Too much of a good thing

Too much of a good thing

Being a peregrine fanatic I’m kind of fond of pigeons – at least from the prey point of view – so when I was in downtown Pittsburgh on Sunday I stopped by Mellon Square to check out the scene.

Even for a peregrine falcon the number of pigeons at Mellon Square is way too much of a good thing.  I counted more than 150 and I couldn’t see all of them.  The pigeons outnumbered people more than 30 to 1.

This explains why peregrines hang out on the Oliver Building window sills.  It’s like visiting an all-you-can-eat restaurant.  The food may not be that great but there’s so much of it!

This kind of pigeon over-population repulses most people and they want a quick fix, the quickest being poison.  But if you poison a pigeon, you’ll poison a peregrine.  After a culling episode pigeons reproduce fast to fill the void – in fact lethal control actually increases the flock – but the peregrines take years to recover.  And peregrines are endangered in Pennsylvania.  It’s bad, bad, bad to poison an endangered species.

So what to do?

Pigeons need two things to reach the numbers found at Mellon Square:  lots of food and places to nest.  They reproduce in direct proportion to their food supply.  If food is scarce some won’t nest at all.  If food is plentiful they lay the next clutch of eggs before the first set has hatched, producing more than 12 chicks per year.

The food problem is obvious.  Sidewalks at Mellon Square are coated with bird seed. Control the food source (the people who feed them) and you’ve got most of the problem licked.   To make a really dramatic difference, control the nest sites as well.

City pigeons nest on buildings and bridges.  They also nest in buildings.   Find the buildings involved and spend the time and money to block the access holes.  Last summer the University of Pittsburgh cleaned the Cathedral of Learning and blocked off the pigeon nest holes as part of the cleaning job.  One year later there are far fewer pigeons at Schenley Plaza.

And finally, there’s a foolproof solution that makes both the pigeon-feeders and the pigeon-haters happy.  Many European cities have solved their pigeon problem permanently by building dovecotes and pigeon lofts.  Yes, they built nest sites.  They control the population at the dovecotes by substituting dummy eggs and they control the food level by giving pigeon lovers an approved place to feed and interact with the birds.

This keeps the pigeons and the birdseed off the street.  An elegant solution.

Source

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 Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent?  Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away,  Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard

I Started Switching Out Pigeon Eggs With Fake Ones In Toronto, And Now Something Terrifying Is Happening

I Started Switching Out Pigeon Eggs With Fake Ones In Toronto, And Now Something Terrifying Is Happening

It’s no secret big cities have pigeon problems. Toronto is no exception. Like rats in the middle ages, the disease-carrying vermin spent the past decade running amok and increasing their numbers. It was my job to try and keep Toronto’s ever-growing pigeon population in check. Thankfully, I came across an article about a pilot project where researchers replaced pigeon eggs with wooden substitutes. The birds, too stupid to know the difference, spent months caring for the fake eggs instead of producing more. The project was a huge success, and the pigeon population decreased significantly in a short amount of time. It sounded like the perfect plan, so I implemented the solution in my city.

What I didn’t count on was for those fake eggs to hatch, and for the abominations inside to be released into the world.

beetlejuice

Clint, my partner, came in one morning carrying a large wooden crate with straw poking out of every crevice.

“Looks like Christmas came early this year,” he said, “What is this stuff?”

I excitedly walked over, helping him set the box down on a workbench.

“This,” I said, prying it open to reveal its contents, “is the solution to our pigeon problem.”

Reaching inside, I took one of the eggs. I was a little disappointed to see that they weren’t wooden, as promised. Instead, they were thin, light, and hollow like those cheap plastic Easter eggs. It wasn’t close to what I was expecting.

Oh well, that’s what you get for ordering off of Ebay, I thought.

Clint took a handful of the eggs.

These are the replicas you ordered? They don’t feel remotely the same as the real deal.”

We were well aware of what the eggs felt like. Up until then, the only way to decrease the pigeon population was to sneak into their nests and steal the eggs. It was a futile, temporary solution, because the birds would just lay new eggs once they realized theirs were gone. That’s what made the idea of using substitutes so damn good.

“It’s fine, Clint. They don’t have to fool us, they just have to fool the pigeons. This’ll work, trust me,” I answered.

