The Bird Deterrent Saga, part 1: Trial and Error

Remember the persistent bird nesting problems on the mill site? Though stories like the canny pigeon that nailed three utility workers (with one white shot!) are always good for a laugh, bird droppings and bird infestations are potential sources of bacteria and other illnesses for exposed workers. In all seriousness, a“Pigeon Dropping Cleanup” policy was invoked, but a more permanent solution was necessary.

Since the installation of the Pest Bird Management Plan, the pest bird problem has been greatly reduced, especially on the roof of the paper machines. Supporters of the Management Plan, confirm this. “Although there are pockets of resistance from some of the birds, I believe the program has been a huge success. A couple of years ago there were over a hundred pairs of seagulls nesting on the roofs of the paper machines, whereas last year there were none. This was accomplished without harming a single bird.” Suppoerter X also commented that “as far as the pigeons go (technically Rock Doves) there are far fewer of them on site than in the past”.

So, how did this come about? Many solutions were researched, and more than one was given a trial run. An especially interesting trial included a trained falcon. Professional Z of Bird Deterrent Company Z, a rival but appreciative bird deterrent consulting company, happily recounted the tale.

“It goes like this . . . indeed the falconer had some concerns that his bird would be challenged by the noise and steam clouds around the mill. Falcons are used in the control of pigeons exclusively and the pigeon is a very adaptive flyer. Everyone should take the time to stop and watch these birds and their acrobatics. So, the falcon is released to ‘fly at the pigeons’ . . . but as luck would have it, one of the mills many steam clouds erupted and so thoroughly spooked the poor falcon that it took off for horizon.

“In the sport of Falconry, this most noble bird of prey is at the top of the pyramid of raptors. As such it is a very valuable bird to the owners, and it takes many years of training and care to train a raptor to fly at prey and return. Part of that training is the "imprinting" that is done on the human-raised baby falcon. Since the human provides the food from moment the baby bird begins to eat, the baby birds are trained to believe that the human is their parent bird. This ‘imprinting’. . . is why a mature falcon or raptor (there is a difference) will return to the glove of its owner.

“So back to our frightened falcon which has done a ‘horizon job’ at Crofton. The falcons are generally outfitted with radio transmitters, which enable the owners to track them. This done because hunting falcons fly very high and are often out of sight. The radio transmitter allows the owner to drive along the ground, staying in the general area of the bird as it flies. In the case of the scared falcon, that bird went to ground several hours later. Because he was in unfamiliar territory and was not too hungry, he just sat in a high tree getting reoriented. After a time a falcon will get hungry and begin to hunt. The bird’s owner needed to find the falcon before it begins to successfully feed itself. The one fear the owner of any raptor or falcon has is that a trained and imprinted bird could go ‘wild’ if it were to begin to feed itself, therefore replacing the human as its primary food source. With the aid of the radio transmitter, the bird was found in time . . . three days later.”

Needless to say, the falconer was not eager to repeat the experience. Another solution to the mill site pest birds would have to be found.