Turning a passion into a career is the key to success for any business owner. For Mike Shore of Shore Bird Control, he turned his love of birds of prey or as he likes to say “his expensive passion” into his career.
Shore Bird Control is a home-based business located in Central Elgin. At his home, Mike has a number of raptors including hawks, eagles, owls and falcons that he cares for each and every day. Mike travels across Southwestern Ontario with these raptors to offer business owners across the region with bird control services.
Mike notes that “wherever there is a bird problem, whether it is a factory, industrial land, a landfill, an airport, a home residence, or even a farm, I can spend the day flying my birds around to help mitigate the problem”.
Over the past few years, Mike has embarked upon a major project with the London Landfill. It’s no surprise, that a smelly place like the dump would attract a colony of seagulls. The waste that these seagulls ingest isn’t a natural or normal diet for these birds, which can end up poisoning and ultimately killing them. This also acts as a safety hazard for other species, as well as the human population surrounding this area. This led staff at the London Landfill to find a solution to reduce the number of seagulls present within the landfill. To help mitigate this issue, Shore Bird Control was contacted to utilize his birds of prey to keep the unwanted seagulls from flocking to the landfill.
Another significant project for Shore Bird Control was executed at a blueberry farm which once saw hungry berry eating birds wipe out an entire crop in the span of a few days. With the help of his birds of prey, Mike successfully worked from sun up to sun down at the berry farm to halt this catastrophe from occurring again.
Mike and his raptors are able to help a wide variety of businesses and individuals in solving their bird problems. Although, he admits that once he started his business bird controlling became a saturated industry in the area. As a result of the vast competition, this encouraged Mike to share his passion with others in a more personal setting.
Now, Mike spends a fair amount of his time focusing on growing the entertainment side of his business. Mike’s enthusiasm and passion for birds come to life when he performs in front of an audience.
Whether he’s presenting to a group of schoolchildren, residents at a retirement home, children at camp, or attendees to a fall fair, the audience is left in awe as they take in the sights of the beautiful creatures that Mike has so patiently and gracefully trained. Spectators become captivated by the beauty and flight patterns of the raptors he brings with him to his demonstrations. One can expect to see an owl and a hawk and even a falcon, depending on the location.
Mike ensures that his audience is captivated and engaged by teaching them about the characteristics of each species. Mike also showcases and explains how these birds of prey fly and how he is able to train them. Crowds are especially excited when he welcomes the audience to get up and personal with the birds, as he allows individuals to hold these magnificent creatures.
To learn more about Shore Bird Control or to book one of his services, Mike can be reached at (226) 926-4515 or mike@shorebirdcontrol.com. His services and photos can be found on his website or on his Facebook Page.