Laksi district officials on Thursday sanitised the house of an old woman who for decades had been feeding a large flock of wild pigeons and ignoring neighbours’ complaints about the mess they caused and the risk of disease. “Auntie Pigeon”, as she is known in the area, was also warned to stop doing it or face fines or even imprisonment. Laksi district chief Khajeerat Jaynakhom led a team to clean up the bird droppings and left over food that begrimed the two-story terrace house and its surroundings on Kosum Ruamjai road after a neighbour finally made an official complaint. They also disinfected the area. Mrs Khajeerat told 70-year-old Dueanchai Pengpreecha to stop feeding the birds because she was in violation of public health and cleanliness laws. She would be liable to a fine of up to 25,000 baht or even a jail term of up to three months if she persisted. The law prohibited people from feeding animals in public places in a way that would trouble neighbours, the district chief said. Ms Dueanchai agreed to cease and desist. The district chief had her signed a written promise to do so. “Auntie Pigeon” said she loved animals and had fed dogs and pigeons at her house for decades. She had not known that she was breaking the law. The number of visiting pigeons had soared dramatically in the past few years and she had to increase the amount of feed she provided, and scatter it on both the ground and upper levels of her house, she said.
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.
A pair of falcons perched high above the Melbourne CBD skyline have gotten birdwatchers excited for an impending hatch after laying four fresh eggs – with the action all happening via webcam.
Viewers tuning into the livestream have been given renewed hope after the webcam was taken down last year after two chicks were witnessed dying after a suspected poisoning.
Watchers have been sitting nervously, keeping track of the falcons who are trying their best to incubate the eggs on top of the 33-storey 367 Collins St skyscraper.
Talking to ABC News, Birdlife Australia volunteer Dr Victor Hurley discussed why he believes the dead chicks didn’t get past the point of infancy.
Mr Hurley said they’d had trouble with adult falcons catching pigeons who had ingested bird deterrent-type chemicals which have been known to be used to eradicate feral pigeons in the city.
‘The peregrines feed almost exclusively on other birds, so they see this pigeon lame and they pick it up and it’s covered in this fairly caustic gel which the peregrines then ingest themselves,’ he said.
Birdwatchers in Melbourne are ecstatic at the news of four eggs being laid by a peregrine falcon after two of its chicks tragically dying last year after feeding off a poisoned pigeon
Peregrine Falcon
– Peregrine Falcons live in several of Australian major cities, nesting on ledges of skyscrapers.
– They feed on small and medium-sized birds, as well as rabbits and other day-active mammals.
– Peregrines swoop onto their prey at speeds of up to 300km/h, which has inherent dangers, as they occasionally collide with overhead wires, usually fatal at such speeds.
– Rather than building a nest, they lay their eggs in recesses of cliff faces, tree hollows or in the large abandoned nests of other birds. The female incubates the eggs and is fed by the male on the nest.
The tragedy was made more potent after Dr Hurley claimed he had been told by Melbourne City Council that these chemicals were illegal in the city boundaries but peregrine falcons were known to hunt up to 10kilometres from the nest.
While it is currently unclear whether the two falcons seen on webcam are the same from last year, Dr Hurley says they look remarkably similar.
‘You’ve probably got a pair surviving at a site, on average, maybe three to four years, and then one of them dies and they get replaced, or another one comes in and kills the resident and takes over,’ Dr Hurley said.
The falcons have generated so much discussion that a dedicated Facebook page has been set up, named the 367 Collins Falcon Watchers.
It’s founder, Leigh Stillard, who started the page to support the work of the Victorian Peregrine Project, believes that the more people watch the footage and post images the more awareness and knowledge on how to treat this ‘remarkable creature’ can be told.
The falcon and its eggs can be watched on a live-stream from on top of 367 Collins Street in Melbourne’s CBD
‘We hope one day we will see many more bird of prey families living in the Melbourne CBD,’ he said.
According to Dr Hurley, if the falcons continue to incubate undistracted the recently laid eggs should hatch in around 30 days.
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.
As the band-tail pigeon swung in over the gravel pit, I shouldered my Remington Wingmaster shotgun, swung my aim through the bird and fired. It folded and came down hard, and my Lab mix quickly retrieved it. My first shot at a wild pigeon had scored. “Not bad,” I thought to myself, “nothin’ to it!”
