To all:
Reference the grass cutting issue, I am intimately familiar with this tool and I suggest reading "Sharing the Skies", there is excellent information on this mitigation strategy. However, care must be taken when employing this strategy that the bird risks are clearly identified and the grass height picked to deter the high risk species at the airport in question. Further to this you must also carefully consider that by chnaging the grass height you may attarct other birds in the process.
The odd one, I applaud you for looking beyonf the airport boundaries to deal with bird hazards- this is essential. Currently I am working on a number of projects in this area including finishing the development of a "Bird Aircraft Risk Model" that allows you to assess the high risk areas around any airport based on the aircraft types using the airport, the runway configurations and the local hazardous bird species. This allows you to identify the high hazard areas on the ground and examine local land uses for dangerous practices and work with local authorities to mitigate those hazardous land uses. In addition I am working with a team that will be developing updated policy on land-use in the vicinity of the airport to mitigate bird strikes. A final project is pariticipation in committee that is dealing with the Canada Goose problem in the Toronto area throught the development of coordinated startegies with all the local stakeholders.
Finally on the radar issues - you are absolutely correct many companies put this in as SOP to cover their backsides, but many do it based on the belief tha it actually works.
Richard