Meet Rosie, the dashing Harris Hawk, who swoops down on St John's Wood Park every week to send pigeons packing from the private Queensmead development.

Rosie would be silent and deadly if it wasn't for the little bell attached to her ankle and the fact that she is highly trained to deter and not to kill pigeons.

Her master, Wayne Parsons, keeps her piled high with "Mousey" morsels from a leather pouch. Mr Parsons and Rosie, native to South America, Work for Van Vynck Environmental a pest control company that deploys birds of prey around London.

Heathman can't think of a more attractive and interesting alternative to the dreaded pigeon netting.

This prestigious street in the heart of Knightsbridge is a perfect area for pigeons, it is a busy area lined with restaurants and bars that provide ample food for the pigeons.

Thankfully the Van Vynck bird control team are now on hand with their trusted Harris Hawks to clear the pigeons.

Working together with GVA Grimley this site in kent will have a pigeon free site.

We are working in partnership with GVA Grimley to service an office building in Clifford Street.

The building in central london poses lots of oportunities for pest control issues, but with our team no job is too small.

We are now servicing this site for general pest control as of 16/09/2011.

Working together with Fifthstreet Management Limited.

At Van Vynck we always carry out a free site survey of the sites...Not only for the best recommendations for our clients but also to see if this is a safe working environment for our staff.

From the survey it was clear that the population of feral pigeons is not only healthy in the immediate area but also extremely well established. This has resulted in roosting occurring on all three blocks as the location is ideal for town centre feeding.

There are significant levels of fouling below well used roosts and large numbers were present during the survey indicating a food source close to these roosting areas. This is corroborated by the condition of the birds present which again points to close and substantial food source generated I suspect by perpetual feeders both intentional and unintentional.

Attempts at bird proofing measures have been made in the worst affected areas however this has merely displaced the problem onto neighbouring features. In locations where food is readily available close to the point where roosting is also occurring displacement over any real distance is extremely difficult. Feral pigeons will put up with almost anything to remain in a location suitable for roosting as well as feeding and therefore to have any noticeable level of success any management program must start with a reduction by culling of flock numbers.

This should be carried out over a finite period to avoid a vacuum effect and should be followed by a displacement program designed to have a short term impact but should be ongoing to allow for long term sustainable results.

At Van Vynck we recommend to therefore allow for a program of trapping aimed at reducing flock size followed by the introduction of a bird control hawking program carried out over two levels of specification. The first to provide quick noticeable results and the second to maintain these results.

The client went with these recomendations and is very pleased with the results.

The Orsett Show began life as "The Orsett Agricultural Association and Labourers' Friend Society" in 1841, and started very simply as a ploughing match. When the squire of the village Mr R. B. Wingfield died in 1880, the show died with him.

In 1895, the new squire Captain T. C. Douglas Whitmore and his son Francis revived the Orsett Show and started the "Orsett and District Cottage Garden and Agricultural Society". The Show was held in the park at Orsett Hall and continued to prosper until the outbreak of the First World War.

The show was restarted on the 13th September 1919, when classes for vegetables and horses in the Grand Ring were introduced.

The 1939 Show was due to take place on Wednesday September 3rd, but was once again disrupted by war, which had been declared three days earlier.

On Wednesday 4th September 1946 the Show once again returned, with Horse and Pig sections in addition to the Horticultural Show. 1947 saw the introduction of an Agricultural section, the return of Cattle Classes and a record attendance of 7,000. In 1949 the Show changed to a Saturday, and introduced a Fur and Feather section.

In 1968 the Orsett Estate was sold and Sir John Whitmore left Orsett Hall, resigning the presidency which had been in the family since 1895. In the following years, the land at Orsett Hall was sold and new site in Rectory Road Orsett was acquired by Orsett Show Ground Limited to provide the Show with a permanent Show Ground and its regular date of 'The First Saturday In September'.

The Orsett Show always takes place on the first Saturday in September. The show is Saturday 3rd September, 2011 from 9am - 6pm.

• Start Date: 20/06/2011
• Site Address: Milton Keynes

The site has a abundance of features attractive to feral pigeons interms of evening and daytime roosting.

There is a food source present at this site including large amounts of dough being deposited in large skips and crumbs being spilled which in turn attracts pigeons to forage onsite. Also the busy loading areas have plenty of surface areas for roosting pigeons.

