e had to be very careful when censusing waterfowl and other birds by
air. more than a few times we had close calls.


We had to be careful when censusing waterfowl and other birds by air.
More than a few times we had close close calls. At times we found
ourselves flying underneath large flocks when trying to determine
species. Ducks weren't too bad, but large birds such as geese, cranes
and albatross could easily bring a plane down. Several times we struck
one, but were darned lucky it didn't bring the plane down because it
just hit a wing or strut. If it hit the engine, it was goodbye for the
bird and us, and we'd be history..
Also looking for active Golden Eagle nests in the spring could be a
little dicey. It involved flying very low along the cliffs of the
rimrock country in Oregon and Washington. But it was some of the things
that went with your job. I can appreciate pilots, military and
commercial, being very concerned with bird flocks at airports especially
now flying jets. .
I worked several years on the Hazard to Aircraft Problem at Midway when
it still was a naval air station. We had thousands of albatross there.
When a gooney had it in its mind to fly across the runway, that big
noisy bird thundering down the runway didn't scare it one iota. Nossir!
Gooney just kept on its course. A number of times pilots had to abort
taking off.

Gene Kridler
Broken down Old Biologist

. .

Caratfeathers at aol.com wrote:

> Great stories. I have done aerial photography of prehistoric
> archaeological sites in Arizona from a little 2-seater (a friend was
> the pilot), but not of flocks of birds. While up there with my
> camera, I did always hoped to see a hawk or other large bird fly by,
> but it never happened :-) !
>
> Cheers, Judy
>
> Judy Rowe Taylor
> Mukilteo, WA
> caratfeathers at aol.com


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20040114/2e9b8909/attachment.htm