Bird strikes soar in NYC area

[khorton]

Originally Posted by lomapaseo

is it a case of resident geese know the risks and stay low and predictable, while migrating tourist type geese follow some vague set of ATC direction in the middle of climb-out or landing patterns for aircraft???

The resident Canada Geese do learn the local flight patterns, and adjust their activities to avoid high risk areas. A good friend (since passed away) was the head wildlife control expert in Transport Canada's airports group. TC and the USAF ran a joint research program testing a radar to observe birds around airports. They had the prototype set up at Vancouver for a while, and they observed that the local resident geese transited N-S along the shoreline just west of CYVR twice a day. They would typically be at 1500 ft during the transit, but they would descend down to 300 ft as they approached the airport and pass by the airport below the typical take-off or landing flight path. They would climb back up to 1500 ft once past the airport.

[MATELO]

Has there been a significant increase in aircraft movements? Might be interesting to see the ratio of birdstrikes in comparison