![]() Dunlins’ daily routines are dictated in part by the tide, and when high tide comes, they tend to head for the airport.Īs at Pearson, each species of raptor has its specialty, and “we change them around, depending on the birds’ skill sets,” Radcliffe said. Seven to 10 raptors - mostly peregrine falcons but also gyr-peregrine hybrids, Harris’s and Ferruginous hawks, a bald eagle and a young golden eagle - live at the airport from October until April, when the largest number of wintering shorebirds are in the area, said Gillian Radcliffe, director of Pacific Northwest Raptors, which runs the YVR falconry program.ĭuring that time, the raptors work about eight hours a day at varying times, often depending on the tide. “A falcon might scare away a goose, but a bald eagle is guaranteed,” Adam said.Īt YVR, the raptors’ schedule is different, but the results of their work are the same. Bald eagles - more than twice the weight of other raptors and menacing enough to alarm almost any other bird - can dispatch geese that might not respond to the smaller, less frightening falcons. 2 Harris’s hawks, which are slower but more calculating, are used primarily in tight quarters, where more maneuvering might be necessary to deliver the move-along message. “These birds do a great job of moving a large number of birds over a large area,” Adam said.Įach type of raptor has its own specialty when it comes to encouraging other birds to leave the area, he said.īecause of the falcon’s speed and ability to cover lots of ground relatively quickly - peregrine falcons travel at 40 to 60 mph (64 to 97 kph) in level flight and up to 200 mph (322 kph) in a steep dive called a “stoop” - they work best in open areas. They work 365 days a year, in teams, covering the airport from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset. We’re there to create a hostile atmosphere it’s not a good place to come in and relax and eat.”Īt Pearson, for example, 30 raptors - peregrine falcons, gyrfalcons, Harris’s hawks and bald eagles - are stationed at the airport, along with about a dozen handlers. Airport as Sanctuaryīirds have always been attracted to airports, and most look at an airport and think they have found a sanctuary, Adam said.Īside from the noise generated by arriving and departing aircraft, he added, “it’s a fairly quiet environment, with warm surfaces like paved taxiways. “We knew that shorebirds responded to predatory falcons,” Bradbeer said. YVR, which already ran a diverse wildlife strike–prevention program, including habitat management, pyrotechnics, sirens and border collies ( Airport Operations, 7-8/02), added falconry as a means of discouraging dunlins - migratory shorebirds that are resistant to other tactics. ![]() “There’s a different awareness about bird strikes now,” said David Bradbeer, wildlife program specialist at Canada’s Vancouver International Airport (YVR), which instituted a falconry program in 2012, years after an earlier trial run that lasted less than a year in the 1970s. Nevertheless, according to a team of California researchers, airport falconry programs for years were somewhat limited because of the relative scarcity of properly trained raptors and handlers, and the high costs of operating the programs. Initial success there prompted the creation of similar programs elsewhere in the United Kingdom and, later, in Europe and North America. Raptors were first used to drive nuisance birds away from landing and departing airplanes in the late 1940s at an airfield in Scotland. The same thing applies to raptors and smaller birds - they see that ‘fin’ and they get out.”Įxploiting that type of bird thinking, Adam’s company - and other similar operations at other airports - rely on teams of raptors and their handlers as part of a wildlife control program designed to keep birds away from aircraft. “If you were at the beach and saw a shark fin, you’d get out right away. “It’s like the shark in the water,” Adam said. ![]() “Just the sight of a falcon flying is enough to scare the birds away from an airfield,” said Mark Adam, president of Falcon Environmental Services, which provides bird-strike prevention services at Toronto Pearson International Airport, Montreal–Trudeau International Airport and a number of military airfields in Canada and the United States. Falconry - hunting by a falcon or hawk in cooperation with a human partner - is one of those tools. This relationship between the hunters and the hunted plays into the hands of some airport managers who want a multitude of tools at their disposal to ward off bird strikes. Not just any bird but one of several particular species of raptors that chase down other, smaller birds. One of the scariest sights a bird can see while hanging out at an airport just might be … another bird.
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