It is war in the skies as hawks swoop to rid Belfast of pigeon pests. (Courtesy of the Belfast Telegraph)
13th January 2009
Swooping birds of prey could become a familiar sight in Belfast City Centre if an innovative pest control scheme takes off.
Stephen Mulholland has just launched a new pest control business using falconry to deter the feral pigeons that plague the city streets and leave their droppings on Belfast's finest old buildings.
Stephen set up the Irish branch of the UK's largest falconry franchise, NBC Bird and Pest Solutions, which tackles the problem of nuisance birds everywhere from city centres to historical buildings and landfill sites.
"The birds of prey don't hunt the birds. They will just fly up to a roof and sit there and just their presence will scare the pigeons off- it's amazing", Richard says
"We can use our hawks in the city centre, in industrial estates, landfill sites, all over. Business people don't want to have their buildings pooed on!".
"A lot of people aren't sure because they've never seen the birds in action, so we are offering Fermanagh District Council a three day trial to show them what can be done at their landfill site." Richard says.
Gulls and crows can be a huge problem at landfill sites as they mob the workers in their hundreds he says
The birds think it belongs to them and that the people are intruding. There are hundreds of gulls and they go down and attack the workers."
"They shouldn't be in built up areas. Really we are inviting them in with our bad habits of throwing food down for them.
Richard also carries out other forms of humane bird control and has already cleared out a number of pigeon infestations in properties on behalf of estate agents.
"The pigeons get in the flats and make a terrible mess and we go and clean it up for them," Ricahrd says.
"We also use a lot of alternative methods that don't involve hurting the birds. You can use bird-proof spikes, which are little prongs set at a 45- degree angle on the ledge or windows where they sit - they can't get a foot in to land and it makes them fly off somewhere else.
"You could also use netting which can be seen on the statues and dome of Belfast City Hall, for example.
Just in case of any mishaps the birds are fitted with telemetry tracking system that can keep tabs on them within a 30 -40 mile radius. The hawks and falcons are becoming a familiar sight around Bangor where Jay trains them to fly in a built -up environments.
"We can fly the hawks, but not the falcons, from the ground but in city centres you can fly falcons from the roof," he adds.
"It turns heads and creates a lot of interest - I took a walk down Bangor seafront for training with birds and the amount of people coming up to me is unreal."
Find out more about NBC Bird and Pest Solutions' bird scaring services.