I wondered why so many bird hunters had told me that band-tails were a challenging bird to hunt?
I then ran off 21 straight shots without drawing a feather, chewing on humble pie the whole time.
Band-tail pigeons were once much more popular to hunt in the Northwest than they are now. The season was closed in Washington from 1991 to 2001 to let the population recover from over-hunting.
Over that 10 year period most hunters forgot all about them.
These backwoods relatives of the city pigeon are common in the wet forests of the Pacific Northwest. It is a sociable bird that gathers in large flocks as it makes its yearly migrations in the fall and spring.
They are a pastel gray-blue in color, and they can be told from their city-dwelling cousins by the long tail with a wide, pale band at the tip. A white neck crescent is also obvious when the birds are close. They have a black-tipped bill and yellow legs. Their call is a soft, owl-like coo.
And, they fly really fast. Even seasoned scatter-gunners will find them difficult to hit with any regularity.
They are also a wild mountain-loving bird that eats honest, wild foods, and they taste much better than any common pigeon could ever taste.
The band-tailed pigeon is the closest genetic relative of the extinct passenger pigeon. Like the passenger pigeon, band-tails were also hunted hard over the decades, which led to the closures. While the birds are now recovering, they still need protections.
For that reason, the season is short, eight days in total, and the bag limit is two per day. The season runs from Sept. 15-23.
Hunters in Washington will need a small game license, a state migratory bird permit, and a migratory bird authorization with a band-tailed pigeon harvest record card to hunt them.
The band-tails of the Northwest migrate along the Coast and Cascade mountain ranges from British Columbia to California. Hunters ambush them by positioning themselves along saddles that the birds pass over, rock quarries that offer grist for the birds, feeding areas, and mineral springs.
According to Eric Holman, a wildlife biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Region 5, the birds have a fruit and seed diet.
“They are fond of elderberries and cascara berries,” said Holman. “They also like cherries and other fruiting trees.”
“Look for places where they are going for food,” said Holman. “Try pass shooting as they come and go from the feeding areas.”
This heavy diet of fruit in the summer leads the birds to seek out mineral springs to gain extra nutrients. Therefore, mineral springs are great places to hunt for band-tails.
They also tend to sit on the very tips of tall fir trees, especially single trees that give the birds a good view of any approaching threat. Looking for these perched birds is a great way to find the flocks.
Holman reports that hunters take only about 100 to 200 band-tails per year.
“It used to be higher,” he said. “When it reopened in 2002 we would get six to seven hundred a year, but it’s been tapering off.”
He feels the newness of the hunts created some initial excitement when it first reopened, but the extra regulations may be putting some people off.
Either way, the birds are fun to hunt, taste surprisingly good, and offer bird hunting with almost no competition.
These are tough, wild birds, and they are hard to bring down. You had better hit them hard or they will just keep on flying. Forget the game loads, too. Try high-brass loads of shot sizes 5 and 6.
Band-tails have excellent eyesight, and if you raise your gun too early, or let your dog wander, it will spook the incoming birds. Stay well-hidden, and reduce movement if you want any quality shots.
They also have a whole repertoire of dirty tricks. They will sweep over your head from behind, sliding right over you in good range, and they are gone before you can shoot. They will turn on a dime right before they venture into range. And, they can duck and dodge better than a mourning dove.
In Southwest Washington, hunters should look to the tree farms. These actively managed lands tend to draw plenty of birds, but most private timberlands now require a permit to hunt them.
Still, they provide most of what the birds want, and hunters with permits should find them there in good numbers.
Hunters can look for DNR and BLM lands along the migration routes, too. A good pair of binoculars will help you spot the flocks as they move.
If you want a fun wing-shooting challenge, give these birds a try. However, unless you are a better shot than myself, prepare to be humbled.
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.
Late in the summers of my childhood, black specks would fall out of the sky, floating in through my open bedroom window, snagging on the net curtains. Though we lived a good half mile from the nearest field, the charred shreds from stubble-burning made no distinction between town and country. Sooty showers rained down on suburban sensibilities year after year. Though people complained, nothing changed, for this was an age when farming sat in the social and political ascendancy.