I was right: the pigeons fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

beetlejuice

A few months passed, and we started seeing a decline in the amount of younger birds in the area. I can’t tell you how proud I was of what I’d done. I’d found a safe, environmentally friendly way of dealing with the flying rats, at the cheap cost of a few hundred dollars and an elevator trip to pigeon nesting grounds atop high-rise rooftops around the city.

The problems started about three months in. Clint and I were inspecting nests on opposite sides of the city. I was halfway up the building when Clint called me.

“Yo,” I answered.

The sound of wind could be heard in the background. Evidently, Clint had reached his destination.

“Hey. Some of our eggs broke,” he announced.

The elevator came to a stop, doors swinging open to let me off. I stepped out and made my way to a small staircase leading to the rooftop.

“We’ll just have to replace them. No big deal,” I answered nonchalantly.

There had been a few violent storms since our last inspection, and I figured the eggs must have fallen from the nests and shattered on impact. See, this is why wood would have been better, I grumbled to myself, as I exited onto the rooftop for my inspection.

“Well, fuck,” I said.

“What?” answered Clint.

Most of my eggs were broken, too. The strange thing was that they were still tucked in the nests, right were we’d left them. Had the pigeons figured out our ploy and attacked the replicas? Were the fake eggs too frail to survive our harsh Canadian weather?

I groaned.

“It’s the same here. We’re going to have to start over,” I told him, defeated.

Clint laughed.

“It’s all good, we can hatch a new plan.”

I paused for a moment.

“Did you just-” I began, but he interrupted.

“Just look on the sunny side up of things, yeah?”

Puns. At a time like this. Puns.

“Don’t yolk with me,” I replied, with a sigh.

beetlejuice

We couldn’t leave the nests unattended for too long, otherwise all our progress would go down the drain. I sent Clint to replace the broken eggs with what was left from our original order. In the meantime, I searched online for anyone selling wooden eggs. Unfortunately, the cheapest – and fastest shipper – was the person we’d ordered from the first time around. We needed these eggs quickly, and our budget was pretty tight. I figured I’d order the subpar eggs one more time. If they lasted long enough for city officials to see the plan was working nicely, I was sure I could convince them to increase our budget so we could order better supplies next fiscal year.

Just to be sure the pigeons weren’t attacking our fake eggs, I also set up a security camera on one of the rooftops. I needed to know if they’d gotten wise to our ruse, though I highly doubted they had the mental capacity to do so. Still, the project would prove fruitless if the birds weren’t fooled by our cheap imitations, so it was best to keep an eye out.

beetlejuice

Over the course of the following weeks, I started getting strange reports about small animals behaving in a bizarre manner. Frankly, I didn’t pay much attention to them, at first. They sounded a little insane, to tell the truth. One woman claimed she’d seen a pigeon climb a tree. She said he crawled up the bark like a squirrel. Another report stated that a chipmunk had been seen attacking – and killing – a neighborhood dog. Another witness called in about an injured cat, but when he investigated, all he found was a pelt.

By the time I read the fifth report, I was starting to get a little worried. What was even more troubling to me was that these reports were coming from all over the city. If it had been confined to a single neighborhood, I would have suspected an outbreak of rabies, or a new disease of some sort. But the reports were coming in from all around Toronto and its suburbs, which span an extremely large area. How could anything spread so quickly? It had to be something else.

I was just about to do a bit of research on the subject when Clint came in, wearing a scowl.

“Broke. Shitty fucking eggs broke again,” he grumbled, throwing himself on his chair.

I forced a grin.

Crack a smile, would ya?”

He tossed his worksheet on the table.

“That was an egg-cellent pun,” he replied, releasing a single chuckle.

“You remember to bring the footage?” I asked him.

He unzipped his coat and reached into his pocket for an SD card, “Gotcha covered. Movie time!” he chirped.

We uploaded the footage and took a look.

beetlejuice

Pigeons.

Pigeons sitting on their nests.

Pigeons preening.

Pigeons flapping their wings at one another.

A squirrel.

A squirrel getting chased away by birds.

More pigeons.

It must have been the dullest security tape in the world. The kind of footage that even David Attenborough’s lovely voice wouldn’t be able to save. We fast-forwarded through days of pigeons doing pigeon-y things. Never once did they show any violence towards our replica eggs.

Clint had dozed off by the time something finally happened on-screen. The only reason I was still conscious was due to the copious amount of coffee I’d ingested that morning.

It was dead of night. In the video, at least. One of the birds flew off its egg and perched itself on the nest, peering inside. This is it, I thought, leaning closer to the screen. I figured he’d attack the egg, but I was wrong.

