by Pigeon Patrol | Jul 25, 2015 | Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeons in the News
BIRDS of prey are being bought in to tackle a pigeon problem which is keeping a visitor attraction’s most popular residents indoors.
The Deep aquarium in Hull has commissioned a local falconer to scare off pigeons, which have been roosting and making a mess on the attraction.
The attraction’s gentoo penguins have not been allowed out of their new enclosure onto an outdoor balcony because of fears they could pick up avian diseases from the pigeon droppings.
Chief executive Colin Brown said: “The penguins have this area outside where they can go, a little balcony, but the pigeons are nesting above them and they carry a lot of avian diseases, so we don’t feel we can let out the penguins in case they catch something from the pigeon droppings. “Equally we don’t want to kill the pigeons.”
He said they had “pretty dramatic reaction” the first time they tried flying a bird of prey with seagulls which also hang round the building going “beserk” – although the pigeons stood their ground.
He expects the problem to take some months to solve with the help of a five-year-old peregrine falcon and an 18-month-old Harris hawk.
He said: “A number of major events including Wimbledon have successfully scared the pigeons away using this method, so we thought it was worth a try.
“When the falcon and hawk are flown in a specific routine, it alters the pigeons’ roosting and nesting patterns.”
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 Pigeon Patrol | Jul 24, 2015 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
Another slow news day, another bird-themed Japanese Twitter picture making the rounds.
To put it lightly, Japan’s major cities have a bit of a pigeon problem. According to Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies, the pigeon (or, holy crap, technically the “feral rock dove”), is an invasive species to the Japanese mainland that now inhabits essentially every speck of land, including, even, some distant islands belonging to Japan.
As with invasive pigeons in other cities throughout the world, Japanese pigeons have largely adapted to an urban environment, losing their instinctive fear of humans, nesting in and among buildings and, apparently, even frequenting McDonald’s.
A visitor to a Hachioji-area McDonald’s on the outskirts of Tokyo proper snapped this photo recently of a trio of pigeons just hanging out at one of the restaurant’s tables, presumably having a chat about how much they love pooping on things and enjoying some fry crumbs and a Coke.
Japanese media and Twitter aggregates picked it up and the photo now has the Japanese Internet buzzing.
While most Netizens seem to be having a quiet chuckle about it, at least some are reacting with genuine concern. Pigeons are, after all, notorious harbingers of disease, including something called cryptococcosis, which doesn’t sound pleasant at all, and one does have to wonder why there don’t appear to be any employees attempting to escort the animals to the nearest bronze statue or something.
Then again, there’s a chance they were legitimately paying customers, in which case demanding that they leave purely because of their feathery exteriors would be asking for a discrimination lawsuit from the pigeons’ lawyer.
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 Pigeon Patrol | Jul 23, 2015 | Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
Those artificial, screeching bird noises atop the Briggs Building have gone silent, but the reason remained a mystery to the city manager as of Friday morning.
In early March, Hollister officials responded to problems with too many pigeons at the Briggs Building that were leaving droppings all over the structure. The city paid $2,200 for equipment that continuously emitted loud, automated bird calls meant to shoo away the pigeons.
“There’s pigeon droppings everywhere. It’s not sanitary at all,” City Manager Bill Avera told the Free Lance in March. “We talked with some different folks and this seemed to be the most humane way to get them out of there.”
The city installed the boxes in early March. But the hope at the time was that eventually, the speakers could be turned on intermittently while keeping pigeons out of the parking structure.
In the past two to three weeks, those previously constant bird sounds suddenly stopped. When informed of the pause in bird screeches, Avera said on Thursday he went to check out the equipment atop the Briggs Building.
The equipment was there, yet Avera did not have a ladder and could not gain access to the machinery, however, so he had to find out whether someone turned it off or if it may be broken.
Katie Helland contributed to this report.
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 Pigeon Patrol | Jul 22, 2015 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Bird Netting, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News
A South Broadway bridge has gained a reputation with pedestrians for all the wrong reasons: piles of bird feces and decaying pigeon carcasses.
Hundreds of pigeons have made their home in the railroad overpass between the Newtown Crossing apartments and Tolly-Ho restaurant. They roost in the support beams, they defecate on the sidewalk, and many lie dead in their own filth, left to decay or be torn apart by strong-stomached scavengers.
Pedestrians often must skip, hop and jump to make it to the other side without stepping on something undesirable.
