Part of what makes New Yorkers different from Everyone Else is that we can do things like ingest cockroaches, rusty nail salad, mouse-dropping Cronuts, and subway air and survive. Taking things that don’t belong anywhere inside of the human body and placing them inside of our human bodies—even if unknowingly—is like our super power. A little hair on your dirty water dog? No time to remove it, you’ve got places to be! Wake up with a cockroach crawling into your mouth? That’s a delicacy for some! Things like this have, over time, built up our immunity. But we have to draw lines somewhere, and that somewhere is probably right about here.
Sara Rodich snapped this photo at a street cart on 49th Street and 6th Avenue two weeks ago, and tells us, “The owner was nowhere to be found! The pigeons were eating on the cart for a solid 10 minutes.” Hold up: pigeons, plural? That’s right, “There were two pigeons,” Rodich points out, “one was standing on the grill eating the food and the other was just perched on the side.”
We’re just going to have to accept that this probably happens a lot. In fact, 9 out of 10 of us have probably dined on a pigeon-seasoned falafel. But you know what? We survived. The best we can do now is just block this image from our collective mind and keep going.
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.
LIVINGSTON, Montana — Officials in Livingston are trying to decide how to address the city’s growing pigeon population but are left wondering if they have public support.
Just three people attended a meeting of Livingston’s Pigeon Task Force on Thursday.
Park County Sanitarian Barbara Woodbury says pigeon management efforts might be abandoned if there isn’t enough community support.
Lots of people are complaining about the birds. Woodbury tells the Livingston Enterprise a railroad underpass and vacant building are the two main pigeon roosting areas in town.
She says the most economically feasible and effective method to control pigeon numbers would be to give the birds feed laced with a birth control drug.
No future meetings of the Pigeon Task Force are scheduled, however.
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.
NIPTON, Calif. — The Mojave Desert’s gleaming Ivanpah solar plant is bright enough to make Las Vegas-bound air travelers and pilots squint from a distance of 60 or more miles.
The 45-story “power towers” shine with sunlight reflected by 350,000 heliostat mirrors spread across an area four times the size of New York’s Central Park. Receivers atop the towers heat to nearly 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, boiling water to turn turbines that crank out 392 megawatts — power for more than 100,000 houses.
But that intense heat is incinerating birds that fly into the “flux field” between the mirrors and the towers.
Bird mortality is a problem for Ivanpah developer BrightSource Energy Inc., operator NRG Energy Inc. and other companies that covet the power tower technology. Killing or maiming most bird species — even by accident — is illegal under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Ivanpah, which opened a year ago, is testing new ways to prevent bird deaths, trying everything from anti-perching devices to spraying a bubble gum extract that birds hate. Its efforts could be key to the technology’s future.
“We take this issue very seriously, and Ivanpah’s project owners have gone to great lengths to investigate and minimize wildlife impacts,” NRG spokesman Jeff Holland said. “We are evaluating the use of humane avian deterrent systems, similar to those employed by airports and in food industry, and implementing other practices that go beyond conventional operational procedures to reduce avian activity near the towers.”
While bird kills happen at all energy projects, Ivanpah has had an outsize amount of press attention — possibly because it’s the largest power tower project in the world and because it got a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
Trouble began last April with the release of a Fish and Wildlife Service forensics report documenting debris, birds and insects — all known as “streamers” — going up in smoke at Ivanpah. Vivid pictures of charred birds spawned headlines.
According to the report, Fish and Wildlife enforcement officers reported seeing an average of one streamer every two minutes.
One falconlike bird was seen with a plume of smoke rising from its tail as it flew through the field. It lost stability and altitude but was able to clear the plant’s perimeter and land, the officers said. It was never found.
One hundred forty-one bird carcasses were found at Ivanpah from June 2012 to December 2013, one-third of which likely died from the solar flux, with telltale signs including feather curling, charring, melting and breakage. Most were house finches and yellow-rumped warblers whose diets consist mostly of insects.
Federal investigators warned Ivanpah may act as a “mega-trap” where abundant insects attract small birds that are killed or incapacitated by the solar flux. Those birds in turn attract larger predators, “creating an entire food chain vulnerable to injury and death.”
Critics and media seized on the report.
An Associated Press story in August suggested a bird was being toasted every two minutes at Ivanpah, even though investigators did not know what percentage of the streamers were birds. The AP also quoted Shawn Smallwood, an ecologist at the Center for Biological Diversity, estimating that 28,000 birds were dying each year at Ivanpah, an estimate the environmentalist admitted was “back-of-the-napkin.”
Ivanpah consultants said they believe no more than 1,469 birds a year are being directly killed, 898 of which could be attributed to solar flux.
FWS conceded that “we currently have a very incomplete knowledge of the scope of avian mortality at these solar facilities.”
