by johnnymarin | Oct 8, 2017 | Pigeons in the News
The Mourning Dove is one of the most common and abundant birds native to North America. It is common in open country and along roadsides. It can be found in forest clearings, prairies, deserts, farmlands, and suburbs. There are usually several sightings a year, that we know of, in Edmonds. It is far more common in rural parts of Snohomish County. Look for it on utility lines, fence posts, and foraging on the ground.
The bird in the second photo was on the beach just north of the Brackett’s Landing jetty last week, engaging in unusual behavior. It was repeatedly flying up and chasing Western Sandpipers away from the shore break and out over the water. Then it would return to walking the beach.
Nature writer Pete Dunne calls the Mourning Dove a teardrop with a tail because of its shape — a tiny head atop a slender neck atop a plump body, finished off with a long pointed tail. Dunne’s description also fits because its song is among the saddest in the avian world. It’s easy to envision teardrops falling from its eyes as it utters its dirge-like chant.
Seeds make up 99% of the Mourning Dove’s diet. The bird favors the seeds of cultivated grains, grasses, ragweeds and other plants. It usually forages on the ground, swallowing seeds and storing them in its crop, which is an enlarged pocket of the upper esophagus. Once it fills its crop, the bird will then fly to a safe perch to digest its meal. It swallows grit, which is small gravel, to aid in the digestion of hard seeds. One source notes that the seed record is held by a dove that filled its crop with 17,200 bluegrass seeds.
The male’s courtship display starts with an ascent accompanied by noisy wingbeats. He then does a long circular glide with his wings fully spread and slightly bowed down. On the ground, he approaches the female stiffly with his chest puffed out. He bows and coos loudly to her. The pair will bond by preening each other’s feathers. The male leads the female to potential nest sites. The female selects the site she will use.
The nest is most often in a tree or shrub, usually lower than 40 feet above ground. This dove will nest sometimes on a building ledge or other structure. Occasionally it will nest on the ground. The male supplies the building materials and the female constructs a flimsy nest of twigs. Both sexes incubate the two eggs for about two weeks. Both parents feed the nestlings “pigeon milk”. (Pigeon milk is a milky fluid secreted by the walls of the crop. It is rich in fat and protein.) The young leave the nest after about 15 days and continue to be fed by their parents for another two weeks. This species has multiple broods each year. In southern areas a pair may raise as many as 5-6 broods per year.
There are a number of collective nouns for any group of doves. They include cote, dole, dule, bevy, flight, and piteousness. For the Mourning Dove specifically, I would offer lament as a collective noun because of its sad song, sung over and over and over again. The oldest known Mourning Dove was 30 years and four months of age when he was shot in Florida in 1998. He had been banded in Georgia in 1968. The Mourning Dove is a game bird and hunters harvest upwards of 20 million each year.
U.S. population estimates vary widely. One source asserts that the Mourning Dove is one of the most abundant birds with a U.S. population of 350 million. Although the Mourning Dove is common across the continent, and has prospered as humans settled the landscape, the North American Breeding Bird Survey estimates a population decline of 15% between 1966 and 2015. Partners in Flight estimates a global population of 120 million, with 81 percent spending part of the year in the U.S., 5 percent in Canada, and 19 percent in Mexico. The Mourning Dove has a conservation status of least concern.
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 | Oct 7, 2017 | Bird Deterrent Products
Most birdwatchers hardly spare a glance for the feral, or semi-domesticated, pigeons of our towns, strutting across pavements or flying above the streets with their wings held momentarily in a V-shape. Yet they are interesting birds with a long history.
Nearly all of them come from ancestors that passed through human hands. Some of these were kept for food in dovecotes many were trained as homing or racing pigeons in a competitive sport that survives.
They have hybridised, and a flock may contain birds of very different appearance. Among them, however, are numerous individuals that still look very like the wild rock doves of the coast. They can be picked out by their blue-grey colour and the two heavy black bars on each wing. These probably derive from wild birds once captured by humans for use in the shooting booths. Rock doves are very quick and agile on the wing, and were good; challenging targets for the gunners when released.
In the wild they live on rocky seaside cliffs, and the pure form is found mainly in northwest Scotland. However, the feral birds sometimes go back to their cliff habitat and interbreed with them, so they may eventually die out.
The town pigeons can look very scruffy and dirty, and one wonders what they have been eating, so they are not very popular. But a sudden panicky flight into the sky by a streetful of them when they are alarmed can be quite spectacular. These can be seen much more often now that peregrine falcons are found in town centres looking for pigeons.
The town pigeons’ note is a little rolling “coo”, much used in courtship, and one can often see a male walking rapidly, in a rather hustling style, behind a female in the hope of wooing her. They nest in sheltered holes and crevices in buildings, often under railway bridges. We may not greatly like them, but it seems that we shall always have them with us.
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 | Oct 6, 2017 | Pigeons in the News
The Tennessee-Florida game is this week. No one wants to talk about it and that’s fine. One program is managed by a dull Battletoad whose idea of a rallying cry is a garbage can. The other spent most of his offseason taking offense at the implication that he looked like a man who posed nude on a shark. Neither is living up to expectations at places that desperately want a likable winner, and neither is happy.
This game will be like watching two pigeons fight over a half-eaten chicken wing. No one respects the pigeons to begin with, because they are pigeons. Both are poorly armed and equipped for the fight, because again: are pigeons. As an SEC East rivalry, the entire exercise is an exercise in cannibalism. As a fight over position in the blighted SEC East, it is a futile fight with very little meat on the bone to be won.
