June 12, 2009

Standing near one of two runways at Air Station Cape Cod yesterday, Peter Jamieson fired a starter pistol armed with a “screamer” shell, and a startled killdeer called back with a shrill, agitated whistle before flying away.

Even something as tiny as a killdeer, an 8-inch shorebird with a weight measured in grams, can wreak havoc with the multimillion-dollar, 25,000-pound jets flown by the Coast Guard or Air National Guard.

Deer, coyotes, foxes and wild turkeys can also pose a threat during the takeoffs and landings of the 38,000 flights in and out of the base each year.

That’s why Air Station Cape Cod, like other airports around the country, has a daily protocol to reduce the risk of collisions between planes and birds, said Kurt Carlson, airport operations manager for the Coast Guard, which operates the base airport.

Carlson and Jamieson use the sounds of crows dying to drive away the black birds. They fire “pepper, cracker and screamer” shells into the air to shoo away shorebirds. And they use air cannons to rid the runways of gulls and other migratory birds. If all else fails, they call in specially licensed hunters who work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Two weeks ago, their efforts gained attention when Forestdale neighbors Dick and Kathie Powell witnessed two USDA hunters shoot two wild turkeys that had just snacked beneath their Forestdale bird feeder.

The federal workers killed them shortly after the birds jumped the fence that separates the neighborhood from the airfield, Kathie Powell said.

“We feel for the woman and understand her grief,” Carlson said. “It’s always a last resort.”

The Powells called police questioning how close the men were to their neighborhood, which abuts the base. They also contacted the Times, which ran a story on Friday. Coast Guard officials did not respond to requests for comment before the newspaper’s deadline last week, but they did talk yesterday.

The hunters told Coast Guard officials they were not as close to the houses as the Powells reported, Carlson said yesterday. The two men had proper permits from state and federal agencies to cull the turkeys.

Powell admitted that she was feeding the wild turkeys, which she named Fred and Wilma.

But that practice is frowned upon because it could lead to turkeys and geese becoming domesticated, said Vern Laux, a Nantucket birding expert and Times columnist.

Even with the precautions taken by airports, bird strikes are common. Since 1988, more than 200 people have been killed in crashes blamed on bird strikes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. A bird strike was blamed in the crash of the U.S. Airways flight into the Hudson on Jan. 15.

On May 26, a Coast Guard pilot at Air Station Cape Cod had to make an emergency landing after a killdeer flew into a wing on takeoff, narrowly missing the engine, Carlson said.

Nantucket Airport is getting a falcon to help rid its runways of birds that pose a threat to planes, said Jeff Marks, airfield manager who is also a licensed falconer.

“The idea of it is to harass the birds on the airfield,” he said.

At Air Station Cape Cod, the effort to keep birds and deer off the runways starts with a 6-foot fence around the perimeter of the 900-acre airfield and ends with bringing in hunters as a last resort, Carlson said.

“We love animals. We don’t go out of our way to harm them,” Carlson said. “Our job is to keep these runways clean.”