10 ways to prevent bird strikes

Our airport is in the process of a wildlife study and such things as discussed in this article are included. We're fortunate to not have any big open water near the runway for waterfowl to be near. There are other things you can do, like let the grass grow to 6-14" in height. People complained when the wildlife biologist made that recommendation, I replied, "This is an airport, not a golf course." Using pyrotechnics is a last resort sort of thing, but if the study recommends it we'll look into it.

This is about aircraft safety. I don't want to hit a bird on climb out with my family onboard.
 
When I was in college in the Texas panhandle the local Air Force base (now closed) hired my roommate (who was also my best friend from the 8th grade on) who was a licensed Falconer to bring his Peregrine Falcon and chase away the ducks and other migratory birds that would settle in the playa lakes around the field. It was a training base and they had a very high strike rate, particularly planes on final. We'd take my Lab and his English Pointer and run them into the water, flush the birds and then send his Falcon up to hunt. She'd kill one (which is an unbelieveable thing to watch in person if you never have seen it) and the ducks would get the picture that a bird was hunting in the area and would stay away for a few weeks. When they'd start coming back, they'd call my friend again and we'd go down and do our thing. Fun times.
 
Constant problem here at the west side (departures) at work. F&G uses the starter pistol "grenade guns" occasionally.
 
I guess this would be ineffective.
 

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EVERY airport in the U.S. uses pyrotechnics daily? :loco:

I guess I learned something today.
 
I'm off to the airport to shoot a chicken at my plane. Apparently that reduces bird strikes.
 
Birds don't like hitting us any more than we like hitting them. Slow down, try and fly over them, not under them.
 
kenjr said:
) who was a licensed Falconer.
Click to expand...

They have licenses for that???!


No falcon required
img0034jd2.jpg
 
yup. It's quite a process.

1. You must be at least 14 years old.
2. You must pass a federally-administered multiple choice test of 100 questions with at least 80%. You can't do this without studying; your state will have a book list that can help you learn what you need to know.
3. You must have a sponsor, who will be a General or Master-class falconer. This person will help guide you through your first two years as a novice falconer, helping you trap your bird, making sure that you keep her healthy and follow all the laws.
4. Before you can trap your first hawk, you must have proper facilities for keeping the bird you want (in most states you can only start with an American Kestrel or a Red-tailed Hawk). These facilities and all the other required equipment must be inspected by a state biologist or other authority before you can get your capture permit.
5. You will need to have all your paperwork in order, which includes your current hunting license, falconry license, and any upland gamebird or waterfowl stamps you may need. Make copies of these and take the copies with you at all times when you're out with the bird. Some falconers also keep a copy of the state & federal regs with them, just in case.

Falconry - probably the oldest hunting sport known to man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsdG0Twu9Yg
 
They still use Falconers at some Air Force Bases. I see one every once in a while out here at Travis. Many years ago, I used to help maintain a PA system that was mounted on a truck. They had recordings of bird distress calls and/or calls of different birds-of-prey that would keep the other birds out of the area for a while.
 
Before I was a controller I was briefly an Airport Operations Supervisor at a north east class Bravo where we did our own wildlife mitigation. We had the Pyro pistols in every Ops vehicle. Its basically like a point and shoot bottle rocket with unpredictable corkscrew action for added scare effect. That was the only one we had out of those ten.

Everything else was guns guns more guns and the occasional trap. Mostly deer, geese and groundhogs digging up electrical wires there. Two things I'll never forget. One, the look on the faces of the boarding passengers as we loaded our shotguns into the old Ops SUV beside them and two if you find yourself with a shovel vs a groundhog, they have thick skulls.
 
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