<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Heidi,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)">A museum I used to work in had a similar issue with pigeons nesting on building ledges--in this case, made worse by an ornithology curator who was studying pigeons and who had taken steps to make the ledges more attractive, rather than less attractive, to the birds. There were large accumulations of pigeon droppings, old nests, feathers, and eggshells on the ledges. We were reluctant to use netting or spikes because of their appearance and because they tend to collect trash. In the course of investigating other cost-effective ways to make the pigeons go away, I found the results of a study of pigeon nests on buildings that reported that if reproduction in the population dipped below about 30% the flock was likely to move away. Armed with this information, we embarked on a series of measures beginning with cleaning all the pigeon nests from the ledges. In this case, the majority of the ledges used for nests were reachable from the windows on the upper floor of the building, so staff members could reach the new nests the birds were building with an implement and push them off the ledges. This strategy reduced nesting success among the flock and did encourage the birds to nest elsewhere and was successful in the long run as long as staff members routinely removed new nests.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)">--John</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">John E. Simmons<br>Museologica<br>128 E. Burnside Street<br>Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 16823-2010<br><a href="mailto:simmons.johne@gmail.com" target="_blank">simmons.johne@gmail.com</a><br>303-681-5708<br><a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.museologica.com&d=DwMFaQ&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=EIZmTPAk1jl-QKbrusCmpHpomaQqSJHUXElOaClYUy8&s=CO-XOEBCuO1XlJMG8o7nKN_6aaHyKNUrnbmHCIoH3_U&e=" target="_blank">www.museologica.com</a><br>and<br>Adjunct Curator of Collections<br>Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery<br>Penn State University<br>University Park, Pennsylvania<br>and<br>Instructor, Museum Studies<br>School of Library and Information Science<br>Kent State University<br></div></div></div></div></div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Aug 18, 2017 at 5:01 AM, Heidi Fourie <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:hfourie@ditsong.org.za" target="_blank">hfourie@ditsong.org.za</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div link="blue" vlink="purple" lang="EN-ZA"><div class="m_6644427472076623751WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal">Dear everyone,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">The Ditsong: National Museum of Natural History is an old building with wide window ledges. Recently we have noticed that the pigeons will nest, roost and sit on the ledges making a huge mess. Some of the ledges have spikes, but this is an even bigger attraction for the pigeons. The mess has become a problem as the pigeons now flock to this specific building. Our resident cats we think have enough mice and rats to contend with and the pigeons mostly stay up on the fourth floor roof or window ledges.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Is there a solution for this problem, please any advice will do.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Regards,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Heidi<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Dr H. Fourie (Curator)<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span>Karoo Section<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span>Vertebrate Department<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span>Ditsong: NMNH<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span>P.O. Box 413, Pta, 0001<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div></div><br>______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
Nhcoll-l mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Nhcoll-l@mailman.yale.edu">Nhcoll-l@mailman.yale.edu</a><br>
<a href="http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://mailman.yale.edu/<wbr>mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l</a><br>
<br>
______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of<br>
Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose<br>
mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of<br>
natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to<br>
society. See <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.spnhc.org&d=DwMFaQ&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=EIZmTPAk1jl-QKbrusCmpHpomaQqSJHUXElOaClYUy8&s=p_76G4SOinMmmVBsbkdZH_E0WlfQ9cni_Iucv76A8YM&e=" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.spnhc.org</a> for membership information.<br>
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.<br>
<br></blockquote></div><br></div>