The agency late last summer said it is conducting a “systematic study” at Ivanpah “to determine its true impact on birds.”
Impacts on other projects
Ivanpah officials say the plant’s impacts pale in comparison to larger human threats.
They include building collisions that kill an estimated 365 million to 988 million birds annually in the U.S., according to a 2014 study by federal scientists in the journal The Condor: Ornithological Applications.
Stray and outdoor pet cats each year kill a median of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals, mostly native mammals like shrews, chipmunks and voles, according to a 2013 report from scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and FWS.
American wind farms kill upward of half a million birds annually, according to peer-reviewed research, and power lines kill hundreds of thousands to 175 million birds annually, according to another study.
But the lurid images of burned birds at Ivanpah seem to resonate with the public. And uncertainty over the towers’ impacts could bring headaches to new projects.
Whether bird deaths at Ivanpah will crimp the technology’s development remains to be seen.
Environmentalists are unlikely to endorse the technology until its environmental footprint is better understood.
“We’re cautious and somewhat alarmed until we find out the truth,” said Garry George, renewable energy project director for Audubon California. “Everything you build is going to have some impact on birds. The question is, how big? Is it affecting populations?”
Ivanpah ramps up monitoring
Ivanpah’s owners hope to answer that through better monitoring and the use of bird deterrents.
In mid-October, Ivanpah installed a “BirdBuffer” at the top of one of its towers. The moving box-size machine sprays a concentrated grape juice extract into the air at regular intervals, 45 minutes of every hour. The vapor extract, which is used in food products including bubble gum, causes a “safe yet irritating response” in birds, according to the manufacturer, BirdBuffer LLC of Everett, Wash., which sells the units for $8,995 each.
BirdBuffer CEO Gary Crawford said the plant has since seen a reduction in bird activity.
Ivanpah is also exploring anti-perching devices, fogging and sonic deterrents, and waste and water containment to keep birds from scavenging the area for food, NRG’s Holland said. It is turning off facility lights at night to attract fewer insects and repositioning heliostats to cut down on glare.
Birds continue to fall from the sky — 115 carcasses were located last year between May 23 and Aug. 17, about one-third of which showed signed of dying in the solar flux, according to Ivanpah’s latest filing with the California Energy Commission.
A Greenwire reporter visited the site Dec. 7 but saw no streamers or bird carcasses.
Ivanpah mirror
Ivanpah’s nearly 350,000 mirrors track and reflect sunlight onto the boilers atop the three power towers. Photo by Phil Taylor.
The true number of dying birds is likely underrepresented by human surveys.
Large facilities like Ivanpah are difficult to efficiently search; carcasses are often hidden by vegetation or solar panels, dead birds disappear to scavengers and others degrade too fast to determine cause of death, according to the FWS forensics report.
Ivanpah is also seeking to better monitor its airspace.
Last May, the plant’s owners commissioned the U.S. Geological Survey to study the effectiveness of video cameras, radar, acoustic detectors and other tracking devices to quantify the presence, diversity, movement and behaviors of birds, bats and insects flying near the facility. The results, expected to be published this year in a scientific journal, could spur new research into best management practices.
Birds are not the first major wildlife problem Ivanpah has faced.
In addition to invading avian airspace, the plant took over about 3,500 acres of native desert scrubland with a resident population of federally threatened desert tortoise.
Developers spent $22 million to care for tortoises, moving several dozen from the construction site and building a “head start” nursery where juvenile tortoises and hatchlings are reared until big enough to resist predation from kit foxes, ravens or coyotes.
The company plans to spend $34 million more to meet federal and state mitigation obligations.
“BrightSource was a very good partner for making that work for desert tortoise,” said FWS Director Dan Ashe.
Bird mortality will be an ongoing challenge, he said.
“Are we concerned? Um, yes,” Ashe said during a Western Governors’ Association winter meeting last month in Las Vegas. “Except … are birds killed at that facility? They are, clearly. Are birds killed by running into this building? They are, and every building. I’ve had birds run into the glass window of my house. Everybody has. Every time we put a facility on the landscape, it’s going to take birds. The question is, is it going to have a population-level impact? We need to figure that out.”
‘Prosecutorial discretion’
Legal experts do not expect bird deaths to thwart solar development, even as the Justice Department cracks down on wind farms that kill significant numbers of birds and extracts major penalties under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
“Enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act essentially boils down to prosecutorial discretion,” said Andrew Bell, an energy attorney for Marten Law in San Francisco. “Prosecutorial discretion is in turn founded largely on a demonstration of good-faith efforts by companies to address phenomena like avian impacts.”
Solar developers typically meet that burden by agreeing to mitigation and bird and bat conservation strategies as a condition of federal permits, Bell said.
