by Ryan Ponto | Jul 3, 2017 | Bird Netting
AMANZIMTOTI Racing Pigeon Club reports on race nine and 10.
On Saturday, 24 June, seven members flew a total of 108 birds from Vrede.
First Doug Fry, second Basil Tait, third and fourth Doug Fry, fifth to 11th Basil Tait.
From Paul Roux, race 10 saw 55 birds compete in total, with three members taking part.
Coming in the top four positions was Basil Tait, fifth to seventh went to Doug Fry, eighth Basil Tait, ninth and 10th Doug Fry.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 2, 2017 | Bird Netting
One New Yorker was thoughtful enough to capture the grisly scene on film so we can all marvel at the city’s wildlife.
New York City is a lush, majestic landscape teeming with wildlife—and not just street punk warthogs who dress like they listen exclusively to PiL. The city is home to deer, coyotes, an unnerving number of loose crabs, and, apparently, at least one vicious raven.
Earlier this week, NYC subway riders were treated to the sight of a raven completely mutilating a still-living pigeon right on the above-ground Kings Highway Q platform. One courageous straphanger was thoughtful enough to capture the entire grisly scene on film, so we can all bask in the wonders of New York City nature.
“New York City, it’s either eat or be eaten,” a guy in the video says while the raven mercilessly pecks the guts right out of a flapping pigeon’s chest cavity. “This dude just ate his whole stomach out!” The camera briefly pans away from the Lecter-like bird to another pigeon, who stands awkwardly a few feet away, ignoring his brethren’s disembowelment.
The dying pigeon’s flaps grow weaker as the raven splays its guts across the concrete platform. Finally, borrowing a page from Kano in Mortal Kombat, the raven tears the pigeon’s beating heart out and flies away, leaving only a tattered carcass in its wake.
Watch the entire low-budget Planet Earth scene above and marvel at the beauty of Mother Nature while one bird shreds the innards of another bird. Have a great morning everybody!
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 Ryan Ponto | Jul 1, 2017 | Bird Netting
Let’s imagine there were no pigeons: If we could design a drone that would disperse diseases harmful to humans while splattering a corrosive substance onto cars, buildings and monuments… would we?
Well, if we could throw breadcrumbs at it and watch it scuttle toward us, we might.
Now pigeons can live very well on grass seed and insects just as their distant ancestors did in the wild. They can also range up to five kilometres between roosting, nesting and feeding sites.
The birds multiplying in our streets should not be considered as wildlife. It’s beyond me why Birdlife Malta should bother to comment on the culling of these urban pests by local councils.
The first feral pigeons to appear in our public spaces were probably escapees from racing pigeon clubs.
The domestic strain originally came from the wild rock pigeon, fond of nesting in high cliff areas. That’s why their descendents still nest high up with a strong liking for uncovered ventilator openings in our homes.
According to a study by the University of Basel, Switzerland, pigeons are potential carriers of no less than 60 diseases harmful to humans. Nine are bacterial, five are viral and the rest are mostly fungal agents.
Let’s have a coordinated campaign to protect the public from health risks of the pigeon invasion
So why isn’t the Health Department warning us against these dangers?
Actually, unless you are handling pigeons, they generally pose a much lower disease transmission risk than rats or flies.
So it’s not highly likely that you or your child would pick up viral encephalitis or cryptoccocal meningitis from a bird cooing away in your ventilatur.
If you do have direct contact with pigeons then symptoms similar to pneumonia can arise. However, the same is true for anyone keeping parrots, budgies, cockatiels, hens, sparrows or seagulls. (Not to worry – ‘Parrot fever’ is not the same as bird flu.) But normally mild or symptom-free respiratory diseases carried from pigeons to humans can be fatal in vulnerable individuals.
When pigeon poo dries it turns to a powdery dust, kicked up into the air by passing feet. The smaller the child, the higher the exposure.
Demolition of abandoned buildings where pigeons have been roosting can pose a threat to neighbours too, as particles of pigeon debris contaminate the air they breathe.
A pigeon is capable of producing 48 chicks a year. The advice from pest management companies is to tackle the problem while pigeon numbers are still low (one or two).
Peregrine falcons seemed to work for Trafalgar Square. But if natural predators are brought in for the job here they might end up as collectors’ items.
Poison is out, not just because it’s a cruel death for the bird but also a danger to human health.
Traps are unwieldy and egg-destroying ventures may still attract the ire of some animal welfare extremists.
