All posts in “birds”

Liberty Wildlife and all the great things they do?

Dedicated to serving our wildlife friends:

Liberty Wildlife is committed to nurturing the nature of Arizona by providing quality wildlife rehabilitation, environmental education, and conservation services for the community.

Liberty Wildlife envision a time when wildlife is recognized as an integral part of our natural world, and a precious natural resource, to be protected and preserved.

They envision being a permanent community resource, a place to instill compassion and stewardship in young minds and a place to reconnect the public with the beauty and benefits of native wildlife and habitat.

They envision a time when the community as a whole participates in the safekeeping of the natural world.

To nurture the nature of Arizona through wildlife rehabilitation, natural history education and conservation services to the community.

How can you help – Liberty donate please to a great cause

 

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Liberty Wildlife

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Liberty

Max Bessler with an Bald Eagle

DIY home repairs , do it right…

DIY home repairs –

In DIY home repairs – don’t use chicken wire, spend the time and do it right with hardware cloth. Or better yet give ProBest Pest Management a call and have us do the the job correctly. The nice thing about hardware cloth is that it can be bent into angles which looks 100% better than chicken wire.  Also I suggest the metal bird spikes, the plastic fades and weathers. Just a few tips to point you in the right direction.

Also just think about the height of the job, should you really be up there? I don’t do roofs… anymore.

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Front door wreaths and the birds

2014-06-12 08.14.40I really thought thought this was cute, the bird thinking that the wreath was indeed nature decided to make it’s nest.

Lucky for the dove the owner decided to let nature takes its course.

Not all birds and or people are so forgiving, pigeons will roost and nest anywhere. Pigeons will lay eggs, poop and allow dead chicks to inhabit their old nesting. While this scene above may be cute, don’t allow birds to nest in attics. The amount of fecal material and the parasites may cause real issues within a home.

  1. Check entry point from outside, check those louvered vents.
  2. Check weep screens which allow attics to breath.
  3. If you have a/c on roof, enclose the bottom.
  4. Check chimney for screening.

Did you know that rodent teeth continue to grow?

This story is from Grant County, Washington and just highlights the need to understand rodents. I have on occasion had people tell me “I don’t care if I have rodents or birds in my attic”. “I don’t care if they are under my crawlspace, they are not bothering me”. Well maybe not today but how about tomorrow? What happens when they leave, what parasites do they leave behind? What damage can be done to the structure? “911 outage in Grant County possible caused by rodents

  1. Rodents incisor teeth continue to grow and they need to keep them in check.
  2. Fleas, ticks and other critters make their homes in the nest or on the bodies of wildlife.
  3. Animals/wildlife seek shelter within our homes but it is very important to keep them out. They produce feces, urine and other bodily secretions daily – you don’t want or need them in your home.
  4. Mice urinate almost continuously, if this becomes airborne you have the chance to breath it in. This is how Hanta Virus is spread.

Home-sealing is a key to keeping them out.

StormShield

Pigeons

probestpestmanagementDSC05903   So you did the work and excluded those pigeons but wait they are still hanging out. Annoying? Yes it is.

 

Sometimes they just won’t move and the second part of the battle begins. May I suggest a tube of PIGNX, designed to get on their feet and they won’t like it much.

I think of it similar to when we get Super Glue on our fingers, that stuff won’t come off and it is very annoying. Isn’t it?

Some one called me late to the party, what’s going on with the pigeons?

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The first thing I noticed beside the number of pigeons was all the mess on the garage door. I was sure what was going on but they were pretty content just hanging out in this community. What can you do to keep the population of pigeons down in your neighborhood?

  1. Obviously #1 would be not to feed or encourage them.
  2. Keep nesting sites unavailable to them, this would include hardware cloth and spikes if necessary.
  3. Stationary owls don’t work, they become accustom to the devices.
  4. Poisoning is not the answer. I’ve heard of people throwing mothballs into their nesting areas, this could be extremely dangerous to other critters and children.

All the talk about Ebola, what are the most dangerous viruses?

 

With all the talk about Ebola this last month DW author (Helena Schwar)website wrote a very interesting article “Top 10 most dangerous viruses in the world“.

#3 Hantavirus – rodents

#5 Lassa virus – rodents

#7 Crimea-Congo fever – ticks

#8 Machupo virus – may be transmitted by rodents

#9 Kyasanur Fiorest virus – ticks

#10 – Dengue fever – mosquitoes

 

So do you see a pattern here, I do and its related to my job – Public Health Professional. We are very fortunate here in the U.S., we don’t have as many issues with these pests as some countries do. So stop and think about what we could do to protect ourselves even further against these deadly viruses.

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Pesky pigeons…

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Tips for control:

  1. When excluding for pigeons consider the entire resting or roosting area.
  2. Hardware cloth is best, chicken wire doesn’t look nice. By the way you can spray paint hardware cloth.
  3. Remove all the nesting materials.
  4. Clean as much as possible.

 

Birds and their damage.

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So you just noticed that birds or something is getting into your attic, well if you ignore it maybe it will just go away? Probably not, but even if you fix the problem that might not be the end of it. Birds, critters or even pests can cause other problems. The animals might have parasites and once you get rid of them the parasites might come down from the attic looking for food. That might be you!

So one of my suggestions would be to do periodic checks of your property, look up and down. Look for openings or rub marks (like the picture on the right), or for feces buildup on your home (left picture). My recommendation is to do monthly or at the very least quarterly checks of your property.

It’s not always about the Scorpions, how about visiting Arizona? Organ Pipe and Ft Huachuca

Organ Pipe National Park and Ft Huachuca

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First off these places are a distance to get to especially from Phoenix, so plan on spending some time out. Just a guess but it also is over a hundred miles apart.

To the local Native Americans, the land of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was an important cultural center. Hohokam trade routes bisect what is now the monument, and allowed for ease of movement through the Sonoran Desert as people looked to acquire resources and trade with neighboring cultures. To the O’Odham people, the fruits of saguaro and organ pipe cactus provided food during the hot Sonoran summer.

Here is a  list of animals you might be lucky enough to see includes:

  • Mountain Lion,
  • Mule Deer,
  • White-tailed Deer,
  • Desert Bighorn,
  • Sonoran Pronghorn,
  • Javelina,
  • Lesser Long Nosed Bat,
  • Coyote,
  • Jackrabbit,
  • Kangaroo Rat,
  • Packrat,
  • Quitobaquito pupfish,
  • more bird species than can be listed and
  • several species of reptiles, including Rattlesnakes.

Fort Huachuca, constructed in 1877, was one of a chain of forts established to guard southern Arizona against the Chiricahua Apaches, led by Geronimo.

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