by johnnymarin | Apr 19, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
I write in response to your correspondent Chris Higgins, who wrote to you (Letters, March 8) regarding the pigeons in Winchester city centre.
Pigeons can cause problems in city centres and Winchester is no exception. There are a range of measures the city council can employ to deal with the problem, but we are looking to fully understand the extent of the issue before deciding which steps are likely to be the most effective. We are currently identifying specific problem areas and assessing where pigeons are having the greatest impact.
Options to address the issue include cleaning areas where pigeon waste accumulates, pigeon proofing buildings, using of birds of prey, acoustic alarms and traps and providing feeding areas in appropriate locations. It may be that a combination of these actions will provide the best way forward, bearing in mind that we are dealing with an historic town centre which is a conservation area with many listed buildings and scheduled ancient monuments.
Whilst the city council is prepared to address the issue, there is an opportunity here for others who have an interest in our city to help – whether they own a building, run a business or visit the shops. Owners can take appropriate steps to deter pigeons from roosting on their premises, businesses can ensure that they manage their waste properly – particularly where they sell food, and shoppers can avoid feeding birds and dispose of their rubbish responsibly. The situation could improve significantly if we work together.
We are developing a plan to ease the situation, building upon the work we have already been carrying out in relation to commercial waste storage in the city centre. However, we are keen to encourage others to support these measures to help ensure they are effective.
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 | Apr 18, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Rene Hoppenbrouwers is Director of the Stichting Restauratie Atelier, Limburg (SRAL), Maastricht, the Netherlands, which specialises in conservation and restoration of paintings. SRAL also does research, consultancy, and education programmes. Mr. Hoppenbrouwers, who is in the city for a workshop on ‘Preventive conservation for museums’ , spoke about the Napier Museum, conservation of museums, and what lies ahead. Edited excerpts from the interview
Tell us about your impressions of the Napier Museum
It is a beautiful historic building. It is interesting that it was built as a museum, as a lot of museums are located in buildings that were intended for other purposes. And nearly 150 years later, it is still functioning as a museum.
I hope when they focus on renovation of the structure, the old vitrines (glass display cases) and cabinets inside are respected and they don’t put new vitrines in, as it will clash with the historicity of the building.
What are your observations about the object display?
It is nice that in some showcases, they have LED lights which do not emit UV rays or have temperature problems, but some vitrines have old fluorescent tubes which need to go. That is easily addressed.
As the museum is in a park, the vitrines offer extra protection to the objects against the natural environment. Then there is the pollution and monsoon. So it is good that most of the things are behind glass and protected.
The pigeons flying around. They probably come through open spaces in the roof. Pigeon dropping may cause corrosion of objects. This needs to be seen in the context of affordable and long-term solutions for object display. So if one wants ventilation, a gauze can be put in front so that big insects, pigeons, or bats can be kept out.
Tell us about the Indian Conservation Fellowship Programme
At a conference of the International Council of Museums – Committee for Conservation in New Delhi, I suggested exchange programmes and those for teaching, as India has a rich wealth of culture and ideas. Nine institutions agreed, and over time, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York, came on board. Eighteen fellowships were provided to people across India during the pilot project of two years.
And now, it has been extended up to 2021, to provide 45 fellowships, and also exchange exhibitions between the Metropolitan Museum and India.
The fellowship will cover people from national museums and from INTACH chapters. The idea was that the conservators could go back and transfer their knowledge and experience to other people in India.
Can you shed light on the conservation workshop here
Besides the exchange programme, we wanted to conduct courses on preventive conservation for larger groups of people at least once a year. We have held two workshops in Delhi and Kolkata, but wanted to reach out to south India and the east too so that people from different regions benefit. This is a form of capacity building for museum managers and museologists.
Your takeaway from the workshops
Young people have the drive and want to go forward with heritage conservations. They are very clever and eager to pick up information.
It is also important that we don’t impose regulations and rules, as we learn as much here as the other way round. And I take these home and try and put them in practice there. It is both give and take.
In your presentation, you spoke about inadequate museum storage, even in the Netherlands
Museums mostly focus on displays and exhibitions as they need more people to come in and need private funding as the governments do not provide enough money. So they don’t concentrate on storage.
One solution could be regional centres where museums without good storage space store all their objects that are not on display. There could be a small restoration laboratory alongside. Such collection centres are there in the Netherlands and Singapore.
These could be open to the public too so that they can see what the conservators do.
