CIA unveils Cold War spy-pigeon missions

CIA unveils Cold War spy-pigeon missions

close up photo of a pigeon

By Gordon Corera

The CIA has declassified details of its secret Cold War spy-pigeon missions.

The files reveal how pigeons were trained for clandestine missions photographing sensitive sites inside the Soviet Union.

The release also reveals how ravens were used to drop bugging devices on window sills and dolphins were trained for underwater missions.

The CIA believed animals could fulfil “unique” tasks for the agency’s clandestine operations.

Inside the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, is a museum, sadly closed to the general public. During a visit to interview the then-director I caught sight of something unusual amid all the bugging devices and spy gadgets.

It was a model pigeon with a camera strapped to it.

The 1970s’ operation was codenamed Tacana and explored the use of pigeons with tiny cameras to automatically take photos, newly released files show.

It took advantage of the fact that the humble pigeon is possessed of an amazing ability – almost a superpower. They can be dropped somewhere they have never been before and still find their way hundreds of miles back home.

Soldier Letting a Carrier Bird Go.

In World War Two a little known branch of British intelligence – MI14(d) – ran a Secret Pigeon Service which dropped birds in a container with a parachute over Occupied Europe. A questionnaire was attached. More than 1,000 pigeons returned with messages including details of V1 rocket launch sites and German radar stations.

Experts found that the quality of the photographs was higher than those produced by spy satellites operating at the time. One fear raised during the tests was if a member of the public stumbled upon “pigeon and camera” and assumed that the government was spying on its own, so an elaborate cover story was cooked up.

How many actual missions did the spy-pigeons fly and what intelligence did they collect? That, apparently, is still secret.

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.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

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Dozens of ‘decorated’ pigeons found dead in New Zealand

Dozens of ‘decorated’ pigeons found dead in New Zealand

Pigeon covered in tinsel is investigated

Pigeons and other birds have been found around the New Zealand capital of Wellington with Christmas decorations attached.

 

Originally By Lisa Jane Harding, CNN

(CNN) Injured and dead pigeons covered in tinsel and other decorations have been turning up in New Zealand, and animal rights campaigners are worried.

The Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said it received up to 30 calls in recent weeks reporting sightings of sparrows and dead pigeons with tinsel intentionally tied to their bodies.
“Many try to pry the foreign objects off their bodies with their beaks and feet, becoming further entangled and preventing them from eating, drinking and flying.
With others, the decorations are wrapped so tightly it completely cuts off their blood circulation,” SPCA spokeswoman Jessie Gilchrist told CNN.
“Those that do survive and arrive at our center are often in a very bad state, they are so malnourished and distressed that we have had to humanely euthanize them.”

The decorations can prevent the birds from eating, drinking and flying, leaving them to starve to death.

Since 2015, the charity said there has been over thirty cases of “decorated” birds found dead or with injuries severe enough to require euthanasia. Most of them being dead pigeons.
On Tuesday, SPCA officers were called to a house in Kilbirnie, a suburb of the capital Wellington, where they rescued several birds covered in decorations and paint.
The birds were in a distressed but otherwise healthy condition.
“One pigeon had quite bright red Christmas tinsel wrapped around its wings and then the top of its head had been painted with red paint as well as its wings had been tipped with red paint,” Gilchrist said.
While charges have yet to be laid against the owners of the house, Gilchrist said the case “remains an ongoing investigation.”
Sparrows and pigeons — which forage for food on the ground, in shrubs or shallow water — face a number of threats from predators, including foxes and racoons, as well as larger birds and snakes.
But humans are perhaps the biggest threat to the birds. In 2015, New Zealand recognized all animals, including birds, as “sentient” under law, extending protections and making it easier for charities like the SPCA to prosecute people for animal cruelty.
One stated purpose of the law was to “remove uncertainty around the ill-treatment of wild animals by targeting acts of wilful or reckless ill-treatment.”

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.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

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Clients drop $180 for bird-poop facials at New York City spa

Clients drop $180 for bird-poop facials at New York City spa

Woman has bird excrement rubbed on her face.

Bird feces being rubbed on a woman’s face.

NEW YORK — Bird poop for beauty?

That’s what goes into facials at a luxury spa where the traditional Japanese treatment using imported Asian nightingale excrement mixed with rice bran goes for $180 a pop.

About 100 women and men go into the Shizuka New York skin care salon, just off Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, each month to get the treatment, which is promoted as a way to keep the face soft and smooth using an enzyme in the poop to gently exfoliate the skin.

Spa owner Shizuka Bernstein, a Tokyo native married to an American, has been offering what she calls the Geisha Facial for about five years.

“I try to bring Japanese beauty secrets to the United States,” says Bernstein, who learned the treatment from her mother.

