by johnnymarin | Mar 27, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Local county councillor Caroline Page has warned that the swallows and house martins that have nested in the station buildings for generations have been forced out by its redecoration and the installation of anti-pigeon measures like metal spikes and netting in the roof.
She said the swallows’ nests had been removed during the redecoration of the station and their departure had prompted the pigeons to move in.
She added: “It’s really sad and actually something needs to be done and it needs to be done now. In 160 years I don’t think they (the swallows and martins) have caused any damage.
“It’s a natural joy that is being taken away from us. It must be done at once. The birds are flying back from Africa now.”
She said the sight of the swallows and martins swooping over the station during the spring and summer was a real bonus for rail passengers – and feared their departure would be missed by many rail users.
Bird experts doubt that the disappearance of the swallows led pigeons to colonise the station – saying the species can co-exist quite happily. However they also doubt the effectiveness of anti-pigeon measures.
A spokeswoman for Greater Anglia, which operates the station, said they were working with the RSPB and local wildlife groups to make the station more attractive songbirds and species like swallows, martins, and swifts.
She said: “We are planning to put up bird boxes and if there are nests we can install for swallows and martins we will do that – we are looking at changing the netting so they can use the station.
“But we have to do something about the pigeons. We have had an infestation of the birds and their droppings are very unpleasant.
“Not only do they look and smell very nasty, they are unhygenic and they are very acidic so they can cause considerable damage to the fabric of the station that has only recently been redecorated.
“We have to do something to reduce the problems they cause.”
Greater Anglia supplied pictures showing the mess that had been left on station furniture and equipment – and said it was impossible to keep it clean all the time.
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 | Mar 26, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
LOS ALTOS — From the street, you’d never know what was hidden behind the tall fences and lush foliage of a large suburban Los Altos home. After walking through the garden gate, though, you know that Pandemonium Aviaries comes by its name naturally.
Amadeus, the one-legged Amazon Parrot, sings hello. Olivia and Ferguson, big ostrich-like birds called East African crowned cranes, screech a racket. African Greys, macaws, parakeets, rare doves and fancy pigeons each call out in their own language, above the rhythm of hundreds of fluttering wings.
Michele Raffin — a Stanford Business School graduate, entrepreneur, writer and stay-at-home mom — never intended to become a self-described “crazy bird lady.” Twenty-two years ago, she opened up her backyard to rescued birds. Her mission pivoted toward endangered bird conservation and breeding.
“The birds changed me,” Raffin said. In the business world, she said, there’s much pushing and striving. The birds have shown her that it’s more important to connect and help others. “Who I was as a person became more important than external achievements.”
Now, she’s looking for the next generation of stewards to offer a new home for her flock of nearly 400 birds.
Shortly after, she responded to an ad seeking a home for another white dove, then found herself with a half dozen.It all started with an injured white dove — the type released at weddings — discovered on the side of a road. Raffin wasn’t sure she even liked birds, but she doesn’t want any animal to suffer. Thinking it had been hit by a car, she took it to the vet and visited the bird every day until it succumbed to its wounds, which she learned had been inflicted by a hungry hawk.
Raffin didn’t know the first thing about birds, so she met people who could teach her. She befriended a bird breeder in Sebastopol, who gave her some birds that needed a home. At his Christmas party, she met a whole brood of elite breeders and birders. Later, Raffin went to zoo school in West Virginia to learn what she could about bird husbandry.
Her goal was to take in birds that nobody wanted, find them mates, and provide species-appropriate housing. Housed as pairs or flocks, they’re never isolated. “Who wants to be all alone?” Raffin asks.
The death of a female green-naped pheasant pigeon led to an epiphany: The urgent need to restore populations. The bird’s mate started crying and wouldn’t stop, yet when Raffin tried to find him a new companion, she discovered that there were only 32 birds, worldwide, left in captivity. Tribal feuds and land rights issues make it too difficult to initiate conservation in their native New Guinea.
“I had no idea there were so few left,” she said.
Raffin already had a number of these colorful pigeons given to her by zoos, breeders, agricultural societies, and fish and game conserves. So she decided to use them to build a species “bank” — like a crop seed bank — to ensure that there was enough genetic diversity to support a healthy population. If the species became extinct in the wild, these captive-bred birds could help restore it, she dreamed.
In 2009, Pandemonium Aviaries stopped taking in strays and converted to a nonprofit devoted to conservation-driven breeding. It specializes in six species of endangered birds from New Guinea and the Philippines.
Her project has successfully bred birds even after they’ve been pets, and it has shown that captive birds can raise their own.And those green-naped pheasant pigeons? After solving some challenges, Pandemonium now has the largest flock in the world — four generations, with 14 distinct bloodlines. They thrive under Raffin’s care.
