by Pigeon Patrol | Sep 15, 2015 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, UltraSonic Bird Control
When Anita Grossman saw her dream house for the first time, it was occupied by a family of pigeons. Her builder husband was fond of buying “fixer uppers”, but Grossman quickly realised that this house would need a total transformation before it could be a family home.
“When we found it, the house hadn’t been touched since the 60s,” she says. “Generations of one family had lived in it but it had been left a dilapidated wreck. Birds were flying around in the roof, it was badly wired, there was no central heating and the flooring was unstable.”
Once the initial shock was over, the pair found themselves attracted to the building’s incredible proportions. The five-storey, terraced house in Islington, north London, was filled with light, offered around 4,000sqft of space and was 18ft wide at the front of the house. It still retained some of its Victorian features such as two, large working fireplaces, English oak floorboards and original cornicing. So the pair decided to give the building a chance and moved in in 2008.
After eight months of extensive work, the house was completed and it’s now a paean to contemporary family life. The 27ft-long, L-shaped reception room is the introduction to an open-plan entertaining space, a bespoke fitted kitchen, five bedrooms and a spacious back garden with a gym at the end.
Grossman estimates it has increased in value by 200 per cent since they started work and it has proved to be a nice earner in other ways. Grossman is one half of A&R Photographic which represents photographers and provides photoshoot and filming locations for businesses. As a result, her house has featured in a number of high-profile glossy magazines, including a Vogue cover shoot of Gwyneth Paltrow, shot by world-famous photographer Mario Testino.
“We go out to work and we know that the house is also earning us money,” says Grossman. “It’s paid for itself a few times over.” But now it’s time to say goodbye as Grossman and her partner sell up to concentrate on their next property adventure in Ibiza.
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 | Sep 14, 2015 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP — Overgrown weeds and grass at Atlantic City International Airport may give the impression the lawn mowers are broken or the groundskeepers have been laid off.
But the airport’s unkempt appearance is part of a strategy to outwit some bird-brained intruders. Airport officials want to discourage birds from congregating on the sprawling property and creating a danger for aircraft.
The tall vegetation on parts of the airfield is seen as a deterrent because birds like to survey their surroundings. One bird expert says they avoid high weeds, because they fear predators could be hiding nearby.
“It’s certainly true that larger birds, like geese and gulls, don’t like the fact that predators, including foxes, could be lurking there,” explained Mike Crewe, program director for the Cape May Bird Observatory. “The other problem for them is, if you think of geese or gulls, they are short-legged for the bulk of their body, so walking through that type of vegetation is cumbersome.”
So far this year, there have been 25 bird strikes with aircraft at the Atlantic City airport. None resulted in any injuries or serious damage, according to the South Jersey Transportation Authority, the state agency that owns the airport.
Overall, the Federal Aviation Administration reports there are more than 10,000 airplane bird strikes a year in the United States. Globally, wildlife strikes have killed more than 250 people and destroyed more than 229 aircraft since 1988, the FAA says.
In recent years, the best known case of an airplane bird strike is the “miracle on the Hudson,” the forced landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in New York in 2009. Canada geese ingested in the jet engines caused the plane to lose power and ditch into the Hudson River. The crash was labeled a miracle because no one was killed.
Knowing that bird strikes could be catastrophic, the South Jersey Transportation Authority and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are using a number of tactics to keep geese, gulls and other feathery interlopers off the Atlantic City airport grounds.
Flocks of birds descend on the 5,000-acre airport site to forage on the insects that are abundant this time of year. But the transportation authority has a contract with the Department of Agriculture to make the airport inhospitable for birds, including setting off fireworks or even shooting them if they become a serious nuisance.
“Wildlife harassment techniques are implemented as needed, including loud noises or pyrotechnics. When necessary, birds are taken in accordance with the airport’s bird depredation permit,” said Kevin Rehmann, a transportation authority spokesman.
Rehmann could not immediately say just how many birds have been shot this year or what types. In previous years, the airport disclosed that hundreds of birds have been killed, particularly the aggressive laughing gulls that often appear in large numbers.
Crewe said he hopes the airport kills birds only as a last resort. He would like to see a compromise that allows the birds to forage and nest on the airport grounds, as long as they don’t pose a danger to aircraft.
