Tweets,



I just received a phone call from Beth Woodworth at University of
Illinois, Urbana Champagne who is coordinating a project to develop a
radar system that would help avoid bird strikes at airports. The study
is sponsored by the FAA and the objective is to improve aircraft safety
as well as the safety of large flocks of migratory waterfowl. Beth is
collaborating with the Whidbey Island Air Force Base and SeaTac Airport
and needs the help of local birders to verify or "ground truth" when the
"avian radar" is registering flocks of large birds (mainly waterfowl).
As Beth said herself: "currently we have the capacity to watch birds in
real-time as well as use recorded data to track birds. To give us
confidence that radar blobs are indeed birds, we are performing a study
that will validate radar tracks with actual observations."



Who: birders like you!

What: record simple observations of flocks of large birds on the simple
datasheet (mainly waterfowl or large flocks of other birds, like crows)

When: October 15 through December 15

Where: anywhere from 5 miles south of SeaTac north to Whidbey Island

Why: prevent bird collisions for the safety of aircraft, their
passengers and migratory waterfowl



Click here to download the datasheet
<http://seattleaudubon.org/uploadedFiles/Science/FLOCK%20OBSERVATION%20F
ORM.doc> (contact me if you can retrieve it)



If you have any questions, you can contact Beth directly at 217-722-3713
or woodwrth at uiuc.edu. I have a video of their radar at work. It's
pretty interesting, contact me if you'd like me to send it to you.



Thank you!



Adam Sedgley

Science Associate
Seattle Audubon
206-985-6993
adams at seattleaudubon.org

www.birdweb.org <http://www.birdweb.org/>




----------------------------------------

Original message:



Hello!



My name is Beth Woodworth and I am coordinating a study of migratory
birds in the Puget Sound. This study is being sponsored by the Federal
Aviation Administration to help avoid bird/aircraft collisions
(birdstrikes) with the objective of improving aircraft safety at both
civil and military airports. I am a representative of the FAA's Center
for Excellence in Airport Technology at the University of Illinois, the
performing partner in FAA research. We are working with Matt Klope
(Whidbey Island Naval Air Station) and Steve Osmek (Seattle-Tacoma
International Airport) and researchers from Clemson University and
Cornell University. Our goal is to use avian radars help us understand
bird movement to mitigate the hazard posed to aircraft, pilots, and
their passengers from birdstrikes. Avian radars have been installed at
SEA and NASWI, and have been operating since last spring. We will
combine the bird tracking capabilities of these new radar systems with
the analysis of NEXRAD weather radar data to better understand bird
movement in the Puget Sound region. Currently we have the capacity to
watch birds in real-time as well as use recorded data to track birds.
To give us confidence that radar blobs are indeed birds, we are
performing a study that will validate radar tracks with actual
observations.



We hope you will be one of our volunteer observers. It is easy to do
and requires little more than converting casual observations into data
we can use in our validation efforts. We simply ask that between
October 15 and December 15 you fill out one of the attached forms every
time you observe a flock of birds. Although the primary focus is on
waterfowl and large flocks that present the greatest danger to aircraft,
all your observations will be valuable to us.



The datasheet has a few key points of information, and can be completed
quickly. We are willing to work with you to help you submit your
observations any way you wish. We will provide stamped, self-addressed
envelops for submission, you can fax data sheets to us, and we are very
willing to accept electronic submissions of scanned sheets, or we will
even supply you with a spreadsheet so you can complete data fields and
submit you observations to us.