by johnnymarin | Mar 22, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Manchester Airport’s £1bn revamp is aimed at making life easier for passengers – but the construction project has attracted some unwelcome visitors.
According to the airfield’s wildlife team, the demolition phase of the Terminal Two transformation attracted ‘feral pigeons’ in search of food among the rubble.
This has meant extra work for the ‘bird scarers’ whose job is to prevent bird strikes on aircraft.
Anthony Clarke, wildlife control manager at Manchester Airport , said: “Part of our job is to look at what’s going on in the environment around the aifield, on areas such as buildng sites. The demolition of Terminal Two created a big dinner plate for birds.
“The first few metres of top soil on a site like that are a good food source. This attracted feral pigeons. It’s something we’ve had prior experience in and it’s petered out now because the buildings are going up now.”
Bird scaring is one of the many jobs carried out by the environmental team at Manchester Airport.
Officers take it in turn to be ‘scarecrows’ and use a number of techniques to get the job done.
These include blasting bird ‘distress calls’ from speakers to encourage birds to move away.
There’s also a long grass policy – with a length of between seven to 10 inches said to deter birdlife.
The team also analyse data to spot trends to help them fight the flocks – sometimes firing flares into the air as a deterrent. But sometimes the more traditional shouting and hand-waving is all it takes.
The strangest wildlife sighting for Anthony was a pink flamingo.
“I got that phone call on a Sunday evening, that was a surprise, it was night time on Terminal Two and we had to use a police thermal imaging camera to track it down”, he said.
Bird scaring is just one part of the vital work of Manchester’s airfield officers – who handle aircraft marshalling, safety audits, runway inspections and more.
“I don’t think passengers fully realise all we do to keep the runways safe. And I think it’s only with incidents like the bird strike on the Hudson River that people think about it”, Anthony said.
“We’ve got a good team on the airfield”, he added. “I feel lucky in that my job isn’t tied to the airfield – it’s about 13.5km around it too. We investigate planning applications – if anyone’s building a golf course – for example.”
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 21, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
The illegal Kabutarkhana (feeding place for pigeons) erected by real estate tycoon and local BJP MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha using his MLA fund, was demolished by the Collector of Mumbai Sampada Mehta, on Friday morning.
The kabutarkhana had become a major bone of contention between the Shiv Sena and the BJP. This was the second time the kabutarkhana was demolished, earlier the BMC had demolished it in October. However, this time the Collector office got involved as the seashore where it was constructed falls on collector land.
However, the demolition didn’t go well with Lodha, who protested outside the office of the Mehta, along with his supporters. He claimed that kabutarkhana was constructed in 2005 with all required permissions. However, debunking Lodha’s claim, Local Member of Parliament of South Mumbai, Arvind Sawant said, “Lodha is lying, there can be no kabutarkhana construction on the seashore, and Lodha is trying to give it a political colour for his wrongdoing. The action is collector is appropriate and hence the kabutarkhana was demolished today.”
The report of superintendent of City Survey and Land Records, Mahesh Ingale, filed in the High Court further proves that the structure was illegal, “On the direction of the collector, the deputy collector encroachment issued a notice dated February 17, under section 53 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code and a hearing was given to the concerned parties, following which the said structure has been removed.” says the submission.
Meanwhile, the issue also came up in the High Court, where the petitioners for Adarsh Chowpatty Pragati Mandal, which is the High Court appointed committee also raised the issue of illegal Kabutarkhana and mentioned that, how it posed a health hazard for visitors and locals.
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 20, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
The locked house of Jheurheri sarpanch Gurpal Singh in Mohali. (Express Photo) The locked house of Jheurheri sarpanch Gurpal Singh in Mohali. (Express Photo)
Kabootran wala sarpanch (sarpanch who keeps pigeons) is how 32-year-old Gurpal Singh, the sarpanch of Jheurheri village is identified when one asks for direction to his home near the international airport. Gurpal was booked by the Vigilance Bureau along with Mansa Additional Deputy Commissioner and two other officials for the land scam on Tuesday.
When Chandigarh Newsline visited Jheurheri village on Wednesday, Harpal’s house was locked. His neighbours said the family had left on Monday evening. Narata Singh, who lives close to Gurpal’s house, said the latter used to keep around 350 pigeons in specially designed cages. When one visited the place where the pigeons were kept, it was also locked.
“The entire village knows that Harpal Singh fed his pigeons with dry fruits. If you go inside the house, you will find packs of cashews and almonds. He owned around 25 acres in Patiala which he bought after his land was acquired for the airport. Harpal was a normal farmer. How can he keep costly pigeons and feed them costly stuff? He even installed CCTV cameras where he kept the pigeons,” wondered Narata.
Narata also said that recently Gurpal gifted four buffaloes, gold chain and a Royal Enfield bike to one of his masters, who taught him the art of training pigeons for competitions. “We came to know that he gifted all these items to one Ballu at Mauran village near Bhawanigarh in Patiala district. Gurpal bought the land in that area. He used to hold competitions of pigeons and spend money on such activities,” said Gurnaib Singh, one of the complainants in the case.