“I would say it’s unfortunate,” Crewe said of sharpshooters killing the birds. “I would say it should be a last recourse when you try everything else.”
Other airports across the globe have struggled with bird populations. Some have used dogs to patrol the airfield for birds. Others have relied on trained falcons to chase away intruders. Crewe said one airport in Europe has been experimenting with a robotic peregrine falcon, created from a 3-D printer, to fly around the grounds as a bird deterrent.
Strangely, the roar of jet engines isn’t enough to scare the birds. Crewe said the birds simply have adapted to the noise and are unfazed by the planes. So they persist.
“They get used to it. That’s the long and short of it,” Crewe said. “They’ve come to think, ‘This thing’s kind of noisy, but it doesn’t harm me.’’’
Gulls and other birds come to the Atlantic City airport from their breeding grounds in the salt marshes of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge about five miles away in Galloway Township. Insects found at the airport are a tasty morsel for the adult gulls and their chicks waiting back at the nests.
Years ago, the airport grounds were mowed very short, similar to a golf course. But that attracted Japanese beetles. The beetles like shorter grass for their egg-laying. Swarms of beetles would then attract flocks of gulls and other birds looking for food.
But since 1993, airport officials have been allowing the grass and weeds to grow high during the summer. The hope is that there will be fewer beetles for the birds to snack on, forcing them to bypass the airport to search for food elsewhere.
Rehmann noted that the grass and weeds will be mowed once the summer growing season is over. Although large sections of the grounds remain overgrown, mowing continues near the runways, taxiways and other areas of the airport where navigational aids for aircraft are located.
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 | Sep 13, 2015 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services
A self-proclaimed bird rescuer has condemned the use of netting to deter nesting seagulls after spotting 14 dead birds trapped on a supermarket roof.
Outraged Steven Ault, 40, of The Crescent in Bridlington, was in the Boyes café on Chapel Street when he saw the birds tangled in netting on the roof of Iceland.
“I couldn’t believe what I saw. It is appalling and that is the view from the cafe,” said Mr Ault, who regularly checks netting in Bridlington for birds in distress.
He was quick to act, asking staff at Iceland to remove the dead birds and informing the RSPCA. However, he was informed the supermarket staff were not authorised to go on the roof.
He said: “I think bird netting should be made illegal. Looking at that roof it is a great roof for birds nesting. I can’t see that they would cause any trouble on there. It is very vindictive. The netting causes more trouble than the birds ever could.”
And it is not the first time he has witnessed upsetting treatment of seagulls, as he has seen two gulls shot in Fairfield Road.
“People are scared of them and when you are scared you lose all your compassion towards them,” said Mr Ault.
A spokesperson for Iceland said: “We apologise for any distress caused by the netting and associated problems on the roof of our Bridlington store. Our store colleagues are not permitted to climb onto the roof to clear it themselves for health and safety reasons, but we are working with a qualified company to clear up the area ASAP and will strive to keep this area as clear as possible.”
A spokesperson for the RSPCA said: “The RSPCA is opposed, in principle, to killing or taking wildlife – in circumstances where there is a proven case for controlling wild animals, we advocate
the use of non-harmful methods of deterrence where possible.
“Bird deterrent netting can be an effective means of keeping birds off structures as it can prevent problems without needing to resort to other measures such as killing birds.
“However, it’s vitally important that any netting is properly installed and maintained.
“Problems arise when netting is incorrectly installed or when it becomes damaged and is not repaired, leaving gaps where birds are able to enter and become trapped. If the netting is not checked or maintained, there is a risk that birds may suffer and die from injury or starvation.”
The RSPCA acts swiftly once a trapped bird – alive or dead – is reported and sends a letter to the building owner requesting the problem is rectified.
The spokesperson continued: “Unfortunately however, there are situations where we do not hear back from the owner, or we are informed by the public that nothing has been done to fix, remove or replace the netting. In these incidents, we will send reminder letters and escalate the situation as necessary.”
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 | Sep 11, 2015 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes
There was an unwritten rule on my high school baseball team: When we were batting with two balls, two strikes and two outs, everyone in the dugout had to put their hat on and rub the bill with two fingers until the opposing pitcher started his delivery.