I watched as the video soundlessly continued, and something cracked open the egg – from the inside. My jaw gaped open. This wasn’t possible: the eggs were plastic shells. The only explanation was that we’d missed one real egg somewhere in the bunch. Yeah, that had to be it. I was witnessing the birth of a baby pigeon, nothing weird.

Except baby pigeons don’t look like smoke.

A puff of dark air came out of the egg. The pigeon, head inches from it, inhaled the gassy substance. It reared back and stood completely still for about a minute, before falling over. I watched as it started thrashing violently, like it was having a seizure. Then, from its beak spewed some kind of chunky liquid that evaporated as soon as it hit the air. The pigeon’s body seemed to deflate like a balloon, as though the creature was being hollowed out. I was left staring incredulously at the flat, immobile husk of what had once been a pigeon.

Suddenly, the pigeon’s chest bulged out and the animal regained its form. At least, sort of. Its proportions were all wrong: its wings were bloated and angled oddly, most of its girth was in its neck rather than stomach, and its midsection had stretched out unnaturally. It was like looking at an animal pelt draped over the wrong mound. Like a lunatic taxidermist’s cruel experiment. The abomination of nature jerked its head towards the ledge. It twisted onto his back, legs contorting and dislocating in such a way as to be able to reach the ground. From its throat, I could see stump-like arms stretching out, clawing at the cement rooftop. In quick and jagged movements, the creature skittered over the edge, and disappeared from view.

I was shocked, unable to believe what I had seen. I had to watch and re-watch the video several times, before it occurred to me to wake Clint up. He grumbled unhappily, rubbed his tired eyes, and looked at me.

“You won’t believe this,” I uttered.

I rewound the footage and pressed play. His eyes widened with the same disgusted disbelief as mine. Even on my fifth viewing, I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

“This is bad,” he said.

“… I know,” I answered.

beetlejuice

After watching the video a few more times, we went home. I think we both hoped a good night’s sleep would help clear our minds. Maybe, upon reviewing the tape, we’d realize we were mistaken. Maybe it was a trick of the light? Unlikely, but we could only hope.

Clint was already at work when I came in. His eyes were glued to the screen.

“Watching it again?” I asked.

“Not exactly,” he replied, “… I … kept going.”

I approached the desk and peered at the monitor.

“Kept going?” I questioned.

His face was pale and his eyes weighed down by large bags. How long had he been here? Had he come in extra early?

“There was two days left of footage on the card,” he explained.

“And you went through it?”

“Yeah…”

“Did you see…more of those things?”

Clint pressed his lips together, “Yeah…and…some of them came back,” he explained.

I raised my eyebrows, looking closer at the screen. I noticed something odd about one of the nests. There were multiple eggs resting in the sunlight. They were neither genuine pigeon eggs, nor replicas. They were too big for that.

Clint pointed to the batch, his hand trembling.

It laid them,” he murmured.

I felt a flush of nervous energy climb up my spine like an elevator, and then turned to the reports I’d been reading the day before. Were the eggs at the center of it all?

“We need to call the authorities,” I uttered shakily.

“We ARE the authorities,” he replied, his voice sounding frantic.

I paced around the room. Back and forth, back and forth, like a pendulum.

It laid them.”

The phone rang, interrupting my anxious march. It was another report of odd animal behavior. This time, the culprit was a deer. In a spooked and almost disgusted tone of voice, the woman on the line explained that she’d seen a deer slithering along the river. She said its body was sideways, but its head was upright. Oh god, I thought. What ever those things were, they could affect larger animals. While I tried to comfort the worried caller, I heard something from Clint’s workstation.

Crack

I turned around, only to see a puff of smoke rising towards my coworker. Near his keyboard was a cracked shell, just like the ones on the rooftop. Without a word, Clint bolted to the bathroom, holding a hand over his mouth as though about to puke. I dropped the phone and ran over to the door. It was locked.

“Clint … are you okay?”

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

All of a sudden, I heard him heaving violently. A sound of moist gurgling and boiling water erupted from the bathroom. Terrified of what would happen if Clint got out, I pushed the heavy workbench in front of the door. I stood in terrified silence as the noise came to a stop. Was Clint now lying as flat as a pancake against the porcelain throne? Would it turn into some sort of bastardization of a human body, like what happened to the pigeon?

