There was an old lady who swallowed a bird;
How absurd, to swallow a bird!
While I was on holiday in Eilat a few years ago, I met some ladies who very enthusiasticaly invited me to a talk on migrating birds. Apparently, Eilat is a very popular tourist destination for birdwatchers and, not having anything else to do that evening, I went along. While my Hebrew was absolutely definitely not up to following the talk (my ornithology-relevant vocabulary being limited to “ציפור” (bird)) there were some really impressive slides of flocks of birds as well as of the results of birds hitting aircraft.
A combination of the fact that Israel has in the order of 500 million migrating birds flying over it in Spring and Autumn, and that Israel has a fairly active airforce, means that bird-plane collisions were an inevitable part of Air Force life. Yossi Leshem’s then did a study of the migration routes of birds, and was able to recommend areas that should be avoided during the peak migration seasons which reduced the number of collisions by about 75 %.
A quick internet search this afternoon yielded two other bits of bird-plane trivia:
In response to concerns for aircraft safety due to the presence of birds at the Zagreb airport, trained birds of prey were introduced to chase them away. This worked.
Birds and air traffic safety on Zagreb airport
Appropriately arranged lights on aircraft can decrease the chance of collision – the birds fly so as to avoid the planes.
Reactions of Migrating Birds to Lights and Aircraft
And: No I don’t know what type of bird is in the photograph
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her.
That’s easy, Bronwen. It’s a brown one.
... but it’s not enough to try to scare birds away. You have to experiment with what happens when bird meets aircraft at high speed. Yes, it’s the famous chicken gun.
I had completely forgotten about the chicken gun! And of course there are always at least two types of solutions to a problem.
...and thanks for clearing up the naming problem… in our group at Nature Protocols we often have discrepancies regarding the names that we give colours – perhaps you can solve this one: Is the Piccadilly line dark blue or purple?
Dark blue. Gosh, isn’t science easy?
The use of birds of prey at Zagreb airport reminded me of another example a bit closer to home – at Wimbledon tennis championships, where I was surprised to hear that they use birds of prey to stop the local pigeons from disrupting the play!
Apparently there’s a whole ‘avian control’ industry out there…
This is brilliant, Hannah, and an excellent example of how a childhood hobby has turned into a career.
I also liked the link with chemistry: apparently pigeon droppings (I suppose all bird poo) contain a lot of ammonia which ruins that lawns and corrodes buildings. Apparently this was responsible for the collapse of a bridge in Minnesota.