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Police investigate after peregrine falcon and pigeon killed in “cruel” trap in Co Tyrone

by Pigeon Patrol | Oct 3, 2023 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows

A FALCON and a pigeon have been killed in Co Tyrone in what has been described as “one of the most serious incidents of peregrine persecution in Northern Ireland for several years”.

The PSNI were last night continuing to investigate after the birds were found dead at around 10pm in the Scraghey area, near Castlederg on July 10.

It is thought those behind the attack tied up the pigeon and covered it with poison, using it as bait to trap a peregrine falcon.

DUP MLA Jim Wells, also a member of the NI Raptor Study Group, described the incident as “cruel”.

“The vigilance of several members of the Raptor Study Group and the very quick response by the PSNI has revealed what is likely to be one of the most serious incidents of peregrine persecution in Northern Ireland for several years,” he told the Ulster Herald.

“The use of poison on a pigeon to kill a protected bird of prey is cruel, dangerous and totally irresponsible. The peregrine falcon once faced extinction due to the use of pesticides and now it’s recovery is threatened by those who seek to kill adults and young using totally illegal and reckless methods”.

He added:”The research has revealed that illegal prosecution remains a problem in some parts of the county. There are those who want to prevent people living in this area from seeing the fastest bird in the world”.

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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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Filmmaker Michael Bay has been charged with killing a pigeon in Italy in 2018

by Pigeon Patrol | Oct 3, 2023 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control

Filmmaker Michael Bay has been charged with killing a pigeon back in 2018 while filming a movie in Italy.

The Wrap reported that the Transformers director was accused of killing the bird during the production of Netflix’s 6 Underground in Rome.

Authorities claim the homing pigeon was killed on a moving dolly during a take.

Pigeons are protected in both Italy and in the European Union under the Birds Directive, which states it is illegal to ‘kill, trap or trade’ them.

According to The Wrap, an individual who was allegedly present when the incident occurred on set reported it to Italian police shortly after. However, Bay has fiercely denied these claims.

He told the outlet: “I am a well-known animal lover and major animal activist.

“No animal involved in the production was injured or harmed. Or on any other production I’ve worked on in the past 30 years.”

Bay and his legal team have made multiple attempts to have the case thrown out in court.

The director maintains as he has video evidence of the incident, which proves he is innocent.

He said: “We have clear video evidence, a multitude of witnesses, and safety officers that exonerates us from these claims. And disproves their one paparazzi photo — which gives a false story.”

He added: “There is an ongoing court case so I cannot get into the specifics, but I am confident we will prevail when I have my day in court.

While Italian authorities have offered to settle the case with the director paying a small fine, Bay refused as he did not want to ‘plead guilty to having harmed an animal’.

The 2018 flick 6 Underground follows a group of people who fake their own deaths and form a vigilante team to stage a coup d’état against a ruthless dictator.

The film stars Ryan Reynolds, Dave Franco, Melanie Laurent and Corey Hawkins.

And, just like all of Bay’s movies, 6 Underground had a whopping budget of USD $150 million (AUD 216m).

But despite this, it was a flop according to Netflix’s head of original films, Scott Stuber.

“We didn’t feel like we got there on that one creatively,” Stuber told Variety.

“It was a nice hit, but at the end of the day we didn’t feel like we nailed the mark to justify coming back again.

“There just wasn’t that deep love for those characters or that world.”

Source

Pigeon Patrol

Canada’s top wholesaler for bird deterrent products for twelve consecutive years.

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Homing pigeon still missing after release from police custody

by Pigeon Patrol | Sep 25, 2023 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control

EPPING – The fate of a homing pigeon that stopped by the Epping police station after getting lost on a flight home to Massachusetts is unknown.

The 4-month-old bird hasn’t been seen since it was released from police custody earlier this month.

The pigeon first arrived outside the police station on Sept. 29. Worried about its safety, police took the bird into custody and held him over night.

Police learned that his owner was Gerry Gaumond of New Braintree, Mass., and that he became lost during a pigeon race that began in New York. He was expected to return home with the rest of Gaumond’s pigeons participating in the race, but it’s believed that he lost his way because he’s young and inexperienced.

Police released the pigeon on Sept. 30 and assumed he would make it home by the end of the day. However, he was found a short distance away and returned to the police department.

A second attempt to send the bird home on its own was made on Oct. 3 when Animal Control Officer Bill Hansen brought the pigeon to Depot Road in the area of the Exit 6 on-ramp to Route 101 and let him go.

The bird didn’t immediately take off. It flew up onto the roof of a house nearby and perched itself there.

Hansen didn’t hang around to see if the pigeon would leave. He assumed it would get its bearings and take off when it was ready.

“The last time I saw him he was sitting on that roof,” Hansen said Thursday.

Police received sightings of the pigeon in the area where it was released days later, but no one seems to know where he ended up.

Gaumond said it’s possible the pigeon could still fly home, but unlikely.

“Every day the chances get slimmer, but you never know. There’s a one in a million chance,” he said.

