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Thread: Pigeon Poop?

  1. #1
    burtandnancy2
    So the theory is that corrosive pigeon poop may have weakened the bridge that failed in Minn. I always thought those flying rats were good for nothing. Now maybe they'll open up hunting season on them...

  2. #2
    RitcheyRch
    Guess they need to blame something.

  3. #3
    River Lynchmob
    Guess they need to blame something.
    Blame Canada!

  4. #4
    Classic Daycruiser
    or Fish and Game

  5. #5
    Boatcop
    or Fish and Game
    Pigeons are domesticated birds, even in the wild. Like rats, they are the responsibilty of the County/City animal control.
    Fish and Game Depts deal with traditional wild and/or game birds.

  6. #6
    Wet Dream
    Pigeons are domesticated birds, even in the wild. Like rats, they are the responsibilty of the County/City animal control.
    Fish and Game Depts deal with traditional wild and/or game birds.
    Whats your take on Canadian Geese? You should see the population of canaquacks up here.

  7. #7
    burtandnancy2
    I'm not sure Boatcop knows what he's talking about here, but after all he is knowledgeable in many things. Are pigeons (aka flying rats) really domesticated? And is the story about pigeon guano true or imagined? Who measures the acidity of poop; is there a department for that?

  8. #8
    Boatcop
    Bird droppings corroded death bridge: experts
    24th August 2007, 6:45 WST
    Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed Minnesota bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: birds.
    Records of the build-up of pigeon droppings on the span near the centre of Minneapolis began two decades ago.
    Experts say the corrosive droppings covering the span’s framework helped the steel beams rust faster.
    Although investigators have yet to identify the cause of the bridge collapse on August 1, which killed at least 13 people and injured about 100, the pigeon problem is one of many factors that dogged the structure.
    “There is a coating of pigeon dung on steel with nests and heavy build-up on the inside hollow box sections,” inspectors wrote in a 1987-1989 report.
    In 1996, screens were put over openings in the bridge’s beams to keep pigeons from nesting, but it did not stop droppings building up elsewhere.
    Pigeon droppings contained ammonia and acids, chemist Neal Langerman said. If the excrement is not washed away, it dries out and turns into a concentrated salt. When water gets in and combines with the salt and ammonia, it creates small electrochemical reactions that rust the steel underneath.
    “Every time you get a little bit of moisture there, you wind up having a little bit of electrochemistry occurring and you wind up with corrosion,” Mr Langerman said.
    “Over a long term, it might in fact cause structural weaknesses.”
    He emphasised that he was not saying pigeon droppings factored into the collapse of the 40-year-old bridge.
    The problem is familiar to bridge inspectors everywhere.
    The Colorado Department of Transportation spent so much time cleaning pigeon droppings off bridges that it is studying ways to keep the birds away.
    Keeping them away usually required a multi-pronged strategy that could include netting to block holes and surfaces, spikes to stop them landing, and sometimes poisoning, shooting or trapping the birds, wildlife officials said.
    The National Transportation Safety Board issued an update on its findings in the collapse yesterday, saying investigators were looking at whether chemicals used in an automated de-icing system had any corrosive properties.
    But the State Transportation Department was not concerned about the system and planned to install a similar one on the replacement bridge, according to Khani Sahebjam, an engineer with the department. He said the de-icing elements were inside the bridge’s concrete deck and he did not believe they would pose a structural problem.
    I would have put this in a LINK (http://rialliance.net/test.html), but no one would want to click on it.

  9. #9
    burtandnancy2
    Sure, thats easy for you to say, but where's the part about pooping pigeons being domestic?

  10. #10
    Boatcop
    To much info to copy and paste, but Wikipedia has a lot of info:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Pigeon (Certified to be Rick Roll Free)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_pigeon (Certified to be Rick Roll Free)
    Here's a quick quote:
    Rock Pigeons have been domesticated for several thousand years, giving rise to the domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica). Many domestic birds have escaped or been released over the years, and have given rise to the feral pigeon. These show a variety of plumages, although some look very like the pure Rock Pigeons. The scarcity of the pure wild species is due to interbreeding with feral birds.

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