Solar farms, particularly future power towers, may need to do more if they want to maintain their green credentials.
George, of Audubon California, said he’s reserving judgment on Ivanpah until more studies are completed.
“Right now, we’re cautious and not willing to support the permitting of another power tower,” he said.
George visited the Ivanpah plant last fall and said the operator had roughly two dozen biologists that day fanning the property looking for dead birds with the help of scent dogs. Through binoculars, he saw plenty of streamers in the sky, though he said it was not clear whether any of them were birds.
“It was a great mystery,” he said. “It wasn’t the nightmare Wes Craven movie I had in my mind.”
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 FEEDING ban at St Martin’s Churchyard has already been successful in reducing the numbers of pigeons and squirrels living there.
As the Advertiser revealed in December, the vast population of animals and “less-pleasant vermin” living around the church is causing a significant risk to the much-loved building, with architects warning there is a high potential for stonework to be damaged by large amounts of droppings. Signs were erected around the site that month calling for those walking through the yard to “Keep our wildlife wild and our children safe” and refrain from feeding animals there.
Churchwarden Peter Bunn said that while there is still a long way to go, the signs have so far proved effective.
“The number of pigeons you see sitting on the south roof waiting for food has definitely been reduced,” he said.
“It has got better. I would say that most people are respecting the signs. It’s not everyone and we have had some people we have had slight difficulties with.
“But I think most people understand our problem and we are on our way to solving it.”
As well as the potential damage to stonework, a further concern for church workers is that of squirrels finding their way inside and causing damage to the historic organ or, more seriously, chewing through electric wiring and starting a fire.
Householders in the area have also noticed an improvement.
Derek Benoliel of nearby St Martin’s Court said: “The situation is greatly improved.
“It’s not resolved but there definitely isn’t as many pigeons as there was. In the morning we used to see around 100 to 150 pigeons.
“The people that feed them do it with the best intentions in the world but they don’t know the danger.
“The number isn’t as low as it needs to be. They just make such a mess.”
He added: “We are still inundated with squirrels.
“It needs to be stopped completely. You definitely still see people doing it.
“I have nothing against pigeons as a bird but it’s the damage they cause.”
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.
AN OAP was left suffering from a deadly lung disease after a flock of pigeons set up home in an empty property above her.
Rosslyn Osinski, 67, had to be taken to hospital with pigeon fancier’s lung after 70 birds moved into the derelict home and excrement started to seep through her ceiling.
Her husband Michael, 68, feared for her life after she lost more than a stone and was hooked up to oxygen to keep her alive.
Rosslyn spent two weeks in hospital and had to undergo a six-month course of steroids.
Last night, Rosslyn demanded someone is held accountable, blasting: “This has been an absolute nightmare.”
Rosslyn first visited her GP in January last year with breathlessness, diarrhoea, vomiting and fatigue.
She went to Borders General Hospital where she was put on antibiotics and hooked up to oxygen.
Rosslyn said: “On Christmas Day, I just managed to get out of bed. I looked like skin and bone – I looked absolutely terrible.
“I spent a week in hospital on antibiotics and oxygen and then I was released.
“Within 24 hours, I had to call an ambulance. I couldn’t breathe. I went back to hospital, looked at myself in the mirror and I just started crying.
“I just thought to myself, ‘I’m going to die in here.’ I thought, ‘This must be what it’s like to die’.”
Michael said: “They did a CT scan and her lungs were white. If a doctor had not spotted it, she’d be dead.”
Rosslyn’s nightmare started after the Crown Hotel above her basement home in Coldstream, Berwick- shire, fell into disrepair and the birds moved in.
The couple are taking legal action against Scottish Borders Council, claiming they failed to make the building safe despite complaints. But the council’s insurers have denied liability.
Rosslyn’s basement home – which is underneath the hotel – was repeatedly flooded with “dirty, brown, filthy water” which had filtered through piles of pigeon excrement.
The couple were left with a £5000 bill to repair the damage.
Rosslyn, who had hoped to run a B&B from their home said: “I still have scar tissue in my lungs and so there’s no way I can cater for people.
“It’s ruined the little business we hoped to have.”
A spokesman for Scottish Borders Council said: “We have no comment to make at this stage as we feel it may prejudice the legal process.”
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.
Part of what makes New Yorkers different from Everyone Else is that we can do things like ingest cockroaches, rusty nail salad, mouse-dropping Cronuts, and subway air and survive. Taking things that don’t belong anywhere inside of the human body and placing them inside of our human bodies—even if unknowingly—is like our super power. A little hair on your dirty water dog? No time to remove it, you’ve got places to be! Wake up with a cockroach crawling into your mouth? That’s a delicacy for some! Things like this have, over time, built up our immunity. But we have to draw lines somewhere, and that somewhere is probably right about here.
