Jan 4
by Alex A. Kecskes
Not long ago, a Crescent Store in Leasingham, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, UK, burned to the ground, resulting in £250,000 of damage. When insurance investigators dug into the cause, they concluded that a sparrow picked up a smoldering cigarette butt and dropped it on its nest under the eaves. Investigators also found 35 cigarette butts in a number of sparrows’ nests in the roof.
Oct 31
If only the City Fathers had implemented effective bird proofing measures before their starling invasion. Chief among such measures would have been Bird Netting.
Oct 17
by Alex A. Kecskes
During a recent Indianapolis winter and spring, flocks of pest birds swooped down upon the city, dropping their “loads” on office windows, covering everything, it seemed, with brown splotches of disease-carrying droppings. Starlings by the thousands coated the city’s prized Soldiers and Sailors monument, as well as the sidewalks with droppings that crunched disgustingly under every pedestrian footfall. Many residents of the proud city were forced to remove their shoes before entering their homes, letting their shoes sit outside doorsteps and entrances, lest they contaminate their homes with the smelly droppings. For the most part, residents and visitors to the city found themselves tiptoeing around the droppings and holding their breath to avoid any of the 60 known diseases–including histoplasmosis or bird flu–carried by bird droppings.