It is worth considering that even a small number of feral pigeons present on site with food available will breed at a prolific rate during and prolonged warm or dry spells boosting existing numbers at an extraordinary rate.

We have been using the Harris Hawk to deter pigeons on site and all is going well.

Site: Harlinghton Upper School Duntstable Bedfordshire

We are working with Galliford Try at this site.

We do not consider physical deterrents or proof measures as a viable solution at this site. The problem is the amount of suitable areas available. The reliance on proof measures alone in such circumstances results in the displacement of pigeons from one area to another on the same site without ever resolving the issue.

The remote location of the site with the presence of pigeons during the day suggests to me that food is available on site or likely to be found fairly close by. In locations where food is readily available close to the point where roosting is also occurring displacement over any real distant is extremely difficult.

Feral pigeons will put up with almost anything to remain in a location suitable for roosting as well as feeding and therefore to have any noticeable level of success with proofing out the problem then either the food source must be eliminated or all available roosting areas must be comprehensively proofed. In our opinion there is little chance of success on either of these two issues.

Our recommendations were designed to offer a preventative approach to this problem and provide ongoing control measures.

We are confident that an ongoing and partly preventative method of control involving falconry is the most suitable and likely to succeed.

This site was also visited by the Van Vynck Proofing and cleaning team Bird fouling presents a serious health risk to those working and studying within the school once the falcory treatment was up and running our team removed and disposed of thefouling treating all areas with the necessary biocides to make the site safe again.

The site has been plagued by pigeons which have caused a significant amount of fouling. Pigeon excrement poses a serious health risk as it often harbours insects and diseases such as Listeriosis, Paratyphoid, Salmonellosis and Tuberculosis.

The main service road within the estate is lined with mature trees and there is evidence to suggest that the trees provide a permanent evening roost for a significant population of Wood pigeons due to the levels of fouling present below the trees.

Van Vynck's bird control team has been commissioned to visit the site regularly with a Harris Hawk to keep roosting pigeons at bay and in turn lower the amount of fouling on site.

Completed in 2001 the premises provide over 150,000 square feet of high-quality office space.

Van Vynck previously serviced the Great Burgh site in Epsom, Surrey in 2009 and are delighted to have been selected once again to provide bird control services to deter pigeons from roosting at the site.

The bird control team visit the site on a regular basis and use Falconry to unsettle the resident roosting pigeons and are working towards the ultimate aim of eradicating roosting pigeons from the site.

The Legg Street building was erected in 1991 and is located in the town centre, a short 5 minute walk from Chelmsford railway station. The building provides flexible office space for a number of companies.

This site has many bird problems including nesting herring gulls on the main roof, badly constructed bird proof measures allowing pigeons to access proofed areas and roost causing huge amounts of mess. Van Vynck have been tasked with resolving these problems.

Van Vynck's bird control team are addressing these problems by employing several of their services. These include upgrading the existing bird proofing measures, utilising falconry to upset the nuisance birds normal roosting and nesting patterns and cleaning to remove hazardous and unsightly guano.

Dale Rutter and Pete Garner find an ancient art thriving in an urban setting.

Throughout history, man has had a paradoxical relationship with birds of prey – symbols of power, efficient competitors for game and esteemed hunting partners for peasants and princes alike. In our modern world these paradoxes persist.

While fewer of us now live in the countryside, fewer still work there and fewer again earn their keep by working with animals.

David Van Vynck, a thirty-year-old falconer from Orsett, Essex, is in exception, for he has adapted the ancient art of falconry into a successful business started by his father, Alan, 15 years ago. Not with peregrine falcons searing through the sky over heather clad hillsides in pursuit of grouse or with goshawks exploding out of woodland in pursuit of pheasants and rabbits. David’s business, ‘Van Vynck Pest Control’ specialises in bird control in challenging urban environments.

David’s team of six falconers and Harris hawks concentrates on cleaning feral pigeons from a wide variety of locations and buildings in London and other major cities. Significant and prestigious locations include the National Gallery, Victoria and Paddington Stations, BBC and Channel 4 offices to name but a few. While tourists enjoy feeding pigeons in Trafalgar Square and London’s parks and gardens, the droppings, which the birds leave behind them, are less attractive, especially to property owners. Furthermore, feral pigeons can and do carry a variety of harmful and unpleasant diseases including Salmonella, Ornithosis, Histoplasmosis and Cryptococcosis.

