WO1993016590A1

WO1993016590A1 - Installation for keeping birds away from refuse dumps and other large localities, and method and means for establishing the installation

Info

Publication number: WO1993016590A1
Application number: PCT/DK1993/000062
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mogens Arentoft
Original assignee: Mogens Arentoft
Priority date: 1992-02-21
Filing date: 1993-02-22
Publication date: 1993-09-02
Also published as: DK22592D0; DK22592A; AU3626993A

Abstract

In order to avoid invasion of birds in refuse dumps and other large localities, different scare means have been tried but with no particular success. According to the invention the problem is solved in a radical manner by arranging a net or wire ceiling carried by tall masts (4) and completed with corresponding side walls all the way along the edges of this ceiling. Particularly advantageous mounting methods and auxiliaries are disclosed.

Description

Installation for keeping birds away from refuse dumps and other large localities, and method and means for establishing the installation.

The present invention relates to means for keeping birds away from refuse dumps, water cleaning plants and other large localities. Besides the troubles caused at such places by tight concentrations of seagulls and certain other birds, there are still more serious problems in that the birds, foraging at such places, often give off their waste products at more peaceful places, frequently in nearby lake areas, which may form part of a supply system for drinking water. It is not least for that reason it is desirable to keep the birds away from the discussed places.

During a very long time there has been very bad experiences with different types of scarecrows, as the birds rapidly get used to really undangerous threatening means, even including noise guns, and for really effective results it has been required to think of an almost injurious effect on the birds, what is no longer an acceptable solution. It is only to be acknowledged that the problem basically has remained unsolved.

In a special field, viz. in pond farming, a potential bird plague has been fought in a fully acceptable manner, namely by stretching a net or a wire system over the ponds, but that can be done at a low level, while particularly at refuse dumps there should , be plenty of height for both the building up of the material and for working vehicles operating on the top of it, i.e. free heights of, say, 10 - 15 meters may be required, this certainly not being actual for fish ponds.

However, in connection with the invention it has been recognized that in fact it is possible to use the concept of providing the area with a roof of a net or wire material which, of course, should be supported at a considerable height over the ground and - what is very important - be completed with a corresponding side cover. Particularly when the net or wire roof is located in a high level the birds will easily and rapidly find their way to the place by flying under the roof from the sides, so it is important that all side areas be closed in a similar manner.

In connection with tne invention it is realized in advance that for the establishing of a filament ceiling, at least when over a large area and in a high level, it will be unrealistic to think of using prefabricated net materials.^" On the other hand it is fully realistic to make use, untraditionally, of even extremely tall masts for carrying mutually widely separated cross wires or cables used for carrying longitudinally extending wires mounted with such a small spacing, e.g. 15 - 30 cm, they will form a high and efficient barrage roof over the site, undangerous for the birds, while along the sides edges of this roof corresponding filament side walls should be provided between the roof edges and the ground. Even for these side walls it will be inconvenient to use prefabricated net material, and normally it will be sufficient to use vertical wires in direct continuation of the upper cross wires.

Also at the narrower ends of the area relatively tightly juxtaposed wall wires should be arranged, then of course between the ground and an upper cross wire, inasfar as it is very important that the birds cannot intrude under the high barrage roof from any side thereof. In practice it is attractive to arrange the filament side walls slanting upwardly and inwardly, whereby openings will occur at the corners of a rectangular area, and it has been found important that even such smaller openings, which could allow for a certain throughpassage of birds, be closed by means of separate corner wires.

The building side, of course, should be provided with the required access opening or openings for persons or vehicles, but even such openings should be closable by filament material when not in use.