But the achievement hasn’t come easy. It takes four hours a day to feed the birds. Pandemonium depends on major donors like Whole Foods and Costco to provide outdated produce. The food — strawberries, blueberries and papaya — must be sorted and chopped, then doled out with seeds and grains, so each flock gets its ideal diet.
Raffin doesn’t treat them as pets, preferring to retain the birds’ knowledge, culture and integrity. A sign in the aviary reads: “You were wild once; don’t let them tame you.”
Carol Stanley, president of the Avicultural Society of America, said Raffin “has brought awareness of the plight of the birds in the wild to the public.”
“Michele Raffin has put her heart and soul into increasing numbers in the endangered species she works with at Pandemonium Aviaries,” Stanley said. “She is focused, tireless and steadfast in Pandemonium’s mission.”
But Raffin never expected to house the birds this long. She had hoped to reintroduce them back into their native environment in New Guinea but it has been mostly destroyed by mining and agriculture.
It’s not the ideal way to conserve, she knows. In the past, breeders tried to establish colonies in their native habitats. But Raffin’s birds were destined to be pets or zoo animals, which is why she created a U.S.-based conservation. And it worked.
Although New Guinea is not safe for her pigeons now, Raffin is confident the nation will someday discover ecotourism, and native habitats will improve.
Her dream is to someday see them fly in the wild.But, until then, they need to go somewhere, she says — somewhere with lots of room to fly. Her organization is seeking corporate or institutional sponsors to continue the conservation effort, preferably someplace warm like southern California or Puerto Rico, where solar panels and heat lamps wouldn’t be needed.
The Amazon Parrot in her native Puerto Rico offers inspiration: Its numbers plummeted to just 13 in 1975 after decades of forest clearing, but have since rebounded after captive breeding and release.
“People do want to protect animals,” Raffin said, “but the best way to do that is to protect their habitat, the environment.”
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 | Mar 25, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
There was a time when photographer Nicolas Tanner could comfortably say he knew very little about pigeons.
“My knowledge of pigeons was from the [HBO] show The Wire,” he said in an interview.
But that changed in the spring of 2011 when Tanner spent a month with a group of pigeon racers in coastal Maine.
“You meet these guys, and you’re meeting their friends, and all of sudden you’re involved in this community that is welcoming because they love what they do,” he said.
“I definitely did not expect to find the sort of community I did. It was very … cute. Not in a pejorative sense, just in a really … in the way they care for each other and the birds.”
The pigeon racers are part of the Biddeford Racing Club. They are a small group of older men who had spent their lives working outdoors all around Maine. They had grown up racing pigeons, attending bird auctions, and raising the birds in backyard coops.
The men Tanner met were rugged in the sense that working outdoors weathers the skin. But they showed incredible, and surprising, tenderness when it came to their birds.
Tanner spent a lot of time with a man named Marcel Letellier, who, nearing 80, was the oldest member of the Biddeford Racing Club. Letellier’s backyard was dotted by three small coops that, to Tanner, were filled with the same brownish-beige birds. But to Letellier, each was distinct.
“He had names for every single bird in his coop,” he said. “He was very closely connected to the inner and outer lives of the birds. He knew which bird was about to give birth and how to handle tiny chicks.”
“Visually that struck me — the juxtaposition between really weathered hands and burly looking men and watching them handle these shiny, often very beautiful, delicate-seeming creatures. And … they’re cooing [to the birds.]”
Pigeon racing relies on the natural abilities of the Racing Homer — a breed of domestic pigeon that has speed and enhanced homing instincts compared to other domestic pigeons. Training begins as soon as the bird is weaned and can fend for itself — about a month after hatching. When the birds are young they are exercised daily within the coop. But as they grow more familiar with their surroundings, they are given a longer and longer leash to fly away from the coop and return home.
For races, competing birds are tagged and taken to a location between 60 miles and more than 1,000 miles away from home. The birds are released from the same location and are supposed to fly back to their various coops. The time and distance are recorded and the fastest bird is declared the winner.
The sport dates back to the late 1800s, after homing pigeons were imported from Europe. The first official racing club was formed in 1872, with the larger umbrella organization — the Federation of Homing Pigeon Fanciers of America — following in 1886. Through the early 1900s, newspapers and monthly magazines dedicated exclusively to the sport sprung up to meet demand.
But between increasing restrictions on the keeping of pigeons and the fading interests of younger generations to take it on, the sport of pigeon racing is a dying tradition. And the Biddeford Racing Club is no different. In 1965, the club had 250 members. Today, just 35 members race their birds every Sunday from May through September.
Tanner got the chance to watch several Sunday race days. On one of those days, all the birds were trucked up to a location 150 miles away and released at dawn. The distance was short enough that the owners stayed at home. Some gathered together on one lawn, others waited dutifully by their own coop, but all keep their eyes to the skies anxiously scanning for the first set of wings.
When Tanner asked Jim Peck, one of the Biddeford racers, what he thought made the birds find their way home, he admitted he didn’t know. “They just want to come home,” Peck told Tanner. “Just loyal little creatures. That’s all.”
