on the by-laws concerning the birds in the past.
“I’ve been checking a few areas around where we have been having problems with pigeons in the past and I’ve noticed that there is just none around.”
Don Veysey
Fredericton bylaw officer Don Veysey has worked on pigeon bylaws in the past. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
Veysey says to his knowledge there has been no major project to rid the downtown of the birds and it may be something the city should look into.
“That is something to be concerned with,” said Veysey. “Pigeons are a natural phenomenon, they’ve been around here for hundreds of years. It could be something of concern.”
Checks in areas that have been traditional habitats for pigeons such as beneath underpasses, the Fredericton grandstands, and harness racing horse barns all turned up empty for the birds.
Residents have noticed the flock missing from city streets and downtown roofs.
“I haven’t seen any pigeons” said Bruce Newman, a local painter and resident of Fredericton for the last 15 years.
“There are usually lots of pigeons downtown but I haven’t seen any. I think it’s pretty unnatural. Something could be going on, but I don’t know what.”
In the four hours CBC spent trying to locate any of the birds in the downtown only seven were spotted in total.
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 | Jan 15, 2016 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting
A chronically ill man may have to stop feeding his beloved pigeons, after a dispute with the manager of the supermarket next to his Bexleyheath flat.
Steven Picard feeds stray birds on his roof – which overlooks the Sainsbury’s Local car park in Windermere Road – two to three times a day.
The 63-year-old supermarket “regular” has been told to stop encouraging the feathered creatures, and may now have to choose between them and his local store.
Following a dispute with store’s manager, Mr Picard was “peed off” and says the situation forced him to shop online for over a week.
He suffers from multiple sclerosis (MS), which means he struggles to travel further afield to shop.
He told News Shopper: “I think it’s ridiculous.
“It’s not illegal to feed pigeons.
“The supermarket’s only 50 yards away from me.
“It’s very inconvenient because of my MS to go any further.”
Mr Picard said the Sainsbury’s manager claimed birds were dive bombing customers and making a mess on cars, but Mr Picard refused to stop feeding them.
He added: “I do enjoy feeding them, because my lifestyle these days is quite limited.
“They congregate on my lower roof and then they go away.
“They know me well.
“It’s not in their area that I am feeding birds.
Feeding pigeons can attract large groups (stock image)
“I have been a good customer, every day for the last four years.”
Mr Picard was also upset and embarrassed that the manager “shouted at” him in front of other shoppers.
He said: “It was completely out of order.
“I cannot walk very easily because of my MS.
“I have to go online now for shopping.
“It’s a lot more inconvenient.
“I just want the situation to be resolved.”
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)
