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DUBLIN AIRPORT IS looking for a better way to clear birds and small animals off its runway.
Together with Enterprise Ireland, the air transport hub has opened a tender competition for firms to research and develop new techniques to keep wildlife off the airfield.
A fund of up to €200,000 for the project will be allocated in two phases. The tender is facilitated through Enterprise Ireland’s ‘small business innovation research’ initiative.
Although they’re rare, so-called ‘bird strikes’ – when an aircraft collides with a bird – can cause considerable damage to an aircraft and pose a risk to crew and passengers on-board.
On average, there are five bird strikes per 10,000 ‘movements’ – take-offs and landings at airports around the world.
However, the strike rate last year at Dublin Airport was below average at 2.7 strikes per 10,000 movements, a decrease of 20% on the year before. There were 56 such incidents logged last year, none major, according to tender documents.
Scaring techniques
Dublin Airport currently recruits the services of two ornithologists, or bird experts, to monitor flock movements around the airfield. There are daily patrols of the airfield “from dawn to dusk”.
“There are numerous scaring techniques and solutions available, however none are consistently effective across all species of wildlife,” the airport said in the tender documents.
A number of ‘non-lethal scaring techniques’ are used to keep birds and small animals off the runway, including hand-held lasers, pyrotechnic guns and a vehicle that blasts audio of bird distress calls.
The airport also has one lethal ‘scaring technique’ in its arsenal: a shotgun.
The species of bird currently on Dublin Airport’s hit list include buzzards, starlings and pigeons. There are many instances where a pilot is unaware that they have hit a bird.
“The only evidence might be blood marks or feathers found on the fuselage (aircraft body) during routine visual inspections on stand,” the tender said, adding that it’s procedure to take DNA samples of the bird’s corpse.
While the tender is primarily concerned about reducing the risk of bird strikes, it also raises the issue of strikes with small mammals, namely hares, badgers and foxes.
The tender competition is open between now and 14 August.
Written by Conor McMahon and posted on Fora.ie
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Animals are treated like garbage in Ireland.
@GoodBrother: humans are.
@GoodBrother: Yeah, I’m really pleased to see this series but it just drives home how terrible we are at animal welfare here. Stuff like banning bully breed dogs is just performative, we have completely toothless legislation for protecting wild and domestic animals from mistreatment and exploitation here.
@Rob Hunt: we should ban all forms of cruelty to animals and hunting.. and you should probably change your second name too on that note ..
@Rob Hunt: Politics in Ireland is a theatre show. At it’s most useful politicians will offer the lowest common denominator, the path of least resistance.
@Rob Hunt: I would recommend that you checkout the rebuttal piece to this article on the Facebook Page of the IrishHawking Club. It contains comments on the piece from one of the world’s leading conservationists which point out all the factual errors and misleading claims that have no scientific evidence to back them up. Read it and make your own mind up.
This series of reports over the last few days shows exactly who the real animals are in this country. Well done to the author of the articles.
@Pat Barry: No evidence is provided for all the wild claims and the piece is littered with factual inaccuracies. Read the rebuttal piece with all the supporting scientific evidence on the Irish Hawking Club Facebook page along with the comments from someone who is actually an expert in wildlife conservation.
Who the f¥(k though it’s a good idea to offer a licence to steal chicks from an endangered birds nest…
That has to stop now
I don’t care if it’s a handful a year one is too much…
@David Cotter: No evidence is provided for all of the wild claims made in spite of this piece claiming to be an investigation. Check out the rebuttal piece on the Irish Hawking Club Facebook page. It contains references to all the scientific population studies that have been carried out and that debunk all these claims. It also contains comments from the world’s leading Raptor conservationist that point out all the factual errors on the piece. Read it all and make your own mind up.
The government doesn’t give a hoot
How the f is thus legal
And we were told all along that it is the farmers shooting the raptors…..
I didn’t read d full article but fair play to d irish man making few extra bob off birds governments “cronies” makin alot more money from the like of bus shelters and bike stands than they ever will
@Johnny Stokes: A grown man that never grew out of text speak and can’t manage to read a full article. No wonder your opinions are so uneducated.
