An eagle called Guido patrols The Shard to scare off seagulls, or any other winged creatures who try to make the skyscraper a nest site.
The seven-year-old Chilean Blue Eagle is acting as an environmentally friendly pest control at the UK’s tallest building, in central London.
One place I’ve had an office just had kestrels nesting on it. Got the job done for free….
I wonder if Guido was brought in to deter any future free-climbers?
Chilean Blue, squire ? Beautiful plumage.
I was stood on one of the tees at the golf club recently when I heard a loud bird call I hadn’t heard before. It turned out to be a little speaker that was playing the sound of a Harris’s Hawk. Apparently its one of the few birds that really scares crows and magpies.
I’d be rather surprised if that worked, BiND, as they aren’t indigenous to the UK, so although they are widely used in the falconry hobby, there’d be little to no ‘ancestral memory’ of their calls in our native corvid species.
Yes, Ottokring, a beautiful bird and very much a ‘pocket eagle’ size ideal for city work.
” Sparrowhawks, Ma’am “
Good point, Julia. I took someone’s word as he sounded knowledgeable, maybe he was using the old military adage that if you’re going to talk bullshit talk it confidently.
“An eagle called Guido patrols The Shard to scare off seagulls, or any other winged creatures who try to make the skyscraper a nest site.”
While at street level, a grizzly bear called Rocky keeps the doorways free from rough sleepers.
Many years ago, a bloke used to come into Liverpool Street station with an eagle of some description to sort out the pigeons.
Personally, I’ve found that clapping my hands in the garden every morning keeps the elephants away.
The big radio telescope at Jodrell Bank has a recess in each tower to encourage birds of prey to nest there.
Over here in South Kensington, we have a pair of Peregrine Falcons in residence on top of the Cromwell Road, Holiday Inn.
The pigeons are not happy.
@Addolff
They used to do this at the British Car Auctions site near Blackbushe airport to discourage the pigeons that were crapping on the cars.
Mr Womby
What about the elephants crapping on the cars ?
Horses for courses. Peregrines are ideal for pigeons but a lot of gulls are big bastards and consequently need more … discouragement.
Is it me or do the seagulls seem to be growing every year.
The one’s up in Perth are the size of dogs nowadays.
Pretty sure they never used to be this large.
When they sit on top of the new led lamposts the posts sway with the weight of the fat buggers.
John Galt.
You should see the gulls in Aberdeen then.
Herring gulls are big enough, but are upstaged by the Greater black backed, wingspan up to 1.6 mtrs, and there’s more than a few frequenting the area
( Though I do believe the ubiquitous wheels bin has cut their food supply somewhat)
@Nessimmersion – I can vouch for that. In the 1990s and 2000s I was frequent traveller / hotel stayer in Aberdeen on my way to the Northern Isles and the seagulls in Aberdeen were the noisiest, biggest, messiest and nastiest I’d ever seen. I can imagine the introduction of wheelie bins would have pissed them off royally.
@Nessimmersion –
Yup, those are the buggers flying all around me in Perth, big as dogs they are with a huge wingspan. They are quite partial to whole pigeon as well as garbage bags. The local flying rat population is terrified of them and has taken to living under the railway bridge where they have some protection from them.
The Black-headed gull which also favours the park at South Inch are tiny by comparison.
I think this provides an excu^H^H^H opportunity for me to trot out this classic story:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43632914
Vaguely on topic – me and a colleague had to do a review of a company that hired out Birds and their handlers to do what the eagle does . They operated all over the uk mainly in shopping centres and the like. The review continued after the owner who had been interviewed left the office, so we could review his records in peace. Throughout all this which lasted several hours a bloody great eagle owl about 2 foot tall sat on its perch in the corner. the owner said don’t worry about what ever it’s name was – he’s harmless. Can’t say i was reassured given the size of the claws on the damn thing. I was certainly glad to finish that visit, though it did mean having to survive the car journey back to the office in my colleagues car. Once in the car he drove like a maniac – he had no patience whatsover and if he wasn’t shouting at other roadusers he was overtaking them recklessly. I miss Iain (he died last year) but I dont miss being a passenger in his car.
Chap from local Owl Sanctuary used to come to town centre with his eagle owl. Gorgeous bird. He said that as a species they are very docile but difficult to train because they are really thick.
@ Otto
Not many elephants in Hampshire.
@ Otto
Not many elephants in Hampshire.
See, it works…