by johnnymarin | May 19, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
Q: Why don’t pigeons migrate?
A: That’s an interesting question and part of the answer lies in the fact that these birds are not native to the United States. Settlers brought rock pigeons to this continent in the early 1600s. On their home grounds in Europe, North Africa and Asia, they don’t migrate but live and nest on rocky cliffs. They’ve adapted to urban life well, treating tall buildings as their home cliffs. Their strong homing instinct makes them easy to train as homing, racing and messenger birds. Similarly, another nonnative species, the house sparrow, is nonmigratory, as well.
Frozen food
Q: We were surprised to see a male cardinal eating the freeze-dried mealworms we set out for the chickadees. Is this unusual?
A: Birds had to put on a layer of fat each day to fight the cold, and your cardinal figured out that mealworms are an excellent source of energy. Cardinals seem to be fairly adventurous birds that are willing to try new things — maybe this one noticed a chickadee carrying off a mealworm and was intrigued. Once the cardinal tried them, he found the dried worms to be a good way to stoke his inner furnace.
Owls in the ’hood
Q: A pair of great horned owls was hanging around our neighborhood this winter, and we could hear them hooting back and forth. The whole neighborhood is hoping they nest nearby, maybe in a large pine tree, and keep the rabbits under control.
A: Imagine having these large owls nesting right in the neighborhood. I think you and your neighbors can count on two things: Since they’re not nest-builders, the owls will need to adopt a nest built by another species (red-tailed hawk, crows, even squirrels) or a large break in a tree to settle into. And now that it’s spring, the owls will be feeding their voracious owlets, and rabbits may begin to disappear from the neighborhood.
Disappearing act
Q: We have robins nesting around our property from spring into July every year, and then they seem to disappear. Isn’t that too early for them to fly south? Where do they go?
A: Good question, and as you know, robins in our region raise at least two broods during the breeding season. As summer progresses and the second nesting period begins to wrap up, the males gather in parks and natural areas to feed and roost. As young robins become independent, they find these flocks. Females join them once they’ve finished raising their last brood. The robins will spend the final weeks of summer and fall fattening up and preparing for migration (although not all will leave).
Feisty red bird
Q: A male cardinal has been attacking our windows this past fall and winter. I know they will do this during breeding season, but he’s out there every day, attacking numerous windows. What gives with this bird?
A: You’re right, this behavior is not uncommon in the spring, when birds maintaining their territories will attack “competitors” they see reflected in windows. I checked with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and researcher Andrew Farnsworth says that your bird may be a highly dominant male who is trying to keep other cardinals out of his territory. Anything that cuts down on the reflectivity of your windows (cardboard on the outside, curtains closed inside, etc.) may help deter him.
Raptor meal
Q: We just happened to be looking out the window as a bald eagle held a struggling Canada goose down and began to rip off its feathers. The eagle fed for a while and then was joined by another, which we assumed was its mate. Were they pairing up this early?
A: I suspect that the hapless goose probably had an injury or illness that made it unable to escape the eagle’s talons. And at the time of your observation, early February, bald eagles had been building or refurbishing their nests for some weeks. Female bald eagles in our region begin laying eggs as early as mid-February. So the birds you saw were probably a nesting pair, and you may be lucky enough to spot the nest near your home.
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 | May 18, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Way back in 2006 I was contacted by multiple Yorketown business owners fed up with the escalating pigeon problem. During the following 12 months more than 1000 were professionally removed, including nests. Attention was also spent blocking roosting sites and notifying building owners to ensure numbers remained manageable.
It was at that time I discovered residents at two separate residential addresses in Yorketown which supply large amounts of food in the open and have purpose-built enclosed roosting cages for the birds overnight. I brought these two addresses to the attention of the council but no further action was taken. I could not remove the last 30 or so birds due directly to these sites.
In 2014, I was contacted as the birds had yet again built up to plague proportions. During the next 18 months 1150 were removed. At that time the two residents were still supplying the birds with food and shelter. This time I spoke directly with one of those involved but no changes were made.
To date the removal was funded by local businesses and the Yorketown Progress Association.
Disappointingly for the town, its residents and visitors moving forward, my services are no longer available as the root of the problem has not been rectified.
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 | May 17, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
A new pigeon species related to the extinct dodo bird has been found at a Central Otago fossil site near St Bathans.
The Zealandian dove, which lived in the South Island some 19 million to 16 million years ago, was identified from a few fossil bones found at St Bathans over the past 16 years.
One of the bones found on the wing was similar to the tooth-billed pigeon (found only in Samoa), the crowned pigeons of New Guinea, and the Nicobar pigeon (South East Asia), Doctor Vanesa De Pietri from Canterbury Museum said.
The latter was the closest living relative of the extinct dodo and the solitaire (another extinct, flightless bird) from the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean, Dr De Pietri said.