As mentioned, for the construction of a wire ceiling in a relatively high level over a large area it is hardly possible to rely on a simple rolling out of a net material, and instead it is required to work with a system of single wires that are brought to cross the said cross wires. This requires a great deal of mounting work at big heigth, where the mounting of maybe thousands of wires with a spacing of e.g. 20 - 30 cm may cause big problems. The carrier cables, which can be arranged with a relatively large mutual spacing, may be suspended in masts with the use of conventional technique for mounting of overhead lines, but it will be practically impossible to carry out a corresponding one-by-one laying up of the tightly juxtaposed, parallel wires crossing the carrier wires. On this background, therefore, it is a particularly important contribution of the invention that it is possible to arrange for a collective feeding of a plurality of wires, namely by an initial laying up of one wire and using the same for a subsequent feeding of a holding device for a number of wires, such that an operator placed in a working carriage hanging in a carrier wire can receive, distribute and fasten e.g. ten wires per operation, possibly during an associated slight displacement of the carriage, whereafter the carriage can be brought into a new position on the carrier wire or cable for receiving the next group of wires.

In the following the invention is described in more detail with reference to the drawing, in which:-

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a system according to the invention, shown under construction, Fig 2 is a corresponding, but more detailed view of a part of the system,

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the system seen from a corner thereof, and

Figs. 4 and 5 are perspective view of two different wire clamps.

In Fig. 1 is indicated a refuse dump 2, along the edge of which there is erected a number of masts 4, between which, in the cross direction of the elongate area, there are stretched relatively strong carrier wires 6 in the form of metal cables. There are quite considerable spans between the masts, and since the wires 6 will be subjected to high pulling forces, particularly during the mounting of the system, the masts should be strongly supported by a heavy foundation or with the use of stays 8, optionally by the cables 6 being extended downwardly and outwardly and fastened to a stay anchoring. The cables 6 may be mounted by means of any suitable contractor equipment, though often in quite big heights, e.g. 20 - 30 m.

Upon the mounting of the carrier cables 6 a high number of barrage wires 10 should be fastened to the cables, these wires 10 only being indicated in the foremost right hand part of Fig. 1, inasfar as these wires will normally be practically invisible. Suitably, they can be twisted plastic wires having a diameter of the magnitude 1 mm, and preferably having a dark colour such as fully black, which makes them least visible. These wires should be laid up in parallel with a mutual spacing of e.g. 15 - 30 cm in order to form an effective shelter against intruding birds. This laying up is in no way free of problems, when the relevant very large areas are concerned, and in practice it has been found preferable to renounce the laying up and instead make use of a suspension of the wires 10 underneath the cables 6. The single parallel wires 10, of course, will have to be mounted by being drawn from one end of the system to the other, but in practice it would be a hopeless job to effect such an individual drawing at large height by means of ground supported drawing means. It is here preferred to make use of means for collective drawing forward of a plurality of wires, and as indicated in Fig. 2 this can be done by means of a rake 12, the teeth of which hold the ends of a corresponding number of wires 10, which are paid out from a movable reel unit comprising a number of wire reels 14 and placed at the ground at one end of the system. From this unit the wires 10 run over an outer edge cable 16 and further to the rake 12, which is pulled forwards by means of a drawwire 18.

At the opposite end of the system the wire 18 is continued or returned in a return wire 20 stretching back to a reversing roller 22 placed at the starting area of the bundle of wires 10 adjacent the carrier cable 16. This roller is mounted on a working basket 24 carried by a crane jig 26, and it will be noted that the rake 12 may be advanced by a pull either directly in the wire 18 or in the return wire 20.

On the said working basket 24 there^' is mounted an outwardly projecting guiding member 28 for diverting the wires 10 as fed from the reels 14 to the generally or in principle horizontal stretch out over or under the carrier cables 6.

By the mounting of the system there is at each carrier cable 6 suspended a working cart 28 accomodating an operator 30. A base plate of this cart is provided with a forwardly projecting carrier beam 32 having upstanding separation fingers 34 for receiving the individual wires 10 between these fingers. Here the wires may be disposed relatively close to each other, but the operator 30, who can reach the wires from his - working position, will fasten them successively to the carrier cable with the correct, larger spacing. It is imperative that the wires are well controlled for avoiding entangling of the wires.

By each paying out of the wires the rake 12 is pulled from the reel end 14 of the system all the way to the opposite end before the operators start fastening the wires. At both ends the wires may extend down to lower holding cables 36, to which they are fastened, such that the end walls of the system are also made by the wires. The remaining sides may be made of separate wires 38, Fig. 1.