The Geisha Facial poop treatment, while relatively rare in the United States, is no secret in Japan, where it was first used in the 1600s by actors and geishas.Bird Gone, Pigeon Gone, Pigeon problems, pigeon spikes, 1-877-4NO-BIRD, 4-S Gel, Bird Control, Pigeon Control, bird repellent, Bird Spikes, sonic bird repellent, stainless steel bird spikes, bird spikes Vancouver, Ultra Sonic Bird Control, Bird Netting, Plastic Bird Spikes, Canada bird spike deterrents, Pigeon Pests, B Gone Pigeon, Pigeon Patrol, pest controller, pest control operator, pest control technician, Pigeon Control Products, humane pigeon spikes, pigeon deterrents, pigeon traps, Pigeon repellents, Sound & Laser Deterrents, wildlife control, raccoon, skunk, squirrel deterrent, De-Fence Spikes, Dragons Den.

“That’s why Japanese grandmothers have beautiful complexions,” says Duke Klauck, owner of the Ten Thousand Waves health spa in Santa Fe, N.M., which offers a Nightingale Facial for $129.

In this Wednesday, July 17, 2013 photo, salon owner Shizuka Bernstein mixes ingredients for what she calls a Geisha Facial at Shizuka New York skin care in New York. The facial, which Bernstein has been offering for five years, is a traditional Japanese treatment using imported Asian nightingale excrement mixed with rice bran, and goes for $180 a pop. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
In this Wednesday, July 17, 2013 photo, salon owner Shizuka Bernstein mixes ingredients for what she calls a Geisha Facial at Shizuka New York skin care in New York. The facial, which Bernstein has been offering for five years, is a traditional Japanese treatment using imported Asian nightingale excrement mixed with rice bran, and goes for $180 a pop.

On a recent afternoon in Manhattan, Mari Miyoshi arrived at the sixth-floor Shizuka New York spa to try the treatment for the first time.

“I’m a stressed-out New Yorker,” the 35-year-old occupational therapist announced as she reclined on a table, relaxing amid aromas of camellia, lavender and rose.

The treatment begins with steam to open the pores and soften the skin. Cream is applied. And then comes what Bernstein calls “the nightingale part.”

She pours the cream-coloured poop, dried and finely ground, into a bowl, mixing it with the rice bran using a small spatula. She applies the potion to Miyoshi’s face with a brush, rubbing it in with her hands.

Does it smell?

“Yes, but like toasted rice,” Miyoshi says.

After about five minutes, it comes off with a foaming cleanser and Miyoshi’s face is draped in a warm, wet towel bathed in lavender and geranium essences. Finally, the grand finale — a green-tea collagen mask.

“Sooooo nice,” Bernstein says softly, looking at Miyoshi’s radiant face.

Dr. Michele Green, a Manhattan cosmetic dermatologist, says that while the nightingale facial “definitely has some rejuvenating effect, I don’t think it’s any different than, say, an apricot scrub or a mask that you could buy in a local pharmacy.”

A common misconception is that any old bird poop, even from pigeons, is used. Bernstein says only droppings from birds of the nightingale species are used because they live on seeds, producing the natural enzyme that is the active ingredient.

“We don’t do Central Park facials,” she says, “because those birds eat garbage.”

 

 

Pigeon droppings equate to 230 parked cars on bridge.

Pigeon droppings equate to 230 parked cars on bridge.

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Crews tasked with cleaning a Saskatchewan bridge are in for a dirty job.

The City of Saskatoon said that over the last 50 years one of its bridges has accumulated nearly 350 tonnes of pigeon poop – which is roughly equal to 230 cars parked on the bridge.

It said the feces adds unnecessary weight and the pigeon droppings contain uric acid which can damage concrete, affecting the integrity of the bridge.

This also means the extermination of about 1,500 members of the feathered flock that makes the Sid Buckwold Bridge home.

The city said relocating or displacing the birds is not recommended because they are likely to fly back or move into other private properties or civic spaces. Homing pigeons are likely to return to their original roosting areas, making relocation difficult as a long term solution.

A local wildlife advocate is disappointed and questions why alternatives can’t be found that would allow the birds to live. “In Saskatchewan, a very, very, very common response is if it pisses you off, shoot it,” said Jan Shadick, volunteer director of Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation.

Regina and Vancouver rely on pigeon spikes, protective netting or cages to keep pigeons off their facilities. Toronto and Calgary do not practice Pigeon control.

Here at Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture, sell, and install humane bird exclusion products, such as bird spikes and netting.

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Council unveils secret weapon against pigeon poo…a killer hawk!

PESKY pigeons are being given a run for their money after council bosses brought in a hawk to scare them away – and stop them dumping their unpleasant payloads on people’s heads.

The harris hawk and its handler have been seen several times on the roof of the county council’s social services offices in Clacton.

The airborne attacker sends seagulls and pigeons screeching into the air as the hawk is released from the roof of the Magnet House building in Jackson Road.

An Essex Council spokesman said: “Due to the continued roosting of pigeons and seagulls on top of Magnet House, our partners Mitie are currently trialling the use of a hawk as a deterrent, to prevent the build-up of bird droppings at the building’s entrances.

“This method is highly effective and environmentally friendly, as the hawk’s presence should quickly make an area undesirable for pest species, and in doing so help to keep Magnet House clean and safe in future.”

 

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)