There are many ways to get a bird to move away from a specific location, but of course not all of them would be suitable for locations such as airports, farms, oil platforms, retail parks or marinas. Single birds can usually be encouraged to move with a single clap of the hands, but when you have a flock of geese, for example, and they’re congregating dangerously close to an airport runway, the situation becomes far more serious.
One of the main problems for airport managers is that clearing a particular location might be relatively simple, but keeping it clear is another matter altogether. Birds will visit specific places to roost, for example, and to find sources of food. Getting them to move via the regular use of a loud bird scarer is effective, but in the long-term things need to be more scientific than that. Quick wins have their place, obviously, but they aren’t the whole picture.
The most effective bird dispersal products are the ones that do much, much more than simply scare birds away. The highly impressive B.I.R.D. Tab System from Scarecrow gives managers the opportunity to monitor avian activity (and that of all relevant wildlife, in fact) and to report such information into a database. Understanding bird behaviour and movement is the real key to maintaining a safer environment for passengers, flight crew and other airport staff.
Breaking long-standing habits is vital
If birds are attracted to a particular airfield location, especially if they return time and time again, there will be a reason for this. It may be, for example, that water will collect in a certain area and will remain there for long periods of time. This will then in turn lead to an increase in the presence of insects, and as a result of this birds will gather there in search of food. By collating such activity, managers will then be able to react more speedily and with greater confidence.
The vast majority of bird strikes take place without any major issue. They tend to occur on the ground or sometimes at very low altitude, so they have little or no significance in terms of potential danger. However, just one major bird strike is all it takes for a potential disaster, so maintaining airport safety in this matter has understandably become a permanent task. This isn’t likely to ever be an issue that we’ve fully conquered on a full-time basis.
It seems that the most sensible strategies involve understanding more about why birds congregate and where, and what are the best methods to enforce change. Effective bird dispersal systems such as those from Scarecrow are leading the way towards minimising potential risks, which is good news for everyone in the aviation sector and of course for anyone who ever travels by plane.
To find out more about bird deterrent systems from Scarecrow, please get in touch with the team today. We hope to hear from you very soon.