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 | Mar 24, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
A purple poppy symbolises all animals who have died during conflict.
To mark the day, a New Zealand War Animal Memorial was unveiled at the museum.
The project is the result of work by the Australian War Animal Memorial Organisation, AWAMO which was set up to honour the animals that served alongside New Zealand and Australian troops abroad.
Since the New Zealand Wars, and through to WW1 and beyond, animals have played a major part helping service men and women.
These include horses, donkeys, camels, dogs, pigeons, the occasional cat and even glow-worms, which were used as a light-source in the tunnels of Arras in the WW1.
The head of AWAMO, New Zealander Nigel Allsopp, said while the focus was often on the cavalry horse, other animals have also played their part.
“The heavy horse like mules, donkeys and Clydesdales carried all the equipment up to the front-line and carried the wounded back”.
He said the pigeons carried messages to make the attacks possible.
Mr Allsopp said one pigeon in the First World War was shot and wounded and fell to the ground, where it was gassed and then wounded by shrapnel from a grenade, but that did not stop it.
“The pigeon was still able to walk the three kilometres back to headquarters to deliver its message and where it died in its handlers arms.”
Of all the animals that served, it is the dog that is still the most active in a modern military.
A New Zealand War Animal Memorial was unveiled at the National Army Museum in Waiouru. Photo: RNZ / Andrew McRae
During the First World War canines were used as messengers and for taking medical supplies out to the wounded in no-mans land.
Nowadays, they are used for security and tracking, but also as explosive sniffing dogs, which New Zealand troops used in Afghanistan.
Alan Inkpen is the Working Dog Capability Manager (Land) for the New Zealand Defence Force.
He said it had been proven that the work dogs do, can not really be replicated by technology and explosive detection dogs were a prime example.
“To try and find the amount of target odours the dog can find you would need almost one piece of equipment each time to find that.”
Mr Inkpen said the most important thing about military working dogs was to reduce the risk to human-life.
It is estimated that in the First World War alone, about nine million animals serving in the military died.
Birds had an important role in war, carrying messages. Photo: Supplied – NZ National Army Museum
Nigel Allsopp said the time was right to mark their sacrifice.
“We obviously never forget the sacrifices of our two-legged heroes, our soldiers, however, it’s time to perhaps to just pause of thought that also four-legged soldiers served.”
He said the animals were not volunteers and were drafted.
“It’s just a way to acknowledge how they helped us.”
The National Animal Memorial at Waiouru is sculptured by American, Susan Bahary, who attended Saturday’s unveiling.
The National Army Museum plans to commemorate Purple Poppy Day each February 24th and it hopes the idea will catch on nation-wide.
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 | Mar 23, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
Maned, or Nicobar, pigeon (lat. Caloenas nicobarica) is one of the most beautiful representatives of the family columbidae, and the last survivor in the same kind of Barbary doves. His business card – the sparkling emerald and azure necklace of long feathers that form around the neck something like a multi-colored mantle.
In the most favorable light, his plumage looks under the bright sun, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. In the shadows, the colors become more subdued, giving the bird more grey everyday.
Homeland ruffed pigeons – small Islands East of India: from the Nicobar and Andaman to the Solomon Islands and New Guinea.
They live in small flocks or in pairs in the jungle, giving preference to the uninhabited Islands of Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. A solitary life on a remote island, where it had virtually no natural enemies, has left its mark on the appearance of the Barbary dove.
This heavy, weighing up to six hundred grams of poultry, growing almost forty centimeters in length, not very fond of flying. And although flocks of pigeons ruffed can often be seen plying between the Islands in search of food, most of the time they spend on the ground.
Nature has given these birds a powerful, sturdy legs, outstanding experienced walkers. Only danger can make ruffed pigeon to leave familiar ground and seek refuge in the branches of trees. During the day, gathering in flocks of several dozen individuals, ruffed pigeons fly from one island to another, leaving their attention and mainland Southeast Asia in search of seeds, berries, fruits, nuts and insects.
A special device stomach allows them to digest the nuts from the shell is so strong that to break it with a hammer.
Unlike other species, the Nicobar pigeons fly with columns, and to navigate in the pack, they help the white tails serving as a kind of beacon for flying back. With the beginning of the breeding season, ruffed pigeons fly into one of the outlying uninhabited Islands covered with dense tropical vegetation.
Like most doves, they are monogamous and choose one mate for life. But a longtime acquaintance does not exclude courtship and mating dance that can last for several days.
The basis of the wedding ceremony, all kinds of bows with bright tints lifted up the mantle. After the official part, the time of mating – the male selects a suitable nest location a few meters from the ground and collects firewood from which the female builds comfortable and stable nest. Delayed egg hatch both parents take turns every two weeks. Hatched Chicks are weak and helpless, and are under guardianship of adults for the first three months of his life.
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)
