Pigeon Patrol

ROCK PIGEON

by Pigeon Patrol | Jul 27, 2021 | Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control

The recently changed name of Rock Pigeon reflects its traditional nesting site on rocky cliffs (replaced by buildings for feral populations) and its membership in the genus Columba, most of whose approximately 54 species are known as pigeons (Monroe and Sibley 1993). This species can be seen in a variety of colors, ranging from the white of “homing pigeons” to the mostly gray of the Old World wild population.

DISTRIBUTION. During the 1987-1992 field work seasons of the TBBA project, observers found breeding evidence across the state for Rock Pigeons, although breeding was more widely scattered in the Rolling Plains, Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos regions (see the region map in Lockwood and Freeman [2004]).

The 3 most common introduced species found on TBBA maps are in order: House Sparrows (Passer domesticus), widespread in all regions except the Trans-Pecos; European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), widespread in Texas except for the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos regions, and the Rock Pigeon. Of the doves and pigeons in Texas, atlasers found Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura) to be even more widespread than any of the introduced species or other doves or pigeons.

This pigeon is found in the New World from south-central Alaska, along the west coast of Canada and across the southern part of that nation to the Atlantic Coasst. From Canada the range extends south to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America. The species is either native or introduced to most of the Old World and many oceanic islands (Johnston 1992, Am. Ornithol. Union 1998, Sauer et al. 2007).

SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. Rock Pigeons are residents in Texas, breeding year round, but less commonly in the coldest months (Oberholser 1974).

BREEDING HABITAT. Rock Pigeons in Texas are found primarily in cities, towns and agricultural areas (Oberholser 1974) similar to Colorado and Arizona where almost 90% of breeding was observed in these areas (Kuenning 1998, Wise-Gervais 2005). The nest, generally built in or on a building, is a carelessly arranged platform of grass, straw, feathers and debris on a solid surface. On this platform the female usually lays 2 smooth, glossy, white, unmarked eggs which are incubated by both parents for 17-19 days. The nestling period varies seasonally from 25-32 days in summer to as long as 45 days in mid-winter. The fledglings usually remain near their parents for 1-2 weeks and may be driven away after that if they do not leave (Harrison 1979, Johnston 1992).

STATUS .Rock Pigeons are common in Texas (Lockwood and Freeman 2004) with relative abundances as high as 10-30 pigeons per North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) route in a few parts of the state, although in most areas relative abundances range from <1 to <10. BBS trend data from 95 routes in Texas suggest little population change has occurred since 1980, consistent with the statistically significant survey wide trend of -1.0% annual population change (Sauer et al. 2007).

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Homing Pigeons are Forgetful Too

by Pigeon Patrol | Jul 27, 2021 | Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Law, Pigeon Control, Pigeon Droppings, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Predators

If it makes you feel any better, humans aren’t the only animals that forget things. Researchers have found that homing pigeons do the same. The new findings, they add, suggest an underlying continuity across the human and animal world in how the brain works.

The knack of remembering and forgetting is the brain’s way of filtering information to manage its limited storage capacity. For example, you briefly store information about trees and cars around you in your working memory, but if someone tells you to focus on a speeding truck, your brain uses a process called executive control to remember that object longer. Meanwhile, you forget the others. In humans, this filtering is performed by the prefrontal cortex.

To test whether the avian brain has a similar filtering mechanism, Michael Colombo, a neuroscientist at the University of Otago, New Zealand, and colleagues subjected homing pigeons to a memory test. First, the researchers trained the birds to know that a high tone means they should remember an object, while a low tone means they can forget it. They then showed the birds one of two shapes (circles or dots) or colors (blue and green). After a bird pecked three times at the image, the researchers sounded a tone. Birds that heard the remember cue fired up neurons in a region of their brain analogous to the human prefrontal cortex (as measured via implanted electrodes), Colombo’s team reports today in PLos Biology. And those birds did, in fact, remember the objects: 79% of the time, they correctly pecked at the original object again when shown multiple images 3 seconds later. In contrast, birds that heard the forget cue did not exhibit sustained activation of the same brain area, and only in about 44% of cases did the birds correctly identify the original object. Thus, the researchers argue the birds use a similar mechanism as humans to filter their memories.

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Contesting Tradition: The Deep Play and Protest of Pigeon Shoots

by Pigeon Patrol | Jul 27, 2021 | Bird Netting, Columbidae, Doves, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows

Pigeon shoots are examples of “contested traditions” that invite comparison with other controversial spectacles of killing animals, such as cockfights and dogfights. In the United States during the late twentieth century, mass protests of America’s largest public pigeon shoot occurred in Hegins, Pennsylvania. This article offers a folkloristic perspective on the contested tradition by analyzing how the protest rhetorically served to present tradition as a “problem” in the ethical modernization of society. The clash between animal rights protestors and supporters of the shoot became a moral drama based on a clash of rural and cosmopolitan values in modern America that derives from fundamentally different views of human dominion over the land and its creatures. The interpretation of the event hinges on a semiotic layering that takes into ethnographic consideration the different meanings of symbols for various participants in the event. Compromise became impossible in controversies over pigeon shoots because the sides perceived symbols so differently. For protestors, the shooters represented predatory, phallocentric rapists who promoted violence for its own sake, whereas, for supporters, they symbolized a pioneer and biblical heritage based on human dominion over the bountiful land. For protestors, the process of the ritualized shoot perpetuated cycles of abuse and patriarchy; for protestors, it acted to regenerate the land, confirming the wholesomeness of agrarianism. The pigeons could be symbolized as profane, dirty pests or sacred doves of peace. The widely publicized controversy implied larger questions, and fundamental conflicts in America, about the role of tradition in modernity.