“Based on the St Bathans fossils, we think that the Zealandian dove is part of this Indo-Pacific group. It is probably most similar to the Nicobar pigeon and is therefore a close relative (or at least a cousin) of the famous dodo”, she said.
“The Zealandian dove is the first record of this group found in the southern part of the nearly submerged land mass known as Zealandia.”
Te Papa curator Alan Tennyson said the loss of diversity in fauna may have contributed to the bird’s extinction.
“The disappearance of these pigeons from New Zealand’s fauna was likely linked to the marked climatic cooling that took place between 14.2 and 13.8 million years ago. Until then New Zealand’s subtropical flora and fauna was very diverse with fruit-bearing trees such as laurels,” he said.
“This loss of floral diversity certainly had an impact on fruit and seed-eating birds, and may have been responsible for the subsequent loss in pigeon diversity in New Zealand.”
Previous fossils which had been found at the St Bathans site now numbered in the thousands and documented New Zealand’s history of biodiversity, professor Sue Hand of UNSW Sydney said.
“For many of New Zealand’s very distinctive bird lineages, such as moa and kiwi, the St Bathans fossils provide their oldest and sometimes first deep time records,” she said.
The cast of a Dodo skull and leg, taken from a dried head and leg held by the Oxford Museum of Zoology in the United Kingdom. Canterbury Museum acquired the objects from Oxford in 1871 in exchange for kiwi skeletons. Canterbury Museum also holds the largest collection of dodo bones outside Europe. Photo: Canterbury Museum
The discovery of fossils and identification of the pigeon species in relation to the dodo was a rare occurrence at St Bathans, Doctor Trevor Worthy of Flinders University said.
“Pigeon fossils are rare in the St Bathans fauna and are outnumbered by about 30 to one by parrots, which perhaps reflects the relative abundance of these tree-dwelling birds in the St Bathans fauna,” Dr Worthy said.
The Zealandian dove was the second pigeon to be found at the St Bathans fossil site, Canterbury Museum professor Paul Scofield said.
“Some years ago we described the St Bathans pigeon, which we believe is a relative of New Zealand’s two living native pigeons and to the Australian topknot pigeon,” Dr Scofield said.
“We have now also found a leg bone that we can attribute to this species. As a result we can now confirm that the St Bathans Pigeon is also closely related to Indonesian and Melanesian mountain pigeons.”
New Zealand now only had two species of native pigeons, the New Zealand pigeon and the Chatham Island pigeon.
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 | May 16, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Waterfowl are stinking up the city’s ancient lake and faecal bacteria is putting recreational users at risk.
Ducks, geese, Australian-banded coots and pigeons make up a large chunk of the avian species dropping faeces into and around Hamilton’s 17,000 year old Lake Rotoroa.
And its future hangs in the balance.
Pigeons have been an especially prevalent in recent years, according to Hamilton City Council’s 2017 Lake Domain Management Plan.
Bacteria levels in the lake are too high, said water resources engineer and scientist Tim Cox. Monitoring at sites around the lake, over several years, show elevated levels of bacteria from birds.
“The number one issue with the lake is bacteria,” Cox said, “faecal bacteria that makes you sick.”
Add to that the amount of nutrients entering the water from stormwater run-off and nutrients already settled into the lake sediment and you have a recipe for toxic algal blooms with no easy fix.
“We still see the lake go green at times and produce an algae that’s toxic – this blue-green algae that prevents swimability at certain times of year.”
There is a willingness to restore Lake Rotoroa to a swimmable standard. But there are also gaps in knowledge and the potential for conflict over what’s most important.
Hamilton City Council is gathering data in an effort to find out what the state of the lake is and it’s getting help along the way.
Waikato Regional Council is undertaking a year-long study to test for bacteria in the water, Niwa conducts regular tests and University of Waikato researchers are testing fish for heavy metals to see if arsenic in the lake bed sediment is being taken up by the fish.
Cox, a member of advocacy group Restore (Restorative Ecological Strategies to Optimise Rotoroa’s Environment), said new data will help devise a way forward.
Possible solutions include constructing wetlands, reducing waterfowl numbers, educating people as to what not to put into the stormwater system, expensive engineering solutions like removing sediment or treating with alum.
“In my opinion, there is still some work to do,” Cox said. “Not even just being toxic for swimming but even the look of it – the aesthetic of the lake would improve if we could get those nutrient levels down a little bit and get the algal growth limited significantly at certain times of the year.”
Hamilton City Council parks and recreation manager Maria Barrie said water quality is a key theme in the Lake Domain Management Plan and three steps are in place to achieve it: clarify the state of the lake; identify water quality measures for recreational use and develop a strategy to improve water quality.
