Sunday 22 June 2014

Man v Birds

On this planet human race is a dominant kind ; other species are no match . Since the time of Industrial Revolution , Homo Sapience have transformed lands and oceans in the name of progress . Wildlife retreats as a result of fast urbanisation ,extensive farming and pollution . That's well known fact . However , few species have adopted to this situation and even thrive well alongside us. Like rats or more recently , foxes moving to cities . And undoubtedly  birds , which learnt perfectly how to coexist with us , people . But I am not sure if those flying creatures are so welcome anymore . Unlike rats which are respectful towards people keeping  mainly off underground , birds have no respect whatsoever . Nowadays they are often consider as pests . For instance , I have heard stories how nasty could be flocks of starlings - large flying squadrons of these birds make such a noise , not to mention birds' droppings . In Rome the city council scares flocks of these little aerial acrobats emitting sounds of  birds of pray. Another example , seagulls venturing from the coastal areas - it seems they perfectly know where and when is a bin collection day , leaving mess around on early mornings .
Recently a woman in Glasgow who has been a victim of a sea gull's attack , sued an owner of the building for not removing  bird's nest from the roof .Having heard that news on the radio , I thought that Alfred Hitchcock creating his " Birds " had had to be inspired by similar stories .
On my daily route to my place I pass under two sets of bridges , where I observe a regular battle between man and birds. Between civilisation and intruding nature . All because of pigeons perching on the ledges , clinging wherever they can  . To prevent them from sitting there and leaving excrement , rows of iron spikes has been set  on ledges , street lamps .The underbelly of the old iron bridge has been covered with a new wire net , to keep birds away . Sometimes I could hear birds' flutter , trying to get through the net . The service maintaining the bridges did the best to repel pigeons .

All that measures don't seem to work however , as birds are very resilient . To my amazement when I was walking under the bridges recently , I saw a nest located directly on the lamp between prickles and pigeons calmly nesting . What an irony .