Gurnaib said Gurpal became sarpanch in 2013 and he always courted controversy for some reason or the other. “Gurpal once sold a small piece of land in the village in 2012. When the matter reached the police, I was the one who helped him. Since he was not the sarpanch, no case was registered against him,” he stated. Gurnaib informed that around 17.5 acres of land were owned by some farmers. Though the land was acquired for the airport, Gurpal got the compensation issued in the name of Bhag Singh and Kesar Singh.
“That money belonged to us. He cheated us following which we lodged a complaint against him and the accused officers in 2017. When we last lodged the complaint in 2016, nobody was ready to accept it. But, we are happy that these people have been booked finally,” he added.
Some of the panches were allegedly kept in the dark by Gurpal and his accomplices about the purchase of land in question. Somnath, one of the five panches, said Gurpal never discussed with them that the panchayat was going to buy land in other villages and added that they were never called to the meetings. “He came to me once and asked me to sign on a resolution. When I refused, he said he would lodge a complaint against me,” said Harinder Singh, another panch of the village.
Amarjeet Kaur, also a panch, said she was never told by Gurpal about any purchase of land. Gurpal, along with relatives Darshan Singh, Surinder Singh of Mulepur, Fatehgarh Sahib, and other accused Mohamad Sohel of Sector 79, Mohali, and Swarn Singh of Tiwana village in Fatehgarh Sahib are all on the run.
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 19, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
“The town’s got birds in it, and they poop.”
No one disagrees with that assessment by Pine Island Mayor Rod Steele, but how the city deals with the issue is another matter.
Mary and Tom Bollman along with Nathan Tiarks, who own the buildings at 222 and 218 S. Main St., in Pine Island, asked the city council Tuesday to help them pay to get rid of the birds — a flock of pigeons — that roost on the buildings and foul the structures and the sidewalks below with their droppings.
“We had a few before,” said Mary Bollman, who owns a three-story building frequented by the birds. “But nothing like now.”
Bollman said the city should help the building owners because the problem with the pigeons grew worse around 2007 when road work and bridge replacement drove the birds into town.
“We can hardly keep after it,” she said, adding that the pigeon excrement has become a health hazard, requiring the city’s help. “You can slide right by our building sometimes, It’s really nasty.”
Bollman said she and her husband, along with Tiarks, engaged a pest-control expert to remove the birds for $970. The exterminator will trap the birds and poison the ones that can’t be trapped.
“We’ll take any support that we can get,” Bollman said.
Tiarks said the pigeons are creatures of habit, traveling back and forth between the downtown buildings and the city’s grain elevator. He said the goal is to get this group of pigeons out of the city and hope a new group doesn’t replace it anytime soon. “If we just push them down the block, does that really accomplish anything?” he asked.
The flock of about 25 birds leaves a big enough mess that he frequently shovels the excrement up from the sidewalks, Tiarks said.
Steele said the money is a small amount for the city.
“I know just about every city has some bird issues, but this is a precedent-setting decision,” he said. “We’re kind of locked into that forever.”
Steele asked the Bollmans if they thought it was good city policy to hand out money for pest-control issues.
“We wouldn’t have come to the council if we didn’t think it was a good idea,” Tom Bollman said. “I can go up on the roof and shoot ‘em, but I don’t think that’s legal.”
Mary Bollman said the request is similar to the one Rochester made to battle the crows downtown.
However, Steele said the difference was a large group of citizens bringing forward an issue in Rochester compared to two building owners asking for help in Pine Island.
“Where does all this stop?” he asked.
The council declined to make a contribution to the anti-pigeon efforts.
Tom Bollman said he and his wife, along with Tiarks, will pay for the removal of the birds, with or without the city’s help.
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 18, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
A hungry hawk feasting on pigeons at the entrance of a Syracuse area bank has been upsetting the staff the past couple of weeks, a bank official said.
Joseph Mathlin, from the M &T Bank’s property management department at the bank’s DeWitt office, reached out to NYup.com recently seeking guidance on how to deal with a Cooper’s hawk “that’s using the entrance of our building as its cafeteria.”
Mathlin said he first was notified about the hawk feeding on a downed bird on the sidewalk at the building’s entrance on Feb. 7. There have been two other incidents since, he said.
“Just looking for a little guidance as to how we can encourage the bird to choose another location to feast,” he said. “Needless to say, the staff at the branch are terrified, and the mess that is usually left behind also doesn’t go over well.”
He said the bank recently put up a large fake owl near the entrance to scare the hawk away.
Jay McGowan from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said he doubts the fake owl will be effective in frightening the hawk, but added it could possibly reduce the numbers of pigeons around the entrance. “It won’t hurt,” he said.
He advised that the bank should just let nature take its course and eventually the hawk will find another place to perch and feed.
An adult Cooper’s hawk is a medium-sized raptor, about the size of a crow. A unique trait of this bird is that it captures its prey with its feet and kills it by repeatedly squeezing it.
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)