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

BANG

Clint threw himself against the door violently. Just one blow nearly threw the thing off its hinges. Again and again, he slammed himself against the surface, causing the workbench I’d placed in front of it to slowly inch away. All I could do was push myself against it to try and keep the door closed. My only thoughts were to keep him from escaping, for my own safety. I knew he’d attack me if I let him out. I just knew it.

The sound came to an unexpected halt, allowing me to breathe a sign of relief. Maybe he’d expired. Maybe that thingneeded fresh air to survive. Whatever the reason, I thought I was safe.

But then, I heard a crash. The window. I’d forgotten all about the bathroom window.

He’s out there now. Him, and those other mutated atrocities. I don’t know what they are or what they want. All I know is that they’re roaming the city right now, doing god knows what. Most of them probably look like pigeons, but they can be anyone or anything. I just hope someone figures out how to stop them because, at last count, there were over 700 of those cursed eggs planted around Toronto. Now that I know these things can reproduce, god knows how many more eggs might be out there.

beetlejuice

Update 1:

He came back…

I should have known he’d come back.

He warned me before: he said the creatures on our recording returned to its nest to lay their eggs. Those monsters seemed to have the salmon mentality: going back to their place of birth when it came time to reproduce.

Too busy answering a slew of panicked calls – all the while panicking myself – I didn’t hear him when he came in through the front door. Thankfully, I caught a shape from the corner of my eyes. Without even finishing my sentence, I dropped the phone and locked myself in the maintenance closet, praying he hadn’t seen me.

Outside the thin wooden door, the room was quiet.

If he was breathing, I couldn’t hear it. His footsteps were just as silent. Had I overreacted? I hadn’t actually seen Clint, just a shadow in my peripheral vision. Maybe it was my imagination. I needed to know, so I knelt down, peered through the crack under the door, and closed an eye to get a better look.

I wish I hadn’t. I wish I could erase that thing from my mind, to preserve Clint’s memory as the man I knew him to be. Not that. Anything but that.

What I saw was a mess of flesh inching along the floor like a slug. I couldn’t figure out what was facing up: his back or his chest. His spineless torso had folded over, bringing his arms nearly perfectly in-line with his legs. His head, now completely shapeless, lay flat at his midsection. His mouth reminded me of the figure in Munch’s famous painting, The Scream. His greyed eyes stared at me, but I could tell, as he continued to slither towards his desk, that they were useless decorations.

He disappeared from view.

Then, came a horrid sound: a squishy and gooey noise that reminded me of the old slime ball toys I used to play with as a child. It lasted a few moments, stopped, started again, and then stopped for good.

Shaking in my boots, I remained concealed in my dark prison all day, ignoring repeated hunger pangs and my own instinct to run. I couldn’t afford the risk of being caught. As day shifted into night, I began to wonder if I could sneak past him. On our security tape, I’d seen normal pigeons sitting on nearby nests, seemingly unfazed by the creature. Maybe Clint wouldn’t attack me. I had to take the chance: I couldn’t hide forever.

As quietly as I could, I swung the door open and stepped into the office. The thing wearing Clint’s skin was gone.

Thank god, I thought.

Out of morbid curiosity, I glanced at his workstation, where I’d heard the unsettling noises earlier. There were two massive eggs sitting on his desk, coated in a viscous substance. I didn’t even want to think of the implications. I didn’t want to know out of which orifice he’d laid them. I wanted nothing to do with this anymore.

I ran out of the office, to my car, and drove straight to Kingston.

I’m not going back. I will never go back. Someone else will have to deal with this situation.

beetlejuice

Update 2:

I thought I could get away from them, but now, I’m not so sure. Maybe I’m imagining it, but the pigeons outside look … odd. Not as disproportionate and disfigured as what I saw in Toronto, but … there’s something wrong about the way they move.

I think those things are learning to better mimic the shape of what they’re possessing. And now, they’ve spread.

Source

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 Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent?  Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away,  Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard

Pigeon feeders stash your seed, or pay the price

Pigeon feeders stash your seed, or pay the price

Mattawa’s pigeon feeders have been warned—the free lunches stop now.

Council recently approved a bylaw prohibiting the feeding of pigeons, a ban that encompasses the entire municipality.

Cracked corn, seeds, cereal grains, wheat, and barley make delectable dishes for pigeons, and many people enjoy indulging this aviary desire to while away some time, or to make the birds’ lives a little easier.