Gaumond, who races pigeons with his daughter through a club, said he’s had pigeons arrive home two months after they disappeared.

But their chances of survival diminish the longer they’re in the wild as they become easy prey for other animals.

Gaumond will soon begin breeding more pigeons to fly in races next year.

Source

Pigeon Patrol

Canada’s top wholesaler for bird deterrent products for twelve consecutive years.

Pigeons begin returning to Mosul as militants retreat

by Pigeon Patrol | Sep 25, 2023 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control

MOSUL, Iraq – For the first time in over two years, flocks of white and grey pigeons can be seen circling Mosul’s rooftops.

Among the many rules imposed by the Islamic State group when it seized the northern Iraqi city was a ban on breeding or flying the birds, which many Iraqis keep as pets or raise for food. The extremists feared young men practicing the hobby would neglect their religious studies or spy on female neighbours from the rooftops.

Many Mosul residents slaughtered their flocks or confined them to cages, fearing detention or death if they were found out – but 17-year-old Mustafa Othman couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“I couldn’t bear locking them up, my heart wouldn’t allow me to do it,” he said. “They were created to fly.”

Othman would sneak upstairs to feed his birds. He couldn’t clap or yell to fly them in formation, but he left the hatches open so they could come and go.

“Every time he came up here, he risked his life,” said his brother, Afan. “It’s crazy, but he loves them.”

Othman’s father gave him his first birds when he was just 11 years old. He always loved animals, and the pigeons were one of the few pets his family allowed him to have in their small home.

Their rooftop and the balconies betrayed other secrets kept from Islamic State militants, who overran Mosul in the summer of 2014 and imposed their harsh version of Islamic law.

The Othmans threw a blanket over a satellite dish near the pigeon coop, so they could keep up with the news. They hung thick curtains across balconies so that women in the family could water plants and hang laundry without wearing the all-encompassing veils mandated by the extremist group.

When Iraqi forces at last drove IS from the neighbourhood earlier this month, Othman celebrated their liberation by releasing his birds into the smoke-filled sky. “All I felt was happiness,” he said.

Today, the birds share the skies with U.S.-led warplanes and Iraqi helicopters, as Iraqi forces work to drive IS out of the remainder of the city. Over the last three months, they have fought their way from the east to the Tigris River, which divides the city in two, but IS still rules western Mosul.

“Sometimes, birds we don’t know land on our roof and they have cigarettes tied to their ankles,” said Younis Fathi, Othman’s uncle. He assumes the birds are used by smugglers to reach IS-ruled neighbourhoods, where smoking is forbidden.

The streets below Othman’s rooftop betray the heavy toll the war has taken on the city. Buildings are flattened, walls are pockmarked and bridges destroyed. Just across the street, the bodies of two IS militants have been left to rot in a building destroyed by an airstrike.

But Othman mostly looks upward where the birds wheel overhead in formation.

“I would have died for them,” he says. “But we survived.”

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Canada’s top wholesaler for bird deterrent products for twelve consecutive years.

Pigeons, Rats with Wings?

by Pigeon Patrol | Sep 18, 2023 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control

Though they may look cute from a park bench, pigeons are filthy birds. Like rats they carry diseases and can cause damage. In addition to being unsightly and stinky, droppings from pigeons can damage buildings, statues, equipment, and other outdoor structures. Their droppings are also known for triggering people to slip and fall, which makes it especially important to rid the birds from highly trafficked areas.

Pigeon droppings, especially when dry and airborne, can expose humans to many diseases, including aspergillus, Newcastle disease, candidiasis, encephalitis, ornithosis, and toxoplasmosis. In addition, they can also carry cryptococcosis, and coccidiodomycosis, which cause meningitis. The droppings may also harbor growth of fungus, which causes histoplasmosis. Fleas, lice, mites, and other pests often live on these birds, hitching a ride to where ever they want to jump off. Pigeons may also attract other pests, such as rats, which feed on dead pigeons and food that well-intentioned bird lovers may scatter for them.

Prolific breeders, pigeons hatch several broods a year, sometimes even laying a new clutch before the previous have even hatched. They are creatures of habit and highly social. Once they have found a cozy spot the will return again and again, bringing along more of their pigeon pals. Often our buildings and structures have architectural features such as drain spouts and eaves that make perfect nesting spots for these birds. Pigeons are comfortable around humans and they’re hard to scare away or deter. Once a flock of stubborn unwanted pigeons have set up shop in/on your building, it can be stubbornly resistant to removal, often requiring the services of a pest control or animal control professional. As is true of many pests that invade our homes and businesses, the first step to controlling feral pigeons is to remove their food source.

Tips to deter pigeons:

1. Screen drains and gutters to make your property less attractive to pigeons

2. Encourage children to pick up spilled food – and teach them NOT to feed rats with wings

3. Keep areas around trash bins and outdoor dining areas clean

4. Eliminate water sources such as bird baths, over-watered lawns, or kiddy pools.

Source

Pigeon Patrol

Canada’s top wholesaler for bird deterrent products for twelve consecutive years.