Because of their intelligence and flexibility, Harris hawks are the most suitable hawk for this challenging work explains David and Chris Jordan, falconer and, incidentally, slip Steward to the North Herts Coursing Club. The origins of the bird control business lay in the scattering of sparrows from a bakery in Basildon, Essex with a sparrow hawk.

However, that was before Harris hawks from the New World were widely available in the Uk. While Harris hawks are less difficult to train they do have to be ‘manned’ and made ‘steady’ to a very high degree. They must also be worked at hunting weights equivalent to the body weights at which they might be flown at ground game such as rabbits and hares. However, David and his team do not use their bird clearance hawks for hunting or their hunting hawks for bird clearance work.

Interestingly the hawks that earn their keep through out the year by clearing unwanted pests tend to get more flying time than their hunting cousins. Indeed, seeing David and Chris’s hawks respond instantly to their recall whistle betrays many hours of training. Once ‘manned’ and trained the hawks are introduced to quieter roof top locations and gradually flown in more demanding environments.

The company’s success, David suggests, has come because thought is given to why pigeons are using a particular site. He points out that pigeons use a location for three reasons: roosting, nesting and feeding. Once the reason for the pigeons’ presence has been ascertained an ariel campaign with falconers and Harris Hawks can be undertaken. The objective is not to catch the pigeons but to move them on, break up large flocks and interrupt their breeding cycle. This can take place in any month, for some pigeons rear up to four broods a year.

Typically a site is visited daily for several weeks and thereafter once or twice a week to keep the pigeons on their toes.

Like anyone working with wildlife and animals the clock is governed by them. Work rotas for the team of falconer’s starts at 5am prompt. Roosting birds need to be tackled at dawn and dusk as they arrive at or leave their roost sites. Feeding sites are more usually covered during the middle of the day. Once pigeons have been dispersed from a site, a wider variety of smaller birds may fill the niche that they have left. Indeed while the Van Vyncks have completed successfully with other bird controllers, ironically they now face natural competition from nesting peregrines in London and on one rare and memorable occasion David spied a hobby while working there, proving perhaps that the divisions between town and country are themes played out more in the minds of people than in the lives of wildlife.

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But it is not programmes she’ll be watching. Samanthas beady eye will be trained on a plague of pigeons in Grade’s new £62 million headquaters.

The pests’ droppings threaten to take the gloss off its acres of glass.

This weekend, the station completes it’s move into the studios in Victoria, London. Twice a week Samantha will keep watch over Grades empire. In a dig at the BBC, Grade said yesterday: “She is the only consultant the channel employs.”

Keeper Andy Garlick said: “Once the pigeons pass the word around, they’ll keep away.” Bosses hope to save £60,000 a year on cleaning when the pigeons stop dropping in.

Pigeon Hole

Channel 4 has hired a hawk to deal with pigeons at it’s new building.

Luckily, the BBC does not suffer a pigeon problem. If it did, different management consultants would be called in to set up different committees - a hawk committee and an eagle committee for example - to decide which bird should deal with the pigeon pest.

Twice a week a dozen of them come to town. Birds from Essex in full plumage that flit and flutter down the concrete corridors of power causing mahem. And the grand Whitehall mandarins love them. In fact the Treasury finances them to cause trouble.

David Van Vynck’s Harris Hawks are paid to unnerve the residents, to disturb the feral pigeons that stain the grand civil-service buildings with their droppings. He runs a squadron of 12 hawks employed to keep the Cabinet Offices, Portcullis House and, in particular, the newly refurbished Treasury clear of London’s unhygienic flying rats. “They are vermin”, says Van Vynck, who drives in before dawn from Orsett in Essex with his team of six professional Falconers.

“Pigeons are amazingly adaptable and netting and spikes don’t always get rid of them. But the hawks disturb the pigeon’s patterns of roosting and nesting.They make them feel uneasy and move them on.”

His team, who all started at amateur sporting falconers, use the American Harris Hawk because of it’s temperament. “Falcons are not suited to central London: they require a large space,” he says.

“But the Harris is easy to work within an urban environment. They stay trained and have a tolerance to noise.”

The handlers climb on to the roofs of Whitehall before dawn while the pigeons are still sleeping. Once the pigeons see the hawk, with it’s 3ft wingspan, they flee:those that don’t are killed and eatern.

“Our birds are working bird,” says David Van Vynck. “They fly for six hours a day and in the evening they are kept on a sheltered perch a few feet above the ground. It is similar to using working dogs to find game.”