Then, once he had, you had to take off your cap and “roll the dice” — taking your hat off and flipping it over, wiggling it back and forth.
This, of course, guaranteed that the ensuing pitch would not result in the third out of the inning.
Every sport comes with a certain degree of superstition, but baseball takes it to an entirely different level. Pitchers know not to walk on the foul line in between innings, and if he’s throwing a no-hitter no one’s allowed to talk about it — to him or anyone else.
Batters know to take the same amount of time in between pitches to do the same readjustment of their helmet, batting gloves and cleats. Everyone knows that if you’re on a winning streak you don’t change anything — and I mean anything — in your routine, both on and off the field:
In one of the more famous conditioning experiments, B.F. Skinner put pigeons in a cage that would produce food at regular time intervals, regardless of the pigeons’ behavior. The pigeons, however, noticed that after executing some chance behavior the food arrived. Thinking that their behavior elicited the food, a number of the pigeons then started repeating those same behaviors in the hopes of getting more food. In essence, the birds “learned” that certain movements produced food, even though it simply wasn’t true. In essence, the birds became superstitious.
The exact same phenomenon occurs on the ball field, where there is a massive time interval between successes. Batters get hits at a relatively fixed rate, but there’s enough time in between those hits to ascribe irrelevant behaviors to them.
For example, here’s Nomar Garciaparra, who was one of the game’s best hitters when I was growing up. He was famous for three things: tracking down ground balls in the hole, flirting with a .400 batting average and ritualistically adjusting his batting gloves between every pitch.
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 | Sep 7, 2015 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
They tried almost everything to shoo away the pigeons that had taken over the entire apartment complex. They laid nets along the building, employed a worker to drive away the roosting pigeons and got iron grills for their windows.
But none of these devices deterred the adaptive “blue rock” pigeons which had made Spartan Apartments on Richmond Road their abode here.
The residents have now found a way to keep the rock pigeons at bay. Some residents were aggravating the situation by feeding the pigeons which proved to be a force multiplier for avian.
Finally, the apartment owners, with the help of bird experts, tried something unique.
They fixed an acoustic box emitting sounds of different birds and it worked. When sounds like pigeons in distress, or predator birds like falcons started coming out of the box, the pigeons flew away, scared by the alien sounds.
The box emits the sounds for one minute; then there’s a gap of three minutes before it starts blaring out once again.
The residents’ association in this apartment building have now launched a massive awareness drive, asking people not to feed the pigeons, which would encourage them to nest in the shafts.
“The acoustic boxes have helped somewhat but some of the birds try to come back, knowing that the box will not harm them. Now the developers of the box are trying different sounds so that the birds are kept at bay,” they 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 Pigeon Patrol | Sep 4, 2015 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes
EAST HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH)– An East Haven man says his neighbor is feeding pigeons, but it’s getting out of hand, leaving behind a gross mess. In fact, the bird food is attracting so many pigeons the health department has gotten involved.
Bill Parker says three years ago his neighbor started feeding the pigeons, but his love for birds has gotten out of control.
“Probably a half a bag of bird feed on the ground and he is actually on town property over here so it’s not even his own property,” said Bill Parker.
The birds are being fed at a tree directly next to Parker’s neighbor’s property. It’s an empty lot that is now turning into a pigeon sanctuary, leaving behind feathers, feces, and food. Parker estimates that there could be two or three hundreds birds on a given day.
“I know there is a lot of disease in the pigeon droppings and he is not really cleaning up,” said Parker. “He is just feeding them and more and more are coming.”
Parker says he has been trying to get the health department to do something to make the man stop because the bird feces, food, and feathers are disgusting.
Friday, we tried to talk to his neighbor, nobody came to the door. However, we did notice a card from the health department in the doorway. We then stopped by the health department. They told News 8 they are investigating, but that there is no law against feeding the pigeons, unless, like in this case, it’s getting out of hand.
We also brought a doughnut as bait to see if we could get the birds to come down from their perch so we could see first-hand the feeding frenzy that neighbors say happens. None of the birds took the bait. Instead, they all stay perched on the power lines above his Parker’s neighbor’s home, where they know there will always be meal waiting.
Bill Parker says he is moving.
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)
