Owls Attracted To Protect Runway

Got this from my farther who is a pilot.

A California community has come up with a high-flying approach to combating the crumbling infrastructure at its little airport. They're letting a local Boy Scout put up owl boxes in trees near the runway at Columbia Airport, near Sonora in northern California. It seems gophers have made a mess of the grass strip, digging holes and creating mounds of earth that can make for jarring landings and takeoffs. The 2,600-foot irrigated runway isn't even a year old. "Hopefully it is going to lower our maintenance costs and keep our brand-new runway in better shape," said airport director Jim Thomas. It may also help Harrison Young become an Eagle Scout. The 18-year-old Soulsbyville teen built and installed the boxes, which will attract barn owls, as part of his Eagle Scout qualification. Birds and airports don't generally mix but Young has done his homework. Barn owls are nocturnal and the airport isn't used at night. Now, as long as the gophers are nocturnal, too...


Not really photography related, sorry

Trained falconers (and their birds) are often used for gull control at airports...

I just found an interesting statistic... From the FAA "wildlife strike database" 1/91 to 5/98. The most hazardous animal to avaiation is deer! (The remaining 20 types of critter on the list are all birds.)

Gophers didn't make the list.

-Paul

I watched a whole special once on a group of farmers who had rat problems in their crops wanted to do away with current chemical solutions. A trial run of installing Barn Owl nest boxes so the owls would hunt the rats turned out to be 100% successful! The Barn Owls each require a substantial number of rats each year to survive and the project saw each nest box used and the rat population brought under control.

Farmers in England love Barn Owls, and many of them have started putting up nest boxes. I saw a show on the Discovery channel about Barn Owls a few months back, and one farm has put up a couple dozen (if I recall right) nest boxes, and within a year all of them were in use. He does it because in his opinion, Barn Owls have dramatically decreased his rodent problem in his farm fields. I think instances like this are way cool, that people have learned that encouraging predatory birds to live in their area is a win-win situation, for both the birds, and the people.

Paul wrote:

I just found an interesting statistic... From the FAA "wildlife strike database" 1/91 to 5/98. The most hazardous animal to avaiation is deer!

Maybe they meant Reindeer....LMAO, could'nt hold that one back!

Yeah I read that in AvSig this morning. Personally I'd rather run over a gopher hole than have a bird strike with something as large as one of the bigger owl species.

E.J. Peiker wrote:Personally I'd rather run over a gopher hole than have a bird strike with something as large as one of the bigger owl species.

A 2 lb. Gull makes one h*ll of a bang at 120 knots....

cheers, Oliver

I hit a Turkey Vulture at 190 knots on the pilot side. Fotunately the bird didn't come through the window. I had to climb over into the right seat and land in El Centro, CA.

I hit a Turkey Vulture at 190 knots on the pilot side.

Yuck! What a sight that was huh?

Campbell wrote:Yuck! What a sight that was huh?

Picking the pieces out of every nook and cranny on the aircraft was gross!

Interesting! And I was surprised that the #2 wild danger to aviation in the US (after deer) was Vultures!

(The Canadian list is quite different from the US list, but deer are still on top.)

-Paul

E.J. Peiker wrote:I hit a Turkey Vulture at 190 knots on the pilot side. Fotunately the bird didn't come through the window. I had to climb over into the right seat and land in El Centro, CA.

!!! Holy shh.... You're very lucky to be alive! I thought a gull through (!) the nose cone on final was bad enough.

I'm willing to guess that most of the public doesn't realize just how serious a bird strike can be. Well, imagine a brick thrown from a highway overpass smashing through your car's windshield - and then double or triple it!

cheers, Oliver

Yeah, I was lucky, I had the thicker 1/4 inch front windows installed compared to the stock 1/8 inch to dampen cabin noise and they saved my butt!