Feathered Rats

They periodically take care of the pigeons in Civic.

You don’t hear about it because if the ACT Government made a song and dance about gassing pigeons the lunatic feral animal liberationists would get even more revolting than they are normally.

troll-sniffer said :

A lofty ideal but totally impractical for more reasons that you can poke a feather at. If the inner part of a city was suitable for a wide-ranging falcon, they would probably have moved in by now.

Next?

There’s a pair living in Brisbane. They are quite the celebrities.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/extras/frodocam/default.htm

The idea of introducing the falcon for pigeon control will not work. The Peregrine Falcon have a relatively low natural population density owing to their rigorous defense of territory ( I think it’s around 2 km min. distance, could be wrong). If you were to introduce six birds (3 pairs), two would be forced away in the process of a breeding pair establishing territory, thus would contribute nothing to the pigeon control. While pigeon would form a substantial part of the pairs diet, it would hardly be enough to make any markable impact in the population. There was a Peregrine Falcon that hung around Vernon Circle, and I presume roosted at Rydges (not sure if he is still there as I have not been there in about 18 months) So it could be assumed that this territory has been filled.

The use of falconry to control pigeons has been used as part of a integrated control program. It alone is not a fix all, and like everything, it has its pros and cons.

Adequate control will require many different methods. Ask old uncle google about how London got rid of the pigeon in Trafalgar Square, makes for interesting reading if that’s your thing.

Anyways I was chatting to the bloke and just making small talk I asked were they going to re release them somewhere in the bush. He said no mate – we just put them in that box and gas them! Well at least they weren’t using poison which is the least humane of all. Talk about not messing around, I am not a greenie but offing the mongrels like that is a bit far maybe?

Nah, euthanasia using carbon monoxide is the recommended practice. Painless as the CO will lead to unconsciousness before death and it is quite quick at about 5% concentration.

A few pigeons aint a problem ya homicidal maniac. A lot are though. Being a tradie I recently had a bit to do with the Old Canberra Powerhouse (the glassworks) cafe small pavillion upgrade in Kingston. I noticed that they had an absolute colony of pigeons living on the roof of that building and the gutters were blocked full of pigeon excrement. The stench on the worksite of that building was so bad, the soil was basically pigeon poo. The glassworks wanted a bird stopper electric fence on the roof. Upon commisioning I noticed they hadn’t plugged it in yet, so they called some exterminators to help with the problem. They put this horrible cage on the roof that contained wheat and water, it was a one way trap and would catch up to 100 pigeons in it and they would just sit in the cage once trapped and not fight. The pigeon control people rocked up and pulled the horrible cage off the roof and put the whole thing into a sealed box on the back of his ute. He then turned on a tap of sorts on the side of the ute. Anyways I was chatting to the bloke and just making small talk I asked were they going to re release them somewhere in the bush. He said no mate – we just put them in that box and gas them! Well at least they weren’t using poison which is the least humane of all. Talk about not messing around, I am not a greenie but offing the mongrels like that is a bit far maybe?

I bet he took all the gold teeth and rifled through their clothing first!

Exactly what deadly disease/s do the birds carry?

Why isn’t every second office worker/seagull in Civic dying from said disease/s?

What about racing pigeons and doves that people keep to release on ceremonial occasions?

If you have a bunch of filthy, diseased pigeons, and you feed them to a bunch of falcons, will you not then have a bunch of diseased falcons?

trevar said :

I’d love to see a falcon or two in Civic… is their biological name falconus fordus?

or falconus gthous?

niftydog said :

troll-sniffer – I think the method Johnny is referring to involves trained falcons and handlers. Once the pest birds see a few of their buddies taken out by a hungry predator they all clear out.

Using Falconers and trained birds is an (expensive) option, however, the Falcons natural behaviour is to take other birds mid-air. Once introduced to the area, and they realise their is a substantial food supply available, they will probably stay in the area.

troll-sniffer – I think the method Johnny is referring to involves trained falcons and handlers. Once the pest birds see a few of their buddies taken out by a hungry predator they all clear out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgCsav-_zlw

just hire these guys and be done with it.