Falcons could be used to curb geese at LGA

From the Daily News:

Airports try lots of things in the endless battle to keep birds from the runway, but nothing beats a fast-moving falcon - with its razor-sharp talons, experts say.

"It is the best tool that we have available to us," said Andrew Barnes, a veteran falconer in charge of clearing birds from the runways of McGuire Air Force Base in central New Jersey.

The Port Authority has a five-year, $3 million contract with the company to do falconry at Kennedy Airport, where a state-of-the-art bird-detection radar system is set to be deployed under a deal with the Federal Aviation Administration.

While falconry has been used at JFK for about a decade, it is not used at LaGuardia, PA spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said.

Barnes, who used falconry at JFK, said bird mitigation efforts without falconry are a "losing battle."

Barnes argued that falconry is effective against all bird species except other raptors and turkey vultures.

Steve Garber, a wildlife biologist who formerly ran the bird-mitigation program at JFK and LaGuardia, agreed with Barnes. "When done effectively, as part of a really good program, [falconry] makes everything far more effective," said Garber, who introduced falconry at Kennedy in the 1990s. "The falcons were scaring off far more than just gulls."