But for Mattawa residents the practice is no longer accepted. And those who continue distributing the seed may be fined $250.

See: Pigeon poop proves a problem. Police involved

Moreover, if one attracts pigeons, and this flock results in a public nuisance, another fine of $250 can be issued. This is separate from the feeding fine. Think twice before installing that pigeon motel in your garden.

The bylaw came about after the municipality received numerous complaints regarding the birds over the past year.

“Pigeons are destroying rooftops, property, and our beautiful downtown area with their feces,” explained Councillor Loren Mick, in his report to council.

“The biggest problem” he noted is also the most preventable: “people feeding them.”

Hence the bylaw to remove “unwanted pigeon pests,” which will “promote the use and enjoyment of property in a healthy and sanitary manner.”

Source

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 Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent?  Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away,  Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard

The Viruses of Wild Pigeon Droppings

The Viruses of Wild Pigeon Droppings

Birds are frequent sources of emerging human infectious diseases. Viral particles were enriched from the feces of 51 wild urban pigeons (Columba livia) from Hong Kong and Hungary, their nucleic acids randomly amplified and then sequenced. We identified sequences from known and novel species from the viral families Circoviridae, Parvoviridae, Picornaviridae, Reoviridae, Adenovirus, Astroviridae, and Caliciviridae (listed in decreasing number of reads), as well as plant and insect viruses likely originating from consumed food. The near full genome of a new species of a proposed parvovirus genus provisionally called Aviparvovirus contained an unusually long middle ORF showing weak similarity to an ORF of unknown function from a fowl adenovirus. Picornaviruses found in both Asia and Europe that are distantly related to the turkey megrivirus and contained a highly divergent 2A1 region were named mesiviruses. All eleven segments of a novel rotavirus subgroup related to a chicken rotavirus in group G were sequenced and phylogenetically analyzed. This study provides an initial assessment of the enteric virome in the droppings of pigeons, a feral urban species with frequent human contact.

Source

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 Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent?  Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away,  Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard

 

Objectively identifying landmark use and predicting flight trajectories of the homing pigeon using Gaussian processes

Objectively identifying landmark use and predicting flight trajectories of the homing pigeon using Gaussian processes

Pigeons home along idiosyncratic habitual routes from familiar locations. It has been suggested that memorized visual landmarks underpin this route learning. However, the inability to experimentally alter the landscape on large scales has hindered the discovery of the particular features to which birds attend. Here, we present a method for objectively classifying the most informative regions of animal paths. We apply this method to flight trajectories from homing pigeons to identify probable locations of salient visual landmarks. We construct and apply a Gaussian process model of flight trajectory generation for pigeons trained to home from specific release sites. The model shows increasing predictive power as the birds become familiar with the sites, mirroring the animal’s learning process. We subsequently find that the most informative elements of the flight trajectories coincide with landscape features that have previously been suggested as important components of the homing task.

Source

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 Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent?  Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away,  Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard

Feral pigeon: flying rat or urban hero?

Feral pigeon: flying rat or urban hero?

It was the satirist Tom Lehrer who started the rot in 1959 with his song Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, which explained that it takes only a smidgen of strychnine and “it’s not against any religion to want to dispose of a pigeon” (though I doubt that many Buddhists or Jains would agree).

However, Woody Allen delivered the coup de grâce in his 1980 film Stardust Memories, when he referred to feral pigeons as “rats with wings”.

The term had first appeared in 1966 in an article in The New York Times, but Allen’s film reached a much wider audience. It was the final nail in the coffin for these birds – what could be more damning than to be on a par with rats? Ever since, feral pigeons have been one of the Disgusting Three, together with North American grey squirrels (‘tree rats’) and rats themselves. Their fall from grace was dramatic and, amazingly, took just a couple of decades.

Where did feral pigeons come from?

The rock pigeon Columba livia was the wild ancestor of the feral pigeon and the first bird to be domesticated, in the Middle East some 6,000 years ago. Since then its contribution to human wellbeing has been astonishing.

Until agricultural advances in quite recent times, a dovecote, rabbit warren and carp pond were the three essentials to provide fresh meat throughout the year in Europe. In addition to food, pigeons produced valuable guano so rich in nutrients that one load of it was worth 10 from any other species. In many countries, pigeon dung actually played a key part in agricultural development.