Now, if he can turn his birds loose on the pigeon-hearted politicians...

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A magnificent Harris Hawk has been employed to scare the vermin away from Victoria Station but his presence is causing consternation among environmentalists.

Railtrack, faced with a worsening problem of pigeon mess, has employed pest controller David Van Vynck on an annual contract, who uses a hawk called Nelson to disperse the birds.

London-based World Society for the Protection of Animals, confronted Railtrack’s head of customer service, Marcus Long asking whether he knew that “these birds of prey actually kill pigeons”.

Mr Long replied he was aware of that but in this case the hawk was only frightening away the pigeons which were causing a nuisance to passengers and staff.

Ms Lloyd said that chasing pigeons away pushed the problem elsewhere in the capital, and that the best way of dealing with the issue was to put the pigeons on the contraceptive pill.

It was then that Mr Long, bristling his official feathers, answered: “Dear Madam,I don’t think that Railtrack is in the business of dishing out contraceptives to the pigeons.

Beside, there is no proof that it would work.” Other commuters were more favourable towards Nelson, including ITV Motor racing presenter Kirsty Westwood.

“Pigeons can be a dreadful pest,” she said, “they scare passengers waiting for trains when they swoop down low. The hawk seems like a good deterrent and a pretty humane way of dealing with the problem.

Railtrack is talking action against the pigeon problem following complaints from the public at Victoria, Paddington and Liverpool Street.

Almost a quarter of a million passengers pass through every day and the pigeons flock in vast numbers at peak periods.

The problem has been exacerbated by the increase in the number of take-away outlets, which has meant more food and rubbish is thrown on the ground.

Mr long said “We’ve tried putting up nets in the glass roofs and spikes on the ledges to stop them roosting. They work to a point, but the hawk has proved the best method for keeping them away.”

On the topic of using contraceptives as other authorities do he added: “it’s too much of a scatter gun solution.

It’s self-defeating because you attract the birds in the first place.” Mike Everett, spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: “Pigeons can be at it every month of the year and lay two eggs everytime. The best way to control them is to remove the food and stop them roosting.

To find out more please view our bird control pages.

"The hawk only harasses the pigeons, it doesn’t kill them," stresses David Gillingham from Glaxo Wellcome R&D Engineering. "It is fed just enough so that it has the instinct to hunt, but not to attack.

"Pigeons were originally called rock doves and they think the high buildings are cliffs. The hawk is their natural enemy and when they see it, the shape of the bird is imprinted on their brain and they disappear.

"The trick is to get the hawk flying before the pigeons breed." David says. "After the young are born, their homing instinct will always prompt them to return."

The process involves almost daily flights for two or three weeks, then one a week for the following six weeks or so.

"We get up to 150 pigeons on our building at any one time during the day and possibly four times that number roosting overnight," David Says.

"The Problem with the guano is that it turns to dust and plays havoc with the air filters.

"We’ve tried ultrasonic devices in the past, but they’re not always successful. We even employed a cardboard cat once, but they soon become used to it. The hawk is an accepted practice and, so far, it seems to be doing the trick."

The curiosity of three keen Greenford ornithologists got the better of them when they saw the Hawk flying past their windows. Their enquiries paid off and Mike Stone from the legal department and Simon Davidson and Pauline Adams from the central and Eastern Europe department were privileged to see the bird in action from the rooftop of Glaxo Wellcome House West and also to hold the bird.

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We're using birds of prey to control problem pigeons.

A falconry service run by expert David Van Vynck supplies specially trained sparrow hawks which target the pigeons and scare them away from the estates.

If the scheme is used regularly, the pigeons begin to link the estates with the threat of the hawks and steer clear of the area.

This natural deterrent has been used on the Churchill Gardens and Lisson Green estates and has shown some good results.

When used at Trafalgar Square, hawks deterred thousands of disease carrying pigeons, cutting the numbers from 5,000 to just 150.

Handlers and their hawks undergo and intensive training regime before being let loose on estates.

"Many people believe falconry is more humane than culling by shooting or trapping." said David.

And he warned that the summer can see the arrival of even more unwanted visitors - gulls, the fastest growing urban pest among birds. During the summer months they are breeding which makes them aggressive when coming into contact with people.

CityWest Relationships Manager Jon Lock said: "The problem of pigeons on estates is raised time and again with us and we're looking at the most effective ways of tackling this. Our work with David has been very encouraging."