A quarter of a century after a nationwide ban on stubble-burning began, the cereal fields are left to simmer under a weakening sun. Many hot weeks ago, the combines came and the harvest was taken off. Gold expanses of spiky stalks were left in regimented lines with bleached debris beneath. But, even now, on warming afternoons, the dusty plenty of July wafts from the roasted aftermath of the crop. There is spilled wheat in the chaff, barley grains exuding malted odours beneath stiff-straight stems, and from every “bare” field, a toasty flavour on the nose.
And still the harvest keeps giving. Early in the morning, wood pigeons, the white-collared workers of the tractor tramlines, are gorging in conspiratorial huddles among the barley stubble, paying little attention to the bike soughing alongside on the dirt track.
Off the bridleway, a flock of greylag geese in a slow bustle, some heads up, some heads down, are paddling through the wheat sticks. Big birds, big appetites. Holding a bumpy line beside the hedge, I swivel my head to the right and count. Fifty-two, fifty-three geese. They are not plucking at straws; they are finding something to eat.
I have half an eye on the thick tussocks at the base of one hedge, where there are whipped whirlpools of grass with black holes at their core. A rat spurted out of one the other day in front of me, a blur of thrusting snout and spider-fast legs. It trailed a pale tail that appeared to have levitated to the horizontal. I find myself glancing down now, checking hole by hole, filled with a mixture of excited expectation and revulsion. Human antipathy towards this gleaner of the fields runs very deep indeed.
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.
A law prohibiting the deliberate feeding of eagles, ravens, crows and seagulls is moving forward following Thursday’s Ketchikan City Council meeting.
The council also approved a memorandum of agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers adding $8.50-per-hour to the base wage for journeyman metermen and electricians.
The bird-baiting ordinance passed in first reading. Two people spoke in opposition during public comment. Martha Thomas is co-owner of Sourdough Tours, which started baiting eagles at its property near The Plaza mall this summer.
Thomas said the ordinance starts the city down the wrong path. It began with a complaint about eagles.
“Now you guys drafted this ordinance. You’ve included seagulls, ravens and crows,” she said. “But again you haven’t talked about the pigeon. My neighbor didn’t like me feeding the pigeons so are you saying he can go up to you guys and say, ‘You know what? Let’s do an ordinance against the pigeons. You know what, I don’t like my neighbor. She’s got too much garbage in her house, let’s do an ordinance against that.’”
After Sourdough Tours started eagle baiting, residents in the nearby Cedar Point condominiums complained to the city about increased eagle feces; and others expressed concern about safety.
That and worry over “copycat” tours adding to the problem prompted the council to move forward with an ordinance. It’s based on one adopted in Homer, and calls for a $500 fine for each violation.
During council discussion, the only member to speak against the ordinance was Julie Isom.
“I hate the idea that a company is actually feeding the eagles for profit, but I’m not going to support a law against it,” she said.
The bird-baiting ordinance passed in first reading 6-1 with Isom voting no. It will come back for a second vote.
Also Thursday, the council heard from city employees who asked that raises for some Ketchikan Public Utilities employees be extended to all city and KPU staff. City employees submitted a letter and petition with that formal request.
Public Works Department employee Clayton Hancock addressed the council.
“The issues of competitiveness in the job market and retention of skilled labor are problems that are citywide, not exclusive to one department as highlighted by the fact that there are more than 20 positions vacant throughout the city,” he said. “The city council has informed us they want to commission another wage study before addressing the issue at hand. However, an exception was made for power linemen. The employees are requesting that the city council treat all employees the same.”
During council discussion later, members agreed that the piecemeal approach is not ideal. Here’s Mark Flora.
“Not to say that these folks aren’t worth their bump, (but) we had a room full of people who made it pretty clear that the way this process is unfolding is exactly the kind of thing that kills morale and drives wedges between people,” he said.
Flora also expressed concern about how to pay for wage increases.
But, the council unanimously approved the MOA. With that wage increase, they hope to attract and retain workers. In mid-August, the council approved a $2-per-hour wage increase for KPU journeymen linemen and apprentices, for similar reasons.
The council also held a public hearing Thursday on a community development grant for Women In Safe Homes to potentially take over and renovate the former Ketchikan Regional Youth Facility. Several people spoke in favor of that proposal.
The hearing is a required part of the state’s process to qualify for the grant.
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.