Chicago a bird death trap of glass and light

by Pigeon Patrol | Sep 11, 2023 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control

Chicago ranks as the deadliest city in the United States for birds, according to a recent study by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

People might think that a larger city like New York would be guilty of more bird-window collisions than Chicago, but an unfortunate combination of building structures and geographical placement proves to be deadlier than size.

“It’s not just the size of the city, it also has to do with how bright the city is and also where the birds are flying themselves.” said Kyle Horton, the lead researcher on the study which evaluated 125 cities for their bird-killing potential.

Every fall, billions of birds will fly from the northern United States and Canada to the tropics and in the spring those birds return from their tropical vacation, according to the Cornell Chronicle.

Chicago is positioned on one of the primary flight paths, Horton said. It is the nation’s deadliest city for birds during both the spring and fall migrations. Other Great Lakes regional cities in the study’s top 20: Minneapolis (sixth spring, seventh fall), Detroit (13th spring, 15th fall), Indianapolis (16th spring, 13th fall).

Annette Prince witnesses this flight and its casualties firsthand. She is the director of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, a volunteer-based conservation project that has been protecting and recovering birds that are killed and injured in downtown Chicago during these mass migrations since 2003.

“They’re birds that certainly cannot afford to be having collisions as an additional reason to have their species reduced,” Prince said.

The decline of these species doesn’t only affect local populations and ecosystems. Migratory bird populations are an important part of a global environment, she said.

“Chicago is in the fortunate position to enjoy a huge migration of birds every spring and fall,” Prince said. “They’re following a pathway that they’ve used for thousands of years, before there was ever a city here.”

What was once a lakefront that travel-weary migrating birds could easily navigate and find pitstops offering food and rest is now a maze of lights, reflections and invisible yet deadly obstacles. This results in 5,000 dead birds per square-mile in Chicago, Prince said.

And that’s a low estimate. The volunteers at Chicago Bird Collision Monitors can’t find every crime scene when there are so many, and there are plenty that could be tampered with by passing pedestrians, cars, or a wandering cat or dog, Prince said.

Windows are often the perpetrator of these deaths, but lights act as a productive accomplice.

“It’s not necessarily that the lights are killing birds,” Horton said. “It’s that the lights seem to attract birds, it disorients them and elevates their risk of colliding with structures.”

To reduce the risk of bird-window collisions, Horton encourages those who live in or work in buildings to turn off or dim unneeded lights. This is especially relevant at 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. for three to four weeks of spring and fall, which is when the majority of birds would be moving through the city, said Horton.

Reducing lights can decrease bird-window collisions, but building-designers and homeowners can also make changes to the windows themselves without living in a building devoid of natural light.

“The glass has to have some sort of visual noise, something that alerts the birds to the presence of a surface instead of an opening,” Prince said.

This visual noise could be decorations such as hanging banners, cords, ribbons, or sunshades in front of the window. It could also be modifications to the window itself like window films, decals, etchings, or use of glass that isn’t as reflective or transparent. Further information on measures and products that can be used to make windows less susceptible to bird-window collisions can be found on the websites of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors and the American Bird Conservancy.

“We have the tools to make things safer for birds,” said Prince. “It’s just a question of people saying that it matters enough that we will do it.”

Migratory birds have been declining for decades and the lack of awareness of the importance of these options is a major setback in their use, said Pamela Rasmussen, an assistant professor in Michigan State University’s College of Natural Science.

“Everyone just wants nice shiny skyscrapers,” she said. “They have no idea what they’re doing to the bird population.”

Researchers are developing a glass with nanotechnology that birds can see but people can’t, she said.

Local ordinances could increase awareness. To make downtown Chicago safer for birds, Alderman Brian Hopkins introduced the Chicago Bird-Friendly Building Ordinance earlier this year.

It would limit the amount of transparent or reflective glass on the exterior of buildings and specify glass that provides visual noise in situations that are proven hazardous for birds. It would also limit the amount, location and timing of exterior lighting and reduce the interior lighting visible from outside for all newly constructed buildings and any buildings that undertake a major renovation. More information can be found at the bird-friendly Chicago website.

Representatives of the Illinois Environmental Council, American Bird Conservancy and the Lincoln Park Zoo recently testified in support of the measure, according to the Office of the City Clerk.

But high-rise buildings within large urban centers aren’t the only bird hazards out there.

“A skyscraper certainly will on average kill more birds than a single residential home,” Horton said. “But…if you sum up all of the mortality that happens at low-rise buildings it’s substantially more than what would happen at a city level.”

So consider turning that porch light out or making your security lights motion-activated. It might save more than just electricity costs.

Source

Pigeon Patrol

Canada’s top wholesaler for bird deterrent products for twelve consecutive years.

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Police investigate after peregrine falcon and pigeon killed in “cruel” trap in Co Tyrone

Filmmaker Michael Bay has been charged with killing a pigeon in Italy in 2018

Homing pigeon still missing after release from police custody

Pigeons begin returning to Mosul as militants retreat

Pigeons, Rats with Wings?

Chicago a bird death trap of glass and light

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