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Birmingham pigeon fanciers inspire play

by Pigeon Patrol | Jul 27, 2021 | pet bird, Pigeon Control, Pigeon Droppings, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Predators

Pigeon fanciers in Birmingham have provided the inspiration for a new play, which the team behind it plan to stage at a city pigeon loft.

The play is written by Mandy Ross and based on an idea by Alex Lockett.

Artist and curator Alex Lockett said the play has developed from a project to chronicle the lives and stories behind a hidden passion in the city.

She said she had become “hooked” herself a little more than four years ago.

“Project Pigeon started as an arts event. I went along to a pigeon club and all these guys were telling me some amazing stories,” she said.

“I went from knowing nothing to keeping about 50 or 60 birds in a loft in Digbeth.”

Pigeons on trains

In January of this year Project Pigeon was awarded a £43,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to compile an archive of pigeon fancying in the city.

More than 30 audio interviews and a dozen videos later the archive is almost complete.

It is due to be handed over to Birmingham Library next year, with some of the stories also going to Bletchley Park’s Animals at War exhibition.

Ms Lockett said pigeon fancying had become more popular in the West Midlands than any other region in the country, with its popularity in Birmingham driven by industrialisation and the development of the railways.

“People would take their pigeons down to New Street Station or Snow Hill and let them travel north or south.

“The railway stationmaster would later release them and the baskets would be sent back with the time of release attached to them. That happened right up until the 1960s.”

Today some of the best racing birds can be worth thousands of pounds.

Birmingham Roller

Ms Lockett said people were still passionate about the sport in the city but she had feared some of its social history might be lost.

“One guy had tables of every club race result from the last 30 years. You could see sons following fathers and the same names appearing at the bottom of the results.”

The city has even given its name to a breed of pigeon, known as the Birmingham Roller, bred not for speed but for its ability to perform somersaults in the air.

Fans of the bird include ex heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson, who has in the past bought birds from Birmingham and Wolverhampton breeders, in a bid to find a genuine Roller, Ms Lockett said.

Stories unearthed by Project Pigeon include that of Betty and Bernard Hemming who met and later married after Bernard struck up a friendship with her brother, a fellow pigeon fancier.

A murkier world was also revealed when one contributor revealed he had stolen a bird from a neighbour as a child and dyed it purple to prevent it being recognised.

The play, performed by Rogue Play Theatre, is due to be staged at Project Pigeon’s loft in Digbeth in April. A book is also being written and a series of radio plays, based on the interviews, are expected to be broadcast in February.

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Messenger / Homing Pigeons & Their Applications

by Pigeon Patrol | Jul 19, 2021 | Bird Netting, Bird Spikes, Columbidae, Doves, pet bird, Pigeon Control

Homing pigeons are called messenger pigeons when they are used to carry messages. Messages have to be written on light, thin paper (such as cigarette paper) and rolled into a small tube that is attached to the bird’s leg. This is called “pigeon post.”

They have also been used to carry small light-weight packages, in including smuggling drugs into prisons.

RACING

In recent history, they are mainly used for the sport of pigeon racing. They have been bred for racing and can reach speeds between 60 – 80 miles per hour. They can fly up to 80 to 600 miles in one single day.

In 2010, Jose Ledesma’s pigeons finish a personal racing season in Canary Islands with amazing resultss. Two young birds raced 3 times each from African coast in Morocco. Long Distance Races + 1st Regional Price against 1312 pigeons (National race equivalent in Belgium). Jose made an amazing movie of these pigeons flying over mountains, seas and deserts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAGKflxwxwI … Further information can be found on his website: http://www.joseledesma.com/ – J. Ledesma, Tenerife – Canary Islands

THE CARRIER OF MESSAGES

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the Prussians had surrounded the city of Paris preventing mail from entering or leaving the city. During the course of the siege, pigeons and mail were regularly taken out of Paris by hot-air balloons. The letters that were sent to Paris were first reduced in size by photography, so that 30,000 letters could be carried on film placed inside a canister. These canisters were attached to pigeons and these birds then flew into Paris. Thirty-five birds carried the same letters, so that if any were shot down, at least one would reach Paris. In Paris, the film was projected on a screen, and the letters were copied by hand and delivered to homes in the city.

These birds have been used to transport short messages across long distances. In fact, historically well-known leaders, such as Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan, have used them to carry important messages across long distances.

One of the world’s best known news agencies, Reuters, started its European business by using 45 trained birds to carry financial news on the continent in 1850. They carried the latest news and stock prices from Aachen in Germany to Brussels in Belgium, travelling the 76 miles in a record-breaking two hours – beating the railway by four hours.

The Chinese used them to deliver mail as long ago as 1000 B.C.

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ROCK PIGEON

Homing Pigeons are Forgetful Too

Contesting Tradition: The Deep Play and Protest of Pigeon Shoots

Birmingham pigeon fanciers inspire play

Pigeons on trains

Birmingham Roller

Messenger / Homing Pigeons & Their Applications

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