Bystanders will be mildly horrified, only mildly, because this game doesn’t have the gravity to merit full horror.
What it will have: The head coach of one team hawking barbecue sauce in the stadium’s concession stands. Jim McElwain’s recipe can now be yours in the form of Mombo3 barbecue sauce, named for McElwain’s mom, and for the number of children the McElwain family have, and definitely not for field goals. Nope. Definitely not a 3 for endless field goals to end offensive drives.
Reading over it, it sounds like this is a production of McElwain’s wife Karen and Marty Hurwitz, who is some dude who used to manage Raquel Welch, but who now lives in Sarasota. (We would put money on there being at least five dudes in Sarasota who say they used to manage Raquel Welch.)
When asked to describe the sauce, Hurwitz, who did not think of the football implications of this at all, gave the Gainesville Sun this:
He describes it as “perfume for the mouth. Sweet at first, then tangy and finally a kick at the end.”
That is correct. The Gators’ barbecue sauce starts sweet, but then turns bitter and ends with a kick. No, this is perfect. The branding is perfect, don’t change a damn thing, not at all. Tennessee at Florida will be broadcast at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS, and Jim McElwain definitely did not pose nude atop a shark this offseason. He says it wasn’t him, and that offends him and his family when you say it.
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 | Oct 5, 2017 | Pigeons in the News
Only two birds made it back to West Cumbria on the day from Portland after the 8.30am liberation on Saturday.
Ian, who flies with wife Denise, clocked a blue hen at 4.54pm after the 284 miles flight. The only other bird on the day homed to the Salterbeck loft of Graham Best at 6.46pm.
Ian, who has enjoyed a tremendous season, is leading the race for the coveted Big Cup in the Derwent Valley Federation ahead of this weekend’s final race from Windrush. His winning bird was bred in the stock loft and prior to the Gold Ring test had six races, only missing Flookburgh 1 and Southport.
Flying to the perch she is a Kees Bosua pigeon, her sire being bred by Paul Fisher Blackpool out of two of his best pigeons named The Joker and Princess Kees responsible for many winners. The dam was bought at Premier Stud Ed Sittner’s (Kees Bosua) sale in Blackpool. She is out of two principle pigeons namely Big Daddy and Blue Belle.
Ian says: “The parents of this hen have bred me several winners, one being my West Cumbria Amalgamation bird of the year in 2015 and 2016. He was also an RPRA Cumbria Region award runner-up last year to a loft mate.
“His nestmate has also scored many times for me in the Club, Fed and Amal.”
Ian collected £3,000 for winning the race, plus another £3,000 as the breeder.
He was also seventh at 8.44am on Sunday morning with a blue white flight hen which earned him £350 and also a further £350 for breeding her. She is also a Kees Bosua pigeon bred in the stock loft from two of Paul Fisher’s birds which were gifted to him.
Ian sent four birds, all bred by him, and clocked two of them while a third was reported after being found on the Wirral.
Twelve birds were clocked on the Sunday with three by Richard Martindale and George ‘Pal’ Lawman; two by John and Liz Walters and two by Joe Fitzsimmons and son.
After the total pay-out the Gold Ring organiser Danny Rodgers will hand nearly £500 to the Henderson Suite at West Cumberland Hospital.
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 | Oct 4, 2017 | Pigeons in the News
“Please don’t curse me. Uncle, please forgive me. I made this mistake for the first time in my life. I will not repeat it. After taking away your pigeons I haven’t been able to study well. My mother also scolded me. I will repay your loss after I get a job… I am giving them back. I am even giving you my pigeons…”
This is a portion of the note Binu Philip found outside his house a week after he lost 10 rare pigeons costing nearly Rs 48,000. 44-year-old Binu, a manager at a showroom for tiles, collects rare species of pigeons, and his pets are priced at around Rs 1 lakh. On September 4, while Binu and family were away from their house in Venjaramoodu in Thiruvananthapuram, 10 pigeons went missing.
The theft was discovered when Binu’s friend, who was feeding the birds while Binu was away, came to the house and found the enclosure broken into and some birds missing. Binu immediately filed a complaint with the police.
On Tuesday evening, at around 7pm, some of Binu’s neighbours saw two persons on a motorcycle throw a box into Binu’s compound.
When they opened up the box, they found pigeons inside, as well as a plaintive note of apology.
“The note was written in pencil, on a ruled sheet torn from a notebook. The person who wrote it mentioned that he had visited my house once. I think it might be some school boys. The neighbours couldn’t recognise the bike riders as they had covered their faces,” says Binu.
Among the pigeons that accompanied the plaintive note, says Binu, only five were among the rare birds that he lost. “There were another four pigeons in the box. But these were regular pigeons, and were ill too. Two of them died soon after,” he says.
Even among the five rare birds that were returned, one bird’s feathers had been badly cut off.
Binu suspects that his remaining birds have been sold off, as the writer of the note offers to repay him after getting a job.
The note makes another plaintive plea for forgiveness. “I just have my mother at home. She scolded me a lot. Please forgive me I will not do it again,” says the letter.
However, Binu says that the losses to him have been too large for him to withdraw his police complaint. “The pigeons that are still missing are worth Rs 25,000,” he says.
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)