It might seem improbable that the rock pigeon, a relatively uncommon species of remote cliffs, was the first bird we domesticated. But this process did not involve capture and selective breeding – merely the provision of an alternative place to nest, usually a dovecote with rows of ledges or clay pots along its internal walls. Some designs could accommodate several thousand sitting females.

The pigeons themselves were given little food, generally flying off to forage elsewhere. Despite requiring minimal attention, each pair typically produced about 10 squabs a year. Pigeons were thus the perfect source of protein.

Darwin loved pigeons

The reliance on pigeons for food declined when it became clear that chickens were more suited to mass production. But the interest in breeding them remained: much of the first chapter of On The Origin of Species is devoted to pigeons, where Darwin describes the many breeds that can be created artificially.

Today, though, the pastimes of rearing and racing pigeons are waning in popularity. Both hobbies require a great deal of patience and dedication – commodities in short supply in the modern world.

Though pigeons were still an important food source in the 1800s, they were being stolen from lofts in large numbers to supply the newly fashionable sport of pigeon shooting: they were used as live targets in competitions.

The Hurlingham Club in London was founded in 1869 expressly for pigeon shooting. When the practice was made illegal in 1921, clay pigeon shooting was invented.

Apart from supplying us with food, fertiliser and fun, pigeons have also played a useful role in medicine. Prolactin, the hormone responsible for milk production in mammals, was first isolated in 1933 in pigeons; the same hormone stimulates the male and female birds to secrete ‘milk’ from their crops to feed their young.

Pigeons in war and peace

But pigeons are probably most famous for their ability to find their way home and deliver messages. This was first exploited 3,000 years ago, and by the fifth century BC Syria and Persia had widespread networks of message-carrying pigeons.

In 1850, Paul Julius Reuter’s fledgling news service used homing pigeons to fly the 120km between Aachen and Brussels, thereby laying the foundations for a global news agency, and the world’s first ‘airmail’ stamps were issued for the Great Barrier Pigeon-Gram Service.

The birds’ homing ability was harnessed in the two world wars: in the early 1940s, the American Signal Pigeon Corps consisted of 3,150 soldiers and 54,000 birds. Some 90 per cent of the messages got through. And these avian secret agents saved countless lives, too – of 54 Dickin Medals (the animal’s VC) awarded in World War II, 32 went to pigeons.

Feral pigeon in front of Lincoln Cathedral
Feral pigeon in front of Lincoln Cathedral. © Oksana Kachkan/Getty

Are messenger pigeons still used anywhere?

Even now, homing pigeons remain a useful means of communication in remote areas. The Police Pigeon Service in Orissa, India, was retired only in 2002.

We are all beguiled by the internet, yet in 2009, as part of a PR stunt, a pigeon carried a 4GB memory stick 80km in South Africa; the country’s biggest internet service provider managed to transfer just 4 per cent of the data on the stick in the same time. Perhaps it’s hardly surprising that the Taliban banned people from keeping or using homing pigeons in Afghanistan.

Amazingly, despite decades of research, we are still not sure how pigeons find their way home over terrain they have never seen before, and with such apparent ease. Partly this confusion is because different breeds appear to rely on different cues.

The consensus is that pigeons use the sun and/or the Earth’s magnetic field on long journeys, with visual cues becoming important near their loft, though recent studies suggest that they may also use odours. Not bad for birds with very small brains.

Urban pigeon outcasts

The list goes on and on: the feral pigeon has contributed to civilisation in more ways than any other species of bird. So how – and, perhaps more importantly, why – has it become such a pariah?

The fundamental reason is that modern technology has rapidly reduced our reliance on pigeons. All that most people see today are the flocks of feral birds found in cities on every continent except Antarctica, the most obvious surviving trace of the close association between people and pigeons spanning several millennia.

It’s no wonder that feral pigeons thrive in urban areas. Buildings are perfect nest sites for these exiles, mimicking the windswept cliffs used by their ancestors. There can be few more stirring sights than masses of pigeons swooping above our city streets, occasionally with peregrines in hot pursuit.

Pigeons as tourist attractions

So it is difficult to see why feral pigeons are now so widely reviled. After all, they’re among the few birds that the average city-dweller sees regularly.

Lots of people enjoy their interactions with these charming birds, which have long drawn the crowds in tourist hotspots such as London’s Trafalgar Square and Venice’s Piazza San Marco.

