MTA's Audio Predator Solution To Roosevelt Island Subway Station Pooping Pigeon Plague Reported On By NY Times Today

Image of Pigeon Poop Roosevelt Island F Train Subway Station Before Audio Repellant

Last January 26, reported on the pooping pigeons plaguing  the Roosevelt Island F Train Subway station appeared to be gone:

... Have you noticed the Roosevelt Island F Train Subway station entrance is much cleaner recently? There are less pigeons, less pigeon poop and the netting on the ceiling has been removed....

and reader Yet Another RIer added:

I think they use some kind of audio based repellent. I assume the bird sounds I heard this morning in the station are similar to whatever predators pigeons have? There is also a white loudspeaker kind of thing mounted high up close to the ceiling windows. But, yes, except for the one or two stray pigeons it seems to be quite effective.

Today's NY Times reports on the Roosevelt Island Subway Pooping Pigeon solution devised by the MTA:

... The authority has had a problem with pigeons entering the station, and leaving their feathers, and more unsightly evidence, on and under the walls. The agency had used netting, similar to chicken wire, beneath the ceiling to try to keep the pigeons at bay. 

But in early December, the authority tried a different tack: a $375 bird call system that releases distress and predator calls every 2 to 10 minutes. Since then, authority officials have focused on cleaning up the station and the negative memories many riders still hold of the unsightly entrance....

and:

At the Roosevelt Island station, riders seemed relatively unimpressed with the authority’s new gadget.

As Darsheen Davis waited in the station on a recent afternoon and a pigeon fearlessly strutted by, she pointed to the white droppings that still streaked the station’s ceiling. She suffers from bronchial asthma and said the pigeon smell remains so strong it makes her dizzy every time she waits there.

“I don’t have anything against animals because I have nine pits,” Ms. Davis said, referring to her pit bulls. “You see all the feces up there. It’s not sanitary.”

Other riders are more concerned about the pigeons’ welfare.

Tashi Chodron, a Tibetan Buddhist who lives on the island, recalls the first time she heard the “very disturbing” sounds in the station. For the past few months, she has been delivering bread and bagels for the pigeons because she fears that they are having trouble finding food during winter.;...

... Ms. Chodron’s friend John McCormick, who feeds the birds with her, using leftovers from his catering business, said he preferred the old method and pointed out that New Yorkers would always complain...

Click here for the entire New York Times Roosevelt Island Pooping Pigeons solution article. Image below from the NY Times of a Roosevelt Island F Train Subway Station entrance clean of pigeon poop.

 Librado Romero/The New York Times