@Johnny Stokes: ahh Johnny it’s not always about hustling for money…..these creatures need our help
@David Cotter: While there’s an obvious ‘clang’ being leaned into above, everything is 100% about ‘hustling for money’, this is what our system supports and applauds. While some may lounge and (rightfully) measure success by time (the middle class), literally everyone else is getting as much money as they can by any means possible.
@Thesaltyurchin: so you think that this should be applauded because people have to hustle for money? It’s petty much the lowest of the low, and should be called out. You probably think those selling our wildlife for illegal baiting should get a medal too eh? Sickening.
@Johnny Stokes: with a comment like that – you must be based in Russian embassy to stoke up discord – hint in your username obvs.
There are so many factual errors in this article, it is staggering. Why has the representative body for falconry in Ireland not been contacted for comment? All peregrines bred in captivity are domestic stock, kept under licence and sold LEGALLY. (If there is criminal activity, where are the convictions?). They cannot leave Ireland and enter a jurisdiction without CITES documentation. This legal trade has absolutely nothing to do with raptor persecution, and it is bizarre how this article is pairing these things. Permits to harvest peregrines are not “a lottery” and are carefully vetted by the NPWS. It involves huge amounts of legwork and paperwork, which is why there is a market for aviary-bred birds. The amount taken (a maximum of 5 but usually 3) amounts to a tiny, tiny percentage of the annual first-year mortality rate, which is roughly 60% (ie, if there are three chicks in a nest, two will not survive their first winter, statistically). “Oh yes but wild take in general is bad” Where do you think all the chicks come from to resource these extensive raptor reintroduction projects? Do better, Journal.ie
Sensational none story. You left out the bit where their bringing the birds back to the Arab States with the race horses on their planes.
@P. V. Aglue: Are you having a stroke?
@Rob Hunt: it’s your racing pigeon buddies and pheasant shooters poisoning the raptors.
I doubt that the author has ever dealt with CITES regulations before. The article is full of mistakes, misunderstandings and omissions. You cannot lump together the trade in captive bred specimens and wild specimens like that. Captive bred specimens have entirely different trade regulations – and some may say that the trade in captive bred specimens actually helps wild specimens – because if you cannot satisfy the demand through captive bred animals you may go after wild animals. The point is controversial but this story doesn’t even acknowledge its existence. You cannot lump Appendix II and Appendix I listings together like that. There is a very active legal trade in Appendix II species – - that’s like writing “driving through a red OR a yellow light is a serious offense”.
That’s falcon awful.
Leave our chick alone
“Peregrine falcons have two main risks, one, persecution, and secondly, with these licences,” said Ronan Hannigan, chairman of the Golden Eagle Trust.
Really?
Why does a 13-year study by the National Parks and Wildlife Service into threats to Irish birds of prey not once mention “these licences”?
https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/IWM126.pdf
Because they are utterly inconsequential compared to the real threats to wild raptors and have no effect whatsoever on wild stocks. Whatever about Mr Hannigan seeming to have fabricated falsehoods to push his personal narrative, the Journal.ie could at least have done some fact-checking.
About as abysmal a piece of so called “investigative” journalism as you will find. Littered with errors of fact and claims and quotes with no evidence. Read the rebuttal piece on the Facebook Page of the Irish Hawking Club. It supplies references for many of the population studies which debunk all the wild claims in this piece and includes comments from one of the world’s leading Avian Conservationists, Dr Nick Fox OBE which leave the “trade” part of the article in tatters as well!
Read and make your own mind up!
About as abysmal a piece of so called “investigative” journalism as you will find. Littered with errors of fact and claims and quotes with no evidence. Read the rebuttal piece below which includes comments from one of the world’s leading Avian Conservationists and, just as importantly, peer reviewed scientific references which completely debunk this really poor article.
@michael quinn: as I can’t post links or the full response to this article, please look up the Irish Hawking club on Facebook
This article is full of absolute rubbish, it’s easy to see there was zero effort on behalf of the “journalist” to actually do any actually research into this matter,
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