PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - WX Radar-avoiding birdstrikes?
View Single Post
Old 3rd Oct 2005, 07:12
  #8 (permalink)  
TheOddOne
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Down at the sharp pointy end, where all the weather is made.
Age: 74
Posts: 1,684
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes on 3 Posts
There are 2 strands to this thread.

One is the wx or any other kind of radar to deter birds. NO it doesn't work.

The other is to use radar to plot bird movements, either in real-time to give an indication as to where to direct bird-dispersal effort or more usefully to track patterns of behaviour of different species so that habitat management can be modified/improved.

Trying to plot bird movements and then directing resource to their location inevitably ends up with the bird person going to where the birds were 5 minutes ago, not where they are now. There's no replacement for having someone out in the field observing & carrying out dispersal on the spot.

The only real benefit of radar is this latter strategic use. We had a team down from the Central Science Laboratory with their specialist radar. This is quite amazing - it can differentiate between different species and recordings made over a period of days can show where flocks are feeding, loafing, roosting and transiting. We can then try and modify the environment to make it less attractive to that particular species.

We've tried all sorts of scaring devices/techniques over the years. What works for us at civvie and RAF aerodromes is
a) habitat management (about halves the strike rate) and
b)a mixture of distress calls and shell crackers, used by someone properly trained.

The Royal Navy, uniquely, use falconry. This requires a totally different philosophy and dedicated staff to look after the falcons etc. Fascinating stuff.

Cheers,
TheOddOne
TheOddOne is offline