Experts reckon the feral pigeon carries more diseases than the common brown rat and is capable of passing on around 40 diseases to humans.

CityWest bosses are urging residents to do their bit to help control birds from becoming pests. With the onset of summer more people will be eating outside and leaving food which attracts the birds.

Remember to take any left overs home and dispose of them responsibly. And please, don't put food out for the birds.

If pigeons are a problem at your premises please take a look at our bird control section.

Trafalgar Square was once home to 5,000 disease spreading 'rats with wings'.

Now there are just 150 left, thanks to a bloodthirsty hawk called Nelson with a taste for pigeon…..Verminator!

From his perch high above the capital, Nelson peers out haughtily across Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, and Parliament and beyond, supremely confident that he is lord of all he surveys.

This particular Nelson, though is not on top of a column guarding Britain against the threat of French invasion. He is a ten-year-old Harris hawk flying around Central London guarding our national monuments (including the great Horatio) and the rest of us from the threat of germ-filled parcels of bird droppings.

So the ancient sport of Falconry has become today’s humane pest control of choice, Particularly as the costs soon starts falling. Once a pigeon population has been scared away, it requires only a token hawk presence to keep it away.

So One chilly dawn I climb up on to Gordon Browns roof to see Nelson at work.

Not long ago, the treasury would have been covered in pigeons and caked in their corrosive residue. But Mr Brown has recently spent £120 million on a very smart, PFI-Funded refurbishment of his headquarters and he would rather not have stinking, diseased mess on his walls.

Now, the pigeons have been expelled, just as they have also disappeared from numerous institutions, including the BBC, London’s Paddington Station, the British Museum and the Post of Liverpool. Today all these places enjoy hawk protection – or avian management as its known in the trade.

Pigeons can do serious damage to a building and this is the green way to deal with them. No pesticides, no guns says Richard Lewis of Bovis Lend Lease which maintains the treasury. His words tail off as we gawp in silent admiration, watching Nelson sweep imperiously around the inner courtyard and then soar at a terrifying pace up to the roof and straight on to the arm of his handler David Van Vynck.

Down below a couple of civil servants en route to an early meeting stop and stare. It’s not everyday, I suppose, that you see a glorious bird of prey circling above you in Whitehall.

Twice a week long before most mandarins are awake a hawk arrives from Mr Van Vynck’s Essex base to terrify any Pigeons insolent enough to roost near the chancellor.

Those, which do not move fast, are soon reduced to a pile of feathers and bones. As a result, even the most bird-brained are starting to get the message: the treasury is now a no-fly zone.

There are still no pigeons to be seen. But Nelson is not alone. A handful of crows, which regard the Treasury as their personal fiefdom are outraged by the new bird on the block. When Nelson lands on one parapet, the crows go bonkers and start dive-bombing him, pulling away at they last minute and uttering crow expletive at the top of their voices.

Nelson is Supremely indifferent and does not even flinch. He knows he can see off this lot whenever he feels like it.

Mr Van Vynck and his team of ten handlers and 20 hawks also look after Trafalgar Square. Mr Van Vynck is keen to stress that there is very little carnage. The hawks very rarely catch anything because that’s not the point. They are a deterrent and they certainly wouldn’t be very cost-effective if they were trying to kill pigeons. But the pigeons know the hawks are a very serious threat and they vanish.

In Trafalgar Square, according to Mr Livingstone’s office, the hawks actually kill no more than two pigeons per month.

After an uneventful hour on Gordon Browns roof, we finally see our first pigeon, a short sighted or profoundly stupid specimen which lands on an air conditioning unit, Nelson as laid back as ever needs to dive this moron just one look and it is soon beating a frantic retreat. I don’t blame Nelson for having a go. It is a very grotty looking pigeon.

By Mid-morning Mr Van Vynck concludes that the treasury is probably pigeon free for a few more days and it is time to turn his attention to some of the other buildings on his client list – the cabinet office and even the Palace of Westminster itself.

This does of course raise one question: where do all these pigeon’s exiles go? Mr Van Vynck points out that as their feeding grounds are diminishing so the pigeon population is shrinking.

And just in case Mr Livingstone recently passed a new bylaw whereby anyone caught feeding pigeons can be fined £50.00.

They may carry diseases, foul our monuments and soil our clothes. But at this rate, I am almost starting to feel sorry for them.

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