Scary risk of pigeon damage
Chris Rowsell, Syngenta Technical Lead This season’s small and backward oilseed rape crops will be especially vulnerable to pigeon attacks. As weather conditions cool, larger flocks of marauding pigeons will gather. A combination of audible and visual bird scarers, along with the activities of shooters, will be crucial to keep birds on the move and to protect growing points from feeding damage.
Top Tips To minimise the disruption to neighbours it is recommended that gas guns, howlers and other audible scarers are operated in accordance with the National Farmers Union Code of Practice for the use of bird scarers, along with the following hints and tips:
Use visual deterrents where noise may be an issue. Preferably locate audible devices at least 200 metres from sensitive buildings, including homes, schools and occupied buildings.
Varying the pattern of gas gun shots through the day can help to reduce impact on neighbours and maximise the effect on pigeons, compared to regular repetitive firing.
Where practical, point the gas guns away from buildings. Take account of prevailing wind direction and landscape features that can direct sound.
Set audible device timers to avoid coming on before 7.00am when close to occupied buildings, or before 6.00am elsewhere. Use a visual deterrent if pigeon activity is occurring before these times. The timer should be set to fire no later than 10.00pm, or at sunset if earlier.
Use baffles of straw bales or tin sheets to direct sound away from buildings. This technique can also help magnify sound across the field where it will have greatest effect.
Avoid placing an audible scarer alongside a right of way. Place temporary signs warning riders of a gas gun in use when close to bridleways.
Download the ‘Bird Scarers Code of Practice’ from the NFU website: www.nfuonline.com
Focus gas gun firing on pigeon flight times Oilseed rape growers could save up to 30% on the operating costs of gas guns and minimise conflict with neighbours by focussing firing patterns on periods of peak pigeon activity. Pigeon shooting experts highlight key flight times are in the morning, early afternoon and before dusk; outside these times there is typically less movement of birds – which gives the opportunity to extend gas gun firing periods.
More sophisticated variable timers on modern gas guns, such as the Techneat Vari-Scary, enables growers to alter the frequency of firing within set time slots. This can concentrate deterrent on periods of intense pigeon activity, but reduce or even switch off firing when the risk is low.
Peter Theobald, pigeon shooting expert with Sporting Gun magazine, highlights that, with 16-hour long winter nights, pigeons are ravenous first thing in the morning and quickly move onto fields from roosting woods. Similarly, with the prospect of the long night, they will always aim to fill their crops shortly before going to roost. For the pigeon shooter it makes for some short, but intense and immensely entertaining periods. For growers, if they can keep the marauding flocks moving on first thing in the morning, and then prevent them coming back in from 2.00 to 4.00pm in the afternoon, there is the real opportunity to minimise damage. With a variable clock timer, growers can concentrate firing during early flight and again later in the afternoon, with less intense activity during the middle of the day. The combination of modern gas guns that are more economic with gas use and the option to alter the firing pattern could add up to savings of 30% in costs.
Combining gas guns with visual deterrents gives greater flexibility for pigeon scaring.
Furthermore, if the gas gun timer has a seven-day pre-programmer with complete periods without firing, growers can introduce a ‘Silent Sunday’ option. This serves to further avoid the pigeon population’s desensitisation to gas guns and helps maintain good relations with local community. To help with appropriate in-field location of gas guns, growers can use the Defra-sponsored ‘Magic’ internet mapping service to view field maps on a 1:5000 scale, and use the map tools measure to calculate precisely the distance from a gas gun to neighbouring houses or footpaths. The Magic website map can be viewed at: www.magic.gov.uk/website/magic/
Snow cover Growers must be extra vigilant for pigeon damage on forward crops during periods of snowy weather over the winter. If one crop is larger and stands proud of the snow when others around are covered, it will be targeted by the entire pigeon population and could be decimated in just a day or two. Bird scaring devices should be moved into the vulnerable fields when the risk occurs, but back onto more susceptible small crops when snow melts. Systems are designed to be light and easily portable are useful to tackle pigeon hotspots quickly and effectively.