by Ryan Ponto | Apr 21, 2017 | Bird Netting
We join Ian Harford as he sets out for a day on the pigeons.
It’s a beautiful although slightly overcast morning as we set ourselves up for a day on the pigeons.
Start of pigeon season, and my first day shooting since the end of last game shooting season; so we have our fingers crossed for a good day.
First off, we need to get set up in a hide. It’s important to set out early, so you get your hide placed and built before the pigeons come out from roost.
Using nets and poles will give you a good base of a blind to work from and helps if you dress it with any fallen and broken branches and brashing to offer more natural surroundings when the pigeons hopefully fall into your decoy pattern.
Placing your blind under a tree that has some bare branches early in the season will make it a good sitting tree. Offering clear spaces for a clear shot free from hanging foliage.
Most of the decoys in our pattern are around 15-25 yards out in front of us so shooting should be reasonably straightforward.
There’s a pretty brisk wind this morning, so as the birds are coming over us they will have the wind in their wings so there will be some speed there, which we need to account for!
Realtree Max-5 is a great all round Pigeon Shooting pattern whether it’s for early pigeons, or well into the spring and summer. It has a lot to offer with the dark background for early season and the green elements work well for the early spring. The Max-5 offers incredible detail; each pattern has been strategically placed to create super-realistic tone, contrast and shadow.
When you appear from behind your blind it is important to be camouflagued to blend in with the surroundings so that your pigeons continue to come into your pattern. Having a great white silhouette appearing out of your blind every so often when you go to shoot will deter the pigeons to another spot, and you don’t want your neighbour to get your shooting!
Pigeon Shooting provides a fantastic days sport and normally is a great help to the farmer in maintaining the crops. It’s remained overcast for the duration of our day but didn’t alter our opportunity. The wind was pretty strong all day.
Interesting thing about today, was the way the pattern attracted the birds. Some of them came right in, and others came into the centre and hovered before landing, they didn’t want to come into the pattern. Something about it just seemed to spook them. That enabled us to take quite a few long shots but as you may know, those are not always quite as successful as bringing the birds into the pattern and shooting them at 15-20 yards.
However, some of those shots around the pattern were spectacular. I managed to bag 23, although there are a lot more empty cartridges on the floor! That’s half the fun of this sport.
It feels great when you make a good shot and the bird comes down, but equally it has to be sporting. The 23 pigeons I shot today won’t really see a big dent in the population around our shooting area, there really are a lot of birds and my guide knows exactly where to find them.
If it is not your area that you are shooting and you have been invited on a day it really is important to find out the key facts of the ground. What time do they start to move? Which direction do they generally come from? Do they favour a particular flight path? And what kind of pattern did they use on this ground before to bring the birds in?
Equally if it is your own ground, it is important to do a reconnaissance beforehand. Watch the ground on similar days to that you’ll be shooting on, make some notes for certain times of the day and plan your day in advance.
Today has been a truly wonderful day in the field. Great countryside, fantastic views and great shooting sport.
Now the hard bit, the tidying up! Packing away decoys, nets and blinds, picking up the cartridges, putting back the branches and brashings and making sure any rubbish is taken home.
And finally, picking up the carcasses and taking them home for tea!
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 | Apr 20, 2017 | Bird Netting
A Dunedin building ”not fit for pigeons to live in” has gone from abandoned wreck to winner of the top award at the Dunedin Heritage Awards.
The Dunedin Heritage Re-use Award was won by Ted Daniels for the restoration and preservation of the historic Standard Building in Princes St.
Mr Daniels bought the building eight years ago and has spent several years bringing it back to life through a mixture of preservation of historic elements, recreation of lost details and the careful insertion of new and exciting features such as a main staircase.
”It was in pretty bad condition when I bought it. It was waterlogged, it had rotten floors, the facade was orange, all the ornaments were taken off and pigeons were living inside.
”It wasn’t even fit for pigeons to live in. Most people would have looked at it and thought to demolish it.”
But Mr Daniels saw potential in the building.
”There is a lot of history in the building and that is very important to me. It’s a pretty unique building. It has a bluestone wall in there from 1860 which no-one knew existed.”
Mr Daniels was delighted with the award, and said all the positive feedback he had received about the restoration had made all the money and time poured into it worthwhile.
”It’s been very rewarding.”
The awards, held at Toitu Otago Settlers Museum last night, recognised excellence and innovation in the reuse of heritage buildings and a range of people involved in heritage re-use, including building owners, conservation professionals, project managers and engineers.
Dunedin City Council heritage policy planner Dan Windwood said the winners demonstrated the many uses that could be found for Dunedin’s heritage buildings, making sure the city’s unique history was not lost.
”The awards are an exciting time each year to acknowledge efforts being made across the city to restore and revitalise heritage buildings and show the public some of the excellent work that’s being done.”
Other winners were: Dunedin Heritage Re-use Award highly commended: Gallaway Cook Allan, 123 Vogel St (owner Chris Barnes); Earthquake Strengthening Award: 123 Vogel St; Heritage Interiors Award: 123 Vogel St; Earthquake Strengthening Award, highly commended: 90 Bond St (owner Hayden Cawte); David Cox Memorial Award: New New New, 218 Crawford St.
