The Nature of the Beast

Avatar for Lisa GordonBy Lisa Gordon | October 7, 2013

Estimated reading time 10 minutes, 7 seconds.

Dynamic duo: Bird and wildlife specialist Derek Forrest and his African Lanner Falcon, Millie, keep unwanted birds and wildlife away from Halifax Stanfield International Airport. HIAA Photo

Derek Forrest’s job is for the birds. Come to think of it, his business partner is a bird, too. 
Several times a day, Forrest and his 13-year-old African Lanner Falcon, Millie, hop into the cab of a wildlife patrol truck and hit the runways, taxiways and ramps of Halifax Stanfield International Airport. Their mission: to scare away other birds that may be hanging around the airfield, posing a threat to flight safety. 
According to Transport Canada statistics, there were 1,577 bird strikes and 42 small mammal strikes at Canadian airports in 2011. The majority of these collisions happened in the critical takeoff and landing phases of flight, with the highest incidences being in the summer months of July, August and September. Numbers were compiled from reports submitted by pilots, the Department of National Defence, airlines, and airports. In most cases, strikes had no serious effects and flights continued as scheduled; however, in some incidents, bird and mammal strikes resulted in engine damage, penetrated airframes, obstructed vision, aborted takeoffs, and forced landings.
In 2006, Transport Canada added wildlife planning and management regulations to the Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs). The move was largely due to an increase in the number of flights occurring in this country, which corresponded with a population spike in some wildlife species that are hazardous to aircraft. The regulator believes strike prevention begins at the airport, and has mandated that wildlife control personnel must complete a risk assessment of their particular environment and subsequently develop a management plan, report wildlife strikes, have a communication and alerting strategy for wildlife risks, and complete recurrent training every five years.
Gary Searing conducts an airport wildlife management training course in Singapore. Airport Wildlife Mgmt Intl Photo
Forrest is one of those wildlife control experts. He was a heavy equipment operator at the Halifax airport for 12 years before he applied for the bird and wildlife specialist role back in 1999. He landed the job, completed a two-week animal husbandry course at a falconry centre in Ontario, and then returned to Halifax, where he worked under a mentor for two years before obtaining his Nova Scotia falconry permit. 
“To tell you the truth, I’ve been doing it for 14 years, and 15 years ago I never would have thought I’d be doing this,” Forrest told Canadian Skies. “I love it. It’s something different every day when you’re outside. It’s wonderful.”
Forrest is mostly a one-man operation, although occasionally he has a couple of assistants to help him discourage birds and mammals from taking up residence at CYHZ. He said that every airport is different, but his bag of tricks includes both passive and active wildlife control methods. 
“On the passive side, habitat manipulation is the best thing you can do,” he explained. “You get rid of standing water, fill in your ditches, get rid of any seed-bearing plants. Those are effective measures because they remove the attraction for the animals.”
Halifax International Airport also employs locally-made Phoenix Wailer bird deterrent systems, which are external speakers positioned around the runways that scare birds away by emitting bio-acoustic sounds of distress – bird warning calls, for example. Forrest also uses pyrotechnic kits to frighten feathered flyers away, and he said even the presence of the wildlife control truck on the runway is a big deterrent. 
Wildlife hazard biologist Gary Searing poses with a newly banded and tagged Rough-legged Hawk at Vancouver International Airport. Airport Wildlife Mgmt Intl Photo
Active methods to control birds and wildlife include falconry and live trapping and relocation. Forrest has been known to drive as far away as Antigonish, N.S., about an hour and a half away, to relocate animals and owls caught at CYHZ.
But, by far, his most effective sidekicks when it comes to airport bird control are other birds: Millie and her two co-workers, a Harris hawk named Tess, and a red-tailed hawk who answers to Magnum. 
  
“Falconry is a very humane and environmentally friendly way to control birds,” explained Forrest. “My birds are focused on me; they know I’m going to feed them. It’s a little bit different from traditional falconry; I don’t want my birds to go out and catch anything. If they do, I’ve lost control. I want them to come back to me for their food.”
All of Forrest’s birds are captive-bred and trained. Millie – who arrived at the airport on Dec. 26, 1999, and was named in honour of the millennium – hunts from the air and is always moving, so she’s first out of the gate every morning.  
“I’ll take the falcon first for an hour or so; bring her in and weigh her, make sure she’s at her right flying weight. I get her food and equipment ready, and then we get in the truck and go out on the runway,” said Forrest, who explained that the flying weight is simply when the bird’s stomach is empty enough that it starts coming to its handler for food. “Sometimes the difference is mere grams. You need to know your bird and its habits. It’s a real science.”
 
Forrest walks the airport, and Millie follows him from above. Her presence drives off snow buntings, gulls, crows, ravens, starlings, robins and swallows – all of which can pose a direct threat to flight safety. When it’s time for her to come in, Forrest retrieves the falcon by swinging a lure around his head in wide arcs. The lure, shaped like a smaller type of bird, has food attached to it. Millie will attack it from the air, eventually running it to the ground, where Forrest collects her.
The majority of aircraft bird strikes occur during the critical takeoff and landing phases of flight. Eric Dumigan Photo
Airport bird and wildlife management is not an exact science. Rather, it’s a matter of determining the risks unique to each location, and developing a plan to combat them effectively. Gary Searing is a 34-year veteran in the field. The wildlife hazard biologist has worked at airports around the world through his company, Airport Wildlife Management International. He’s also the executive director of the Bird Strike Association of Canada, which is the country’s primary voice of wildlife strike hazard mitigation.
Searing helps airports, including Vancouver International, complete wildlife risk assessments and develop an answering plan of attack, train personnel, develop a method of data collection and reporting, and implement an audit system to track program progress. 
“Often, a small airport has fewer risks, primarily due to slower, smaller aircraft and less frequent flights,” explained Searing. “However, smaller airports typically have fewer resources to address the risks, and so more creative solutions have to be found.”
He is in favour of passive control methods such as habitat management. “I always start with that, because if we can alter a habitat to reduce risks, then we have reduced risk 24/7 with no extra effort.” These measures can include putting wires or netting over ponds so birds cannot alight; fencing airport grounds; appropriate management of the airfield turf; and eliminating standing water whenever possible.
Searing also teaches recurrent training courses for airport personnel through the International Association of Airport Executives – Canada.  His message to students: it’s all about knowing the nature of the beast. 
“Every animal we deal with has a different behaviour and a different way of reacting to what we do. So not only do we need to know the natural behaviour of the hazardous animals on the airfield, but we have to keep making modifications, tweaking our plan, in order to be successful. The job is always changing.”

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