Putting contraceptive chemicals in feed has already been tried by local councils with limited success. Unless people are prevented from feeding the pigeons the birds will spend more time breeding than foraging.
Even culling by shooting will only have a very short-term effect unless a total clampdown on feeding is brought in.
Let’s have a coordinated campaign to protect the public from health risks of the pigeon invasion; not to mention the disfigurement of our beautiful stone buildings.
Everyone must be urged to take action and discourage feeding of the urban pests wherever possible.
Had we enforced by-laws where they exist the problem would not be with us today. Applied piecemeal, the pigeons just move on.
Now a legal notice is needed to ban the feeding of pigeons in public areas, with enforcement and steeper fines for putting public health at risk.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jun 30, 2017 | Bird Netting
Lake City Racing held its last two old bird races of the season last weekend
Wayne Langenfeld’s pigeon took first in the 200-mile race from Onawa, Iowa. Don Meyer was second.
Langenfeld’s birds led with 636 points, followed by Meyer’s 517 and John Rittmann’s 292, Rich Anderson 186 and Greg Benthin 122.
The second race was the 410-mile Midwest Classic from Topeka, Kan. More than 1,500 birds took part.
Benthin’s pigeons took first and second with Rittmann third.
In overall points it was Benthin 558, Meyer 237, Rittmann 334 and Langenfeld 224.
The young bird season starts in August.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jun 29, 2017 | Bird Netting
Most downtown dwellers and workers in Wichita are keenly aware of the city’s Douglas underpass.
It’s musty, dark and populated primarily by pigeons (and their poop).
However, that stretch of walkway – west of Union Station and east of Naftzger Park – remains one of the primary connectors between Old Town and downtown Wichita.
This Final Friday, a collaborative of Wichita arts groups are teaming up to make walking under the bridge downtown a little less messy.
For “Under the Bridge,” those groups – the North End Urban Arts Festival, the Yellowbrick Street Team and the Wichita chapter of the League of Creative Interventionists – are bringing in LED lights, a DJ and a graffiti artist for a pop-up experience at the underpass.
There’s already been some concrete improvements to the space. The city power-washed the pigeon poop off the sidewalk just the other day, according to Thomas Dalton, co-founder of the North End Urban Arts Festival. The festival happens in the NoMar Market area near 21st and Broadway every fall.
But what about the pigeons? Will people really come to an art experience in an area where pigeons fly low overhead and frequently drop droppings?
“We hope to scare them away as we get set up Friday,” Dalton said. “With any luck, there will be minimal pigeon interference.”
The makeshift gallery, funded by an Up the Ambition Grant from the Wichita Community Foundation, will pop up again at Final Fridays in July and August.
Perhaps the idea of art in the underpass is not so foreign, after all: A city of Wichita study in 2012 proposed adding public art to the underpass and significantly upgrading the pedestrian experience. The city released a proposed design for the space in 2014. The project is still in the works; the first phase – which will include lights, color and “pigeon mitigation” – is scheduled to be complete by March, when the NCAA tournament comes to Wichita, according to Downtown Wichita.
Dalton is using the opportunity to promote graffiti artists – this Final Friday, local graffiti artist Sam Agoita will paint a 12-by-18-foot graffiti panel during the exhibition. Graffiti artists are featured in the annual North End Urban Arts Festival, but “Under the Bridge” gives them the opportunity to be seen by the Final Friday masses, Dalton said.
“We’ve always had these great panel of graffiti artists, and we’ve always wanted to show them off, and this was right after the time the (city) did their initial study for the Douglas underpass,” he said. “We thought this would be a great place to show off the panelists and get them more exposed to the downtown crowd.”
“Under the Bridge” will also feature a mural on which attendees can paint and share their vision for the area under the bridge.
Jenny Wiley, a fellow at the Wichita chapter of the League of Creative Interventionists – launched earlier this month – said she hopes people who come to “Under the Bridge” will imagine possibilities for the ugly “but pretty critical gateway in between Old Town and downtown.”
It’s the latest piece of creative placemaking in downtown Wichita – Gallery Alley, which transformed a narrow alley into a community hangout just west of the underpass, just opened last month.
“It’s kind of scary. … It’s just not the most pleasant place to walk through,” Wiley said of the underpass. “We thought (‘Under the Bridge’) would a great space to really illustrate what transformation can happen with just a little bit of elbow grease.”
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)