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 | Apr 19, 2017 | Bird Netting
Cliff has not lost his pigeon racing touch Sport. 00:45Thursday 27 April 2017
Retired docker Cliff Edwards has many pigeon racing successes under his belt, and he showed that he has not lost his touch by taking the first four places in Boston Central RPC’s opening race of the season from Bubwith. Results: 1, 2, 3 and 4 G. and C. Edwards 1853, 1851, 1843 and 1838 yards per minute, 5 and 6 Appleby and Daughter 1817 (2), 7, 8 and 9 Upsall and Grandson 1810, 1798 and 1797, 10 and 11 K. Ward 1788.663 (2), 12 Upsall and Grandson 1788.237. From Wetherby, the first four places were taken by Upsall and Grandson: Results: Upsall and Grandson 1685, 1680, 1666 and 1631, 5 Appleby and Dtr 1620, 6 Frost and Spooner 1615, 7 and 8 G. and C. Edwards 1592 and 1590, 9 K. Ward 1588, 10 Upsall and Grandson 1585, 11 Appleby and Dtr 1581, 12 A Cooley 1574. Swineshead and District RPC results: Bubwith – 1 and 2 Craig Pearson 1687 and 1629.743, 3 and 4 G. Wheatman 1629.587 and 1576, 5 Craig Pearson 1549, 6 G. Wheatman 1429, 7 Mr and Mrs T.F. Welby 1381. Wetherby: 1 and 2 Craig Pearson 1521 and 1515, 3 and 4 Mr and Mrs T.F. Welby 1489 and 1428, 5 Craig Pearson 1402, 6, 7 and 8 G. Wheatman 1343, 1274 and 1211.
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 | Apr 18, 2017 | Bird Netting
There’s a lot to talk about in the day to day political climate. Bombings, elections, air strikes, Supreme Court justices. The list goes on, and painfully so. But instead of talking about those things, I’m going to take a breather, hop onto a new soapbox and speak in defense of something a little closer, geographically, to Point Park.
Pigeons.
To many, they’re just vermin who get in the way when you’re walking to class. To some extent, that’s all true. Pigeons do in fact carry diseases, and they do have a tendency to get in your way on the street. But if I’m just being completely honest, if you just change a couple words in that sentence you’re also talking about humans.
Pigeons get a lot of crap thrown at them on a day to day basis and almost 100% of it is caused by humans. Be it punk kids trying to kick them while waiting for the bus, or some college kid trying to step on them for a cheap laugh, but have you ever paused to consider the fact that a pigeon has the actual resources to crap on you. Even if they do poop on you, rather than be angry and curse the pigeon, change your perspective. In many cultures it’s good luck to get pooped on by a bird.
To most, they are winged rats. To me, they are survivors. They fearlessly walk alongside man, like equals. They fearlessly walk into oncoming traffic, like warriors. They look danger in the eyes and scoff. They hobble around the city in the most mesmerizing fashion, like a once fabulous woman who spent a few too many nights in her stilettos.
Speaking of fearlessness, during World Wars I and II pigeons were used to relay top secret messages. They were chosen for their instinctual homing capabilities, and for their service they were awarded the Dickens Medal.
So yeah, there are 32 pigeons who are war heroes. Their missions were dangerous, enemy forces would try and shoot down the pigeons in hopes to intercept the message. One such pigeon lost her leg and her eye, but saved the lives of American infantrymen who were surrounded.
Aside from that fact, let’s think critically here. Why do people really hate pigeons? Because they carry diseases? So do humans, so do squirrels, rats and chickens. Because they can poop on you? So does every other species of bird, and humans too. Because they have wings? First of all, they can’t help that. Second of all, so do butterflies and every other species of bird. Because they’re gross? So are a lot of things, humans included.
I’m not saying that pigeons deserve to be worshipped or that they deserve to be treated better than people. I’m saying they deserve better. They don’t deserve to be kicked by punk kids or stepped on. They’re products of nature and vital to an ecosystem. It may not seem that way, but it’s true. We used to treat the bees like they were disposable and now we’re facing an environmental crisis because of our neglect. It’s unfair to hate something just because it’s gross or it gets in your way.
It is important now more than ever to show respect to those around us. Sometimes it starts small with working past your prejudices against pigeons. You may think it doesn’t matter, but it does.
Making room in your heart to be kind to pigeons makes room to be kind to people you may not like. It’s an exercise in tolerance, and I think we could all use some exercises in tolerance.
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 | Apr 17, 2017 | Bird Netting
A PUPPY was savaged by a hawk brought in to see off pigeons from its owner’s posh block of flats.
Chihuahua Dolly was in a garden when the bird sank its talons into her throat and bit her head.
Owner Eunice Barth was left horrified after her pet Chihuahua was savagely attacked by the hawk
Owner Eunice Barth, 80, said: “I remember the moment I heard Dolly scream.
“She was being dragged along the floor and the hawk was just about to fly away when the handler threw it some red meat.
“She was covered in puncture wounds. There was blood pouring everywhere.
The four month old pup was dragged along the floor by the bird of prey
“I was screaming hysterically, Dolly was screaming, it was awful.
“It was shocking, it left me in such a nervous state.”
Four month old Dolly was attacked after she snuck into the garden while her artist owner was taking out the rubbish.
The pup thankfully made a recovery after her owner forked out £400 on vet bills after the attack last June.
But now the hawk has made an unwelcome return to manage pigeon pest control at the luxury flats in Regents Park, London.
Eunice now fears the bird of prey could strike again or even attack one of the newborn babies in the block.
“My dog was savaged. How could they hire that hawk again?
“I can’t bear that it’s come back.
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)