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 | Apr 17, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
In response to Alan Elders article regarding people feeding the birds in the town centre, he is correct in saying its is classed as “littering”. As such you can, if caught be fined for the offence and may get a criminal record/conviction.
I often see people feeding the pigeons opposite Aldi on the waste ground, not with a mere few crumbs, but with carrier bags full of feed and bread! As Neighbourhood Wardens patrol these areas it`s only a matter of time before more people will be caught, so please be WARNED!
YOU WILL be prosecuted for littering.
Many people do not realise what sort of diseases these birds leave behind in their droppings; Histoplasmosis is a respiratory disease that can be fatal, Candidiasis is a yeast fungus spread by pigeons, then there is Ecoli infection which is one of the common infections caused by an enteric bacteria carried in fecal matter.
This is just to mention a few that can be caught and transmitted from bird droppings, so with people feeding these birds in our town centres not only is it a offence to do so, but you are probably, without knowing, spreading diseases.
PLEASE STOP FEEDING THESE BIRDS NOW!
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 | Apr 16, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
“As an old Beijinger, I think the whistle of the pigeons and the singing crickets are the lifeblood of a city.”
So said Shen Xu, the person who is in charge of a huge pigeon loft that was recently opened at the Beijing Garden Expo Park. The pigeon loft takes up two hectares at the park. In recent years, many pigeon dwellings built outside residents’ houses were demolished, and the pigeon loft has become a main choice for pigeon owners to keep their pigeons. The newly-opened loft can hold over 12,000 pigeons. In the loft, there is a hospital, bathroom, canteen, sun room and shower. Shen said that he hopes this loft can provide a chance for pigeon lovers to continue their pigeon-keeping.
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 | Apr 15, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Minnesotan Fredrick Harrison Becker was sent to France when America entered into the ongoing worldwide conflict. He was one of a class of 13 U.S. Naval Air Service pilots trained for coastal patrol duty to watch over and protect convoys at sea along the coast of France.
Becker was born in Dodge Center and for a time, he was a resident of Grafton Township in the northwest corner Sibley County. His grave is in New York state.
Sibley County Museum at Henderson has one of the French-made fur-lined flight suits worn by Becker during his time in the service.
His duties included dropping bombs on German submarines bent on torpedoing the convoys.
The air ships assigned to Becker’s group were Tellier single-engine biplanes. Each cost $16,000.
They were “flying boats with Hispano engines of 220 horsepower, geared to a big wooden propeller” wrote Becker in a Feb. 15, 1949, article for the magazine “The Sportsman Pilot.”
Becker thought the air ships were beautiful.
In the article, he described the problems he and his observer, Dan Carey, faced — rough seas on takeoff or landing, a primitive radio, an erratic compass and a fuel supply of only 160 gallons.
Four homing pigeons were aboard. The birds were used to send messages when all other methods failed.
Evidently, Becker’s pigeons were not very well trained and they were most reluctant to leave the ship. He would shoot a pistol to scare a pigeon and “persuade him to make an honest effort to find his way home.”
The article included accounts of the five times Becker and Carey ditched at sea. They were rescued each time.
The planes went out two at a time, usually flying about 1,000 feet over the convoy they were watching. If forced down, the plane was usually in sight of one of the ships and rescue was speedy.
Bad weather or malfunctions caused most ditchings.
Becker and Carey came close to dying in the fifth dunking. They were in Tellier No. 5, one of a dozen ships assigned to their station.
On that occasion, they had followed a French submarine on a dash to Spain and were well outside the usual shipping lanes when their engine failed.
Down they went. The boat overturned, but the two men found a protruding breather pipe they grasped by their fingers.
“We clung to the plane for a long, long time … squalls came and passed … the hull was filling with water and sooner or later it would go down … we wore life belts but they were no protection from the cold … the end seemed not far off. A sound came to me over my left shoulder … Dan caught it too. It seemed about a week later when a strong sailor grabbed me by the neck, the most welcome feeling ever to come to me … he got us both into his boat … to a big ship. The doctor removed our wet clothes. The boys rubbed me so hard they made me dizzy.”
Becker’s sister and her husband, Esther Daisy and Arthur Sander, lived in rural Arlington. He gave his flight suit to his brother-in-law during a visit to Sibley County, probably in the 1920s.
Art Sander wore the suit while doing chores in the winter.
After her husband’s death in 1959, Esther Sander donated the suit and a photograph of her brother to the museum.
The flight suit is now part of the World War l display under development on the main floor of the museum.
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)
