by Alex A. Kecskes

Bird proofing government buildings, parks, military bases, and aircraft hangars has been a problem for quite some time.

At the dawn of aviation, the Wright brothers recorded a bird strike that interfered with their early flights. More recently, Hanscom Field in Bedford Massachusetts had roughly 5,000 starlings roosting in their hangar. Clinton Air Force Base in Oklahoma had six hangars with 200-300 house sparrows in each hangar. Lockbourne Air Base in Ohio had 2,000 to 3,000 house sparrows between three hangars with an additional 2,000-3,000 starlings. Wright-Patterson Field had pigeons in their propeller testing area. Selfridge Air Force Base in Michigan suffered from a sparrow invasion. The list goes on and on. Pest birds, it seems, love to hang out in hangers.

Birds entering various openings within aircraft hangars, roost in the I-beams high inside these structures. The Air Force says that the accumulation of droppings, feathers, and other matter poses a big problem. Bird droppings, accumulating on the aluminum skin of airplanes, can corrode the metal and eventually weaken the structure itself. Another concern is that if droppings, feathers, and other matter get into the engines, critically important parts must be cleaned as they could stall an engine during flight. Cleaning an aircraft engine is very expensive and time consuming.

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by Fran Prisco

Controlling pest geese at airports has become quite a topic in the news today.  On January 15, 2009 US Airways flight 1549 ended up in the Hudson River after losing both of its engines to bird strikes.  On its initial climb out of LaGuardia Airport, the plane flew through a flock of Canada Geese, which resulted in a complete loss of thrust from both engines.  Although it is unusual for a plane to lose both engines to bird strikes, The FAA says that in 2008 there where almost 7,000 reported incidents of bird strikes with planes, and that’s only a quarter of the actual ones that are happening each day.

For obvious reasons most wide-open grassy areas surround airports, which make perfect places for pest birds such as Canada Geese to make their homes.  These areas are usually fenced in and off limits to the public, so the geese have found a nice home where they are virtually undisturbed.  There is plenty of grass to graze on and often a water source as well. Having a growing population of geese residing just a few miles off the departure end of a runway is a big concern for any air traffic control manager. Most airports try to chase the birds with sounds such as cannons and banging or screeching shells which birds can become accustomed to.  They spend countless hours chasing the birds with these devices and yet the geese keep coming back.  So how can airports rid the surrounding areas of pest geese more effectively?

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