Runway incursion is a huge issue for airports. Sea-Tac has a
well-established program for leaving "sentinel" birds in place and removing
migrants and juveniles, hopefully before they have a disastrous meeting.
Salt Lake City, Vancouver, Portland and many, many others are using various
methods to try to reduce numbers of dead birds AND threats to humans.

You wouldn't think that a sparrow or other small bird could cause a
problem, because when you hit them with your car, there usually isn't too
much damage. But if your vehicle is going 150-250mph, that little bit of
matter carries an incredible damage potential.

Michelle Landis
Ferndale, WA

On Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 2:37 PM, Wally Davis <wallydavis3 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm both a biologist that loves birding and a retired Navy pilot. I can
> tell you that something as small as a sparrow can cause failure of a jet
> engine if it is sucked into the intake. If the engine explodes, it can
> bring down the airplane. These incidents typically take place during
> landing or take off and in the vicinity of populated areas. Personally I
> had to abort a flight and make an emergency landing because I hit a turkey
> vulture on the wing between my number 3 and 4 engines on take-off. That
> hit
> wiped out the leading edge of the wing. Fortunately it didn't go into an
> engine. I was also a passenger in a 737 that ingested a seagull on
> take-off. The pilot shut the engine down and had to make an emergency
> landing with one engine and a lot of people on board. An enormous effort
> has gone into trying alternate ways to keep birds away from airports. I
> don't think a really good way has been found. If birds aren't controlled
> around airports we either have to give up flying or we have to accept that
> there will be multiple accidents every year caused by birds ingested into
> jet engines. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world.
>
> Wally Davis
> Snohomish
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
> [mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Dennis
> Paulson
> Sent: Monday, November 28, 2016 1:08 PM
> To: TWEETERS tweeters
> Subject: re: [Tweeters] Renton airport anti-bird measures question
>
> Wildlife Services is a source of one of the substantial environmental
> "crimes" in the United States. They kill so many vertebrate animals, just
> because one or another segment of our society doesn't like them, that it is
> shocking to see lists of the totals every year. If you feel up to it, here
> is the list for 2014:
> https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/prog_data/
> 2014/G/Tables/Table%20G
> _ShortReport.pdf
>
> You can go back year after year and add them up to get an idea of
> activities
> like that described at the Renton airport that are surely taking an
> unjustifiable toll of some of our wildlife. You can see the totals at the
> end.
>
> Speaking of airports, they killed 548 Upland Sandpipers in 12 states in
> that
> year, presumably as aviation threats. Does anyone believe that an Upland
> Sandpiper can threaten any kind of airplane? And this is a declining
> species
> that is considered of special conservation concern in numerous states. Or
> how about a total of 2,115 individuals of 5 species of swallows? Oh yes,
> they do poop a lot. 215,238 golden-plovers were "dispersed" (only 17 were
> killed) in that year. What in heck does that mean? That they chased away
> almost 600/day every day for 365 days from the same few airports?
>
> You can do your own thinking of why each of these species of birds,
> mammals,
> reptiles, amphibians and fishes is killed.
>
> As far as I know, there has been no successful attempt by conservation
> organizations to limit the damages to animal populations caused by Wildlife
> Services. That they are part of the Department of Agriculture rather than
> the Department of the Interior tells the story.
>
> Dennis Paulson
> Seattle, WA_______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
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>



--
*Michelle *
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