A hawk has been brought into the Ricoh Arena to keep pigeons away from the stadium bowl which houses Coventry City matches.
Ricoh Arena’s deputy facilities and energy manager Alan Pickering is looking after the male Harris Hawk and brings it to work with him three days a week.
“The bird is becoming part of the team and he is here to be a deterrent because pigeons are causing so much damage which is leading to a big clean-up operation.”
“He is not a display bird or pet, he was bred in captivity from a registered breeder and when we fly him, the public are not here.
“It is good for him because he gets plenty of exercise since there is plenty of open space and he has a flying weight of 1lb 6oz. Any weight above that, he is not hungry and won’t come back to me as easily.
“He wears a transmitter when he is flying because I once nearly lost him. Flying into the wind took him out of the stadium and I panicked but I got him back on the railway side of the Ricoh Arena.
“I vowed I would never fly him again without a tracker so that if I lose him, I can find him.
“At the moment, he doesn’t have a name so we would welcome any suggestions.”
More on this - http://www.wasps.co.uk/news/article/2015/04/30/hawk-eye-introduced-at-the-ricoh-arena