“I hate that bridge,” said Bryon Speach, who walks under it two or three times a week. “People don’t really walk under it unless they have to.”
Urban County Government officials hope that will change by the end of summer, when the city’s Division of Environmental Services plans to erect a metal barrier to keep pigeons away.
“Thank God,” said Clarence Johnson, who works at St. Joseph Hospital up the street. “They need to do something.”
Johnson normally drives to work, but when his car broke down, he was forced to walk down South Broadway under the bridge to the hospital. Johnson said he noticed the pigeons when he drove, but he didn’t know how much bird poop and how many dead birds were on the sidewalk.
“I didn’t know it was this bad,” he said. “My wife won’t go under it at all.”
Five years ago,
after a string of complaints, the city’s Division of Parks and Recreation tried to deter pigeons from roosting on the beams by putting metal sheets on the bridge’s underbelly. That kept pigeons from defecating on the sidewalks, but the sheet metal began to buckle and bend under the weight of dead pigeons and feces; some of the metal sheets eventually fell onto the sidewalk.
“Recently, (the metal sheets) have just not been working at all. They were just kind of overwhelmed by pigeon debris, honestly,” said Jennifer Myatt, an environmental outreach specialist with the city’s Department of Environmental Quality and Public Works. “At some point there was just too much, and it was coming onto the sidewalk.”
Since then, the Division of Environmental Services sent workers wearing hazardous-material suits to remove the metal sheets and clean the beams.
“It’s much cleaner now probably than it’s been in a long, long time,” said Susan Plueger, director of the Division of Environmental Services.
Workers now clean the sidewalks every two weeks.
Plueger said the city will probably put up large metal sheets between the bridge’s support beams. Those sheets, unlike the previous ones, would be completely blocked on the sides, leaving no room for pigeons to perch.
“We want our solution to be permanent,” Plueger said.
City officials initially had said they would use pigeon spikes — small, pointed poles that are meant to keep pigeons from perching — but they changed their minds after learning that pigeons can find ways to land around them.
Gary Potts, a member of the Lexington Racing Pigeon Club, suggested using chicken wire to block the pigeons from perching, but he emphasized that pigeons are persistent.
“If there’s a place to land, they’ll land,” Potts said. “Unless they cover the whole thing, the birds are going to get up in there.”
The large amounts of feces and dead pigeons are unpleasant, Potts said, but the area probably isn’t dangerous for pedestrians.
“People don’t have to worry about it,” he said. “They’re just as healthy as any other birds.”
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 Pigeon Patrol | Jul 21, 2015 | Bird Netting
A ‘feral’ killer seagull has been butchering Plumstead pigeons before feasting on their dead bodies, it is claimed.
Residents near Plumstead Common claim the violent bird has been picking off an average of four unfortunate pigeons per day.
Aine McGrillen raised the alarm on the Plumstead People Facebook page, saying: “We are trying to figure out if it is just one feral seagull or if this is a group of them. Is this usual seagull behaviour?”
She wrote: “It killed one in Barnfield Gardens car park this morning, then flew off with it in its beak. Imagine if that dropped on your head!
“I guess it is just nature doing its survival thing. It is quite tense when you watch it just hanging out with the pigeons, casual as anything and then he picks his mark and swoops in.”
Other neighbours claimed the bloodthirsty bird has a voracious appetite and has been menacing the bird population for several years, once “munching” through 10 in one night.
Kirsty Wilson wrote: “It was doing it a couple weeks back and killed about 10 in one night.
“For 3-5 days every morning when I’d leave for work at 5 I’d see him there, then when I returned still be there, just munching away at the pigeons! Never seen such a sight before.”
And Emma Ledgerwood chimed in: “It’s been doing it for over two years and kills at least four pigeons a day.
“It’s awful to watch for the pigeons’ sake but I suppose it’s all nature’s ways of keeping the population down.”
But Gordon Guthrie had little sympathy for the pigeons. He wrote: “Seagulls are carnivores. What is worse when you’re at the seaside and they pinch the kiddies’ ice cream or stalk you for chips.”
This is not the first time a killer seagull has made headlines. Last October a Hyde Park bird was accused of drowning pigeons in the Serpentine before devouring them.
Amateur photographer Johanna van de Woestijne, 57, told Mail Online: “It was one of the most violent things I have ever seen. After it happened I felt I had witnessed a murder.
“I’ve seen him hunting pigeons on two separate days, both times he picked them off, dragged them into the lake and drowned them.”
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)