Preferably the wall wires should extend outwardly and downwardly sloping, see also fig. 3. Hereby triangular openings will be left at the corners, and also these should be covered by wires, 40, as the birds can well find their way through relatively minor openings in the large system. Correspondingly, all access openings 42 should be provided with doors or net covers.

It should be mentioned that a construction as here discussed requires very extensive statical calculations and planning work for ensuring the stability of the wires, already because it can later be very difficult to carry out repair work in case of bursted wires. Also, it should be ascertained that the wires will normally remain in a suitably big height, that is without pronounced sags disturbing the work on the refuse dump.

For the fastening of the wires to the carrier cables 6 suspension hooks 44 as shown in Fig. 4 may be used. These may be hooked with clamping action on the cables and be brought to receive the wires by placing the wire in the lower groove and then allow the wire to turn about a vertical axis, whereby, as directly apparent from Fig. 4, the wire will be held by the hook member 44. With this design of the hook members the wires will not be locked against axial displacement relative the hook members, but that can be acceptable in some instances.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 5 the lower end of the hook member is provided with a depending flap portion which may be folded up about an integrated hinge and be locked behind a protruding locking nose 46., whereby the wire 10 can be clamped in an effective and simple manner. Generally, such a clamped fastening should be preferred in practice.

It should be noted that in practice it is rather difficult to mount the vertical wall wires 38 at the long sides of the system. It is easier to mount the wires horizontally, but it has been found that the wires will then have to be rather closely juxtaposed, as particularly the black birds , i.e. the Corvidae, may otherwise break through. Suitably, at these sides and also in the corners it will be possible to make use of prefabricated net material, preferably with a mesh size of about 10 x 10 cm. These nets are well suited to be produced in fishing net factories, and they may be transported and handled in very long lengths, up to several hundreds of meters. The net may be mounted by being rolled up or down, or by being drawn up or down from a zigzag folded package, and in particular cases such nets may well be used also elsewhere in the system.

Claims

C L A I S :

1. An installation for keeping birds away from refuse dumps, water cleaning plants and other large localities, characterized in that it is made as a mast carried net or wire roof highly elevated over the site and with corresponding side walls all the way along the edges of the roof.

2. An installation according to claim 1, characterized in that the wire roof is formed by longitudinally extending single wires, which, by means of wire hooks or clamps, are fastened to crosswise extending carrier cables and preferably are extended at both ends so as to form also downwardly extending end wall wires.

3. An installation- according to claim 1, characterized in that the side walls are slightly downwardly and outwardly sloping and that associated open corner areas are covered by barrage wires or net.

4. An installation according to claim 1, characterized in that parts of the installation, in particular the side walls in the direction of the longitudinally extending wires, are made of prefabricated wire net material, preferably with square meshes of the magnitude 10 x 10 cm.

5. A method of establishing an installation according to claim 1, characterized in providing a system of carrier masts (4) and establishing a carrier cable connection (6) between respective pairwise opposite masts, on which carrier cables mounting carts (28) are suspended, pulling across these cables a wire drawing cord (18) , optionally forming a closed cord loop (18,20), by means of which a bundle of parallel barrage wires (10) are drawn all along the length of the installation, and thereafter fastening these wires (10) to the carrier cables by operators located in the mounting carts, these carts being displaced along the respective carrier cables as new wire bundles are drawn out.

6. A method according to claim 5, characterized in that the wire bundles are drawn upwards from a wire storage battery (14) located displaceably at the ground and are diverted for being passed along the roof by passing a diverter roller (28) carried by a vehicle supported mast (26) .

7. A method according to claim 5, characterized in that the wire bundles in the form of a flat tapelike structure of parallel wires are drawn out along the roof beneath the carrier cables and are brought to pass the single mounting carts, where the single wires, mutually separated, are received in carrier means (32,34), from which they are successively taken up for an orderly, suspended mounting on the single carrier cables by means of suspension hooks or clamps.

8. An auxiliary. for establishing an installation according to claim 1, characterized in consisting of a wire hook member (44) or clamp (46) having an upper hook portion and a lower holding portion for cooperation with respective intercrossing wires.