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Re: The Birds!!!!

Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:59 am
by hobie16
Lasolimu wrote:Yeah, and here in Utah it's illegal to kill them. :mad:
Why don't they move?

Re: The Birds!!!!

Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 1:22 pm
by jerlove
Illegal in Ontario as well. Some of you may recall an incident many many years ago when Dave Windfield who played for the Yankees at the time threw a ball at a seagul and killed it.

The Blue Jays used to play at an old park down by Lake Ontario and the birds would just sworm the stadium and field. I am surprise more gulls were not killed by balls.

Re: The Birds!!!!

Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 1:59 pm
by delsdad
back in grade school we had fun dispatching seagulls with chemical"devices". A margarine tub, some calcium chloride, or perhaps it was magnesium, and rocks for ballast. I wont give the directions here, as its probably illegal in some jurisdictions! needles to say the curious seagulls had to check out the smoking plastic container. Just as they float up to it .... pop! Feathers everywhere! That was science class in the 70s! we made cannons with sodium metal as well! Loved that teacher ! He made chemistry fun!

I would love to see Disney use hawks or falcons to control the pigeon population. They nest on top of the towers near our city hall, and dine on the seagulls and pigeons that panhandle in the square.
The hawks almost eliminated the pigeon and squirrels from my street. A red tailed Hawk lives on the top of the 24 story apt building across the street from my house, and deals with the pigeons very effectively!

Could the birds of prey be trained to leave the ducks alone? Especially those with names !

Re: The Birds!!!!

Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 2:19 pm
by Shorty82
delsdad wrote:I would love to see Disney use hawks or falcons to control the pigeon population. They nest on top of the towers near our city hall, and dine on the seagulls and pigeons that panhandle in the square.
The hawks almost eliminated the pigeon and squirrels from my street. A red tailed Hawk lives on the top of the 24 story apt building across the street from my house, and deals with the pigeons very effectively!

Could the birds of prey be trained to leave the ducks alone? Especially those with names !
There are a few birds of prey around WDW, at least I've seen hawks once or twice. I've never seen them go after the seagulls before though, probably because they are afraid of the people. That, and seagulls are only a problem a short time a year so by the time a birds of prey population got used to eating gulls the gulls would be gone.

I know that occasionally when the gulls get really bad in an area of a park they play a recording of seagull distress calls over the PA to scare them away. If people would just stop feeding the damn birds there wouldn't be nearly such a problem with nuisance birds.

I heard a story one time about how Disney used to release trained pigeons at, I want to say, the Flag Retreat Ceremony. They were trained to fly back to their cages near the castle. It didn't take long for the local bird of prey population to figure out how to get an easy meal. When the birds of prey started taking down the pigeons directly over the heads of guests Disney stopped the releases.

Re: The Birds!!!!

Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 3:07 pm
by drcorey
Sounds like the introduction of the cats to control the rodents getting into all the food and supply areas. now the cats are best friends with the rodents. I have even seen kittens come out of the bushes to beg for food. sometimes near the water ways you can see a poor dead rat or mouse who didn't make it to the other side.

Re: The Birds!!!!

Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 8:35 pm
by joanna71985
Shorty82 wrote: I heard a story one time about how Disney used to release trained pigeons at, I want to say, the Flag Retreat Ceremony. They were trained to fly back to their cages near the castle. It didn't take long for the local bird of prey population to figure out how to get an easy meal. When the birds of prey started taking down the pigeons directly over the heads of guests Disney stopped the releases.
I heard that too (but I heard the release was at the Beauty and the Beast show at DHS).

Re: The Birds!!!!

Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:58 pm
by turkeyham
The crows are bad at DL too. Wait around 5:30 pm. If you don't have an umbrella, watch out! :eek:

Re: The Birds!!!!

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 1:13 am
by dazyhill
drcorey wrote:Sounds like the introduction of the cats to control the rodents getting into all the food and supply areas. now the cats are best friends with the rodents. I have even seen kittens come out of the bushes to beg for food. sometimes near the water ways you can see a poor dead rat or mouse who didn't make it to the other side.
I mentioned this in another thread, but at Hungry Bear (DL) a few weeks ago, I observed two long-haired cats approaching a guest's table. The SG's proceeded to feed one of the cats their lunchmeat from their sandwich and I think chicken.
That bothered me and telling the guests that the cats were feral and shouldn't be fed went nowhere. (No English) I told City Hall what happened and my concerns that someone could get bit or one of the cats could be fed something that was toxic to them. Hopefully someone takes it seriously.

Re: The Birds!!!!

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 2:37 am
by Main Streeter
turkeyham wrote:The crows are bad at DL too. Wait around 5:30 pm. If you don't have an umbrella, watch out! :eek:
They never bother me. :cool: Have not heard this one. I'll have to ask DLS Officer Chuck. You sure we work at the same park?? :D:

Re: The Birds!!!!

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:45 am
by Shorty82
Main Streeter wrote:They never bother me. :cool: Have not heard this one. I'll have to ask DLS Officer Chuck. You sure we work at the same park?? :D:
I bet they go after the turkey legs she sells.