But University of Waikato biological scientist Professor Brendan Hicks said the lake has, since 1992, slowly improved in terms of the nitrogen and phosphorus levels, algal blooms and water clarity.
Rotoroa is finding its way on its own – albeit slowly.
“It’s not going anywhere and as urban lakes go, it’s in pretty good shape, really,” Hicks said. “There is a public perception that it’s a dead lake and nothing could be further from the truth. It’s jumping with eight species of fish and it is, in many ways, quite healthy until you go looking and poking around at some of the places with the larger intensities of wild fowl.
“When you do that, you find what you expect to find, which is high levels of poop in the water.”
The Lake Domain Management Plan looks to manage the birds and fish to “ensure a sustainable and desirable level of biodiversity”. It discourages people from feeding bread to birds. Bird seed is suggested instead
But Hicks said it’s not as simple as just managing the birds.
“People don’t know what they are managing for,” he said. “They haven’t asked the right questions.
“If you expect to go canoeing or you expect to go waka ama or swimming, or you just want to fish and maybe eat a fish, then you’ve got to look at the risks and the areas you can do those sorts of things.
“If you are a parent of a three year old, there is nothing more fun than taking your kid down and watching them squeal with delight as the ducks waddle around their feet. Again, that’s another perfectly valid thing you might want to do at the lake.”
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 | May 15, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
So you thought that being a policeman only involves glamorous tasks like chasing smugglers? The cops working for the Carrier Pigeon Service in Cuttack would disagree. Their daily to-do list includes mopping pigeon droppings, feeding pigeons, changing their water — in general, looking after the precious birds in their keep round the clock.
It is a tedious job, true, but the cops have never complained over the last seven decades. Indeed, it is because of their efforts that the world’s only police-run pigeon messenger service still thrives. Last month, on Odiya New Year, a small fleet of pigeons flew with messages from Bhubaneswar to Cuttack, covering 25 km in an amazing 20 minutes.
The pigeon messenger service dates back to 1946, when World War II had just ended. During the war, the military had used trained pigeons to ferry messages. The Odisha police decided to preserve the legacy even after the war ended, using the pigeons to send messages to places which did not have either wireless or telephone links.
That involved maintaining a flock of Belgian Homers, best suited to act as messengers because of their homing skills. No matter where they are released, Homer pigeons, with their uncanny knack for identifying their loft, will find their way back home. What also helps is their sharp eyesight and unique body build, which reduces air resistance, enabling them to fly long distances. Homer pigeons can fly at an average speed of 70-80 km per hour and cover a distance of 250 km at a stretch, even at night and in inhospitable conditions.
The service was first introduced in the mountainous Koraput district and was soon expanded to cover 38 places: at one point, the Carrier Pigeon Service boasted of a 1,500-strong trained fleet. In 1982, when massive floods hit coastal Odisha, disrupting road connectivity for weeks, pigeons were the ones delivering messages. They were so much an integral part of the police administration that till 2010 it was mandatory for newly-recruited officers to clear a 10-mark test on pigeon service.
In April 1948, when Jawaharlal Nehru had visited Odisha, messages about his public meetings were delivered in advance by pigeons. Former President R. Venkataraman launched 300 pigeons as a gesture of peace during Cuttack’s millennium celebrations in 1989.
The service used to have three categories — static, boomerang and mobile. “Static was a one-way service put into use during floods and cyclones; boomerang was a two-way communication system between police stations in inaccessible areas; and mobile pigeons were carried by police units on the move and used for communicating with headquarters,” says B.N. Das, Superintendent of Police (Signal). Usually, pigeons were released in pairs to lessen the chances of their being stalked by hawks and kites.
Golak Behari Das, a retired sub-inspector of police, who spent more than half his service tenure with the famed pigeons, says, “In the 1980s, our carrier pigeons used to fly to remote areas affected by left-wing extremism where the wireless network had limited range. They were very effective.”
But what relevance could a pigeon messenger service have in these days of email and WhatsApp? Back in 2000, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India had expressed doubts about its relevance, deeming it a “wasteful expenditure” and recommending that it be wound up.
In response, intellectuals, conservationists and traditionalists in Odisha protested vehemently and demanded that at least a skeletal service be maintained for its heritage value. The State government stopped the service in March 2008, but about 150 pigeons continue to be maintained for ceremonial purposes in Cuttack and at the Police Training College in Angul. The service costs the exchequer about ₹1 lakh each year, and the sub-inspector and two constables employed in the service draw salaries from the government like any other police personnel.
The pigeon messengers have proved to be a charming anachronism. Intach has taken an interest in the service: the demo flight on New Year’s Day was an Intach initiative. “The survival of this service has been ensured by the dedicated men who run the police pigeon service,” says Amiya Bhusan Tripathy, former Director General of Police and the State Convener of Intach.
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)