And let’s not forget that feral pigeons are some of the most beautiful birds you could hope to see. Their plumage has a multitude of different colours, including metallic greens, bronzes and purples on the neck, as well as exquisite wing patterns.

Interestingly, most feral animals quickly revert to the appearance of their wild ancestors. All British mink, for instance, are now the same shade of brown as their wild relatives in North America, even though the original escapees from fur farms had a plethora of coat colours bred for the fur trade.

We don’t know why pigeons are the only feral animals to have retained the varied coloration of their domesticated ancestors.

Are feral pigeons a pest and a nuisance?

It is often said that feral pigeons are a real nuisance, but what exactly are the problems? The standard gripe is that there are too many of them and therefore they need to be controlled. It’s a familiar refrain. The accusation is also levelled at rats, magpies, crows, squirrels, foxes, badgers and deer, to name but a few so-called ‘pests’.

Of course, no one ever says what the ideal number of feral pigeons is, just that there are too many. However, there have been a handful of detailed population estimates, including one in Sheffield: 12,130 feral pigeons in a city of half a million people. This is likely to be typical of our cities.

The BTO’s Garden BirdWatch survey listed the feral pigeon as the 25th most frequently recorded species in the first quarter of 2010, whereas the wood pigeon was number five and the collared dove number eight.

Feral pigeons are also said to be ‘dirty’ because they foul streets and buildings. Personally, I find pigeon droppings much less offensive than graffiti, the chewing gum stuck on pavements and bus seats, and the masses of litter everywhere.

Picking up all of the filth left by people costs vastly more than removing pigeon poo. Likewise, protecting buildings from pigeons costs considerably less than cleaning up after domestic dogs.

Pigeons by the River Thames.

Do pigeons carry disease?

Many websites list the diseases recorded in feral pigeons. How very scary. But let’s put this in context – many more diseases are known in people and their pets. Moreover, all animals carry diseases: the key issue is how often they transfer to humans, and there is little evidence of this happening with feral pigeons.

Plus, domestic pigeons often come into contact with feral pigeons but stay perfectly healthy. In other words, feral pigeons simply do not pose a significant health risk. It’s a non-issue.

In November 1855, Charles Darwin, arguably the most famous pigeon fancier of them all, sent a letter to his great friend the geologist Charles Lyell, who was about to pay him a visit. Darwin wrote: “I will show you my pigeons! Which are the greatest treat, in my opinion, that can be offered to a human being.”

How right he was!

Young woman in the middle of a flock of pigeons in Barcelona

FERAL PIGEON TERMINOLOGY: Wild, domestic or feral?

Feral pigeons live worldwide, but their wild ancestors are rare and in retreat. It’s important to get your terminology right when discussing pigeons.

Feral pigeons (sometimes called city, town or street pigeons) are descended from birds that escaped from dovecotes or other captive situations. In turn, domesticated pigeons were bred from wild rock pigeons (a species formerly known as the rock dove, but renamed in 2004).

Feral pigeons live in urban areas on every continent except Antarctica, with a global population numbering in the millions. By contrast, wild rock pigeons are now confined to outlying Scottish islands and remote parts of the Mediterranean, North Africa and western Asia.

But since it is hard to tell feral from wholly wild birds, and hybridisation is rife, it is difficult to map their respective populations accurately.

London pigeon

A day in the life of a city pigeon

The daily routine of a pair of pigeons in central London might look like this…

02.00 The pigeons are roosting side by side on their windowsill nest near Trafalgar Square. Their two eggs hatched a day ago.

06.00 At dawn, the female flies to the square to find food. Meanwhile, her mate gives their chicks some of his rich crop milk.

09.00 The female joins a feeding frenzy as seed is scattered (illegally) by a pigeon lover, before a warden moves the birds on.

11.00 Back at the nest, the female greets her partner with a cooing and bill-rubbing display. He then heads to St James’s Park to be fed by office workers having lunch.

15.00 After preening one another, the pair mate briefly at the nest. The female leaves again, while the male broods the squabs.

20.00 Reunited on their window ledge, the adult pigeons coo and bill-rub together before settling down for the night.

DID YOU KNOW?

  • Pigeon ‘milk’ is a cottage cheese-like fluid secreted from the lining of the crop. Flamingos are the only other birds to feed their young this way.
  • Experiments have shown that the humble feral pigeon can be trained to distinguish music by Bach and Stravinsky, and paintings by Monet and Picasso.

Source

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 Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

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Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

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