Flyaway
Farm and Kennels has provided a complete wildlife control package
for Dover AFB since 2002.
Dover AFB is in the unique situation where 80-90% of all bird risks
are located off of the base’s property. They are surrounded by
thousands of acres of agricultural fields, several thousand acres of
marshland and 2 active quarries within 3 miles of the base. Dover
AFB is located in the midst of the Atlantic Migratory Flyway and has
historically had problems with migrating birds, primarily migratory
waterfowl. The base is situated amongst 2 national and 3 state
wildlife refuges that at their peak during October and November are
home to over 500,000 wintering waterfowl. Flyaway Farm and Kennels
Wildlife Management provides a complete wildlife control package for
Dover AFB. We provide a full time wildlife biologist to handle day
to day bird control on the airbase and on the 5 miles surrounding
the base, and 4 professionally trained border collies for wildlife
control. We add an additional employee during the busy season to be
able to move large flocks of waterfowl more quickly and to increase
wildlife control activities on weekends during phase II. Dr. Karen
Voltura is a specialist in the ecology and behavior of birds and has
done research on breeding bird behavior and migration. Her
responsibilities at Dover AFB include daily bird counts, assessment
of bird movement patterns, harassment and movement of geese and
other nuisance birds, and any necessary trapping of wildlife. She
also conducts research and plans strategies to decrease the risk to
aircraft through habitat management in conjunction with base
personnel in several different offices including Wing Safety, Civil
Engineering and Airfield Management.
Snow
goose and Canada goose population numbers have continued to rise
over their ranges in North America and yet Dover AFB has
significantly reduced bird strikes with geese through a thorough and
diligent BASH program utilizing border collies and knowledge of bird
behavior. Snow geese are the major threat to flying safety at Dover
AFB. From October through March, migrating and wintering geese fly
over the base from the bay to inland feeding areas and forage in the
farm fields surrounding the base itself. At the peak of the season,
close to half a million wintering waterfowl are present in Delaware.
Flyaway Farm and Kennels has 4-6 dogs in Dover for those 6 months
and patrol all fields within 5 miles of the base. We coordinate with
the control tower and move flocks as large as 40,000 or more snow
geese feeding near the flight paths of aircraft. By forcing birds on
the ground to leave through harassment, we control the timing of
bird movement, minimizing the risk of having thousands of birds lift
up underneath an aircraft on approach or departure from the
airfield. This also decreases the chance that flocks on the ground
will attract other birds flying over the area to stop and feed and
flocks are discouraged from returning to feed in the same area. One
landowner has commented that since the start of the BASH/border
collie program at Dover AFB, he has observed far fewer geese even
landing in his fields than in previous years even though goose
totals statewide are increasing. In our primary patrol area, we saw
a 70-95% decrease in the number of geese landing in the area in the
2003-2004 season when compared to our first year even though goose
numbers in the state were 50 to75 % higher than the winter of
2002-2003. This indicates a long term effect of the dogs and this is
further supported by the
finding that goose numbers in fields directly outside our primary
patrol area were much higher than the previous year. We have worked
very hard to develop a strong relationship with the local landowners
and that has been fundamental in the success of the program. We
initiated all contact with these landowners and have more than
doubled the area patrolled for wintering waterfowl and initiated a
positive working relationship with an additional mining facility to
the north. Through coordination with many local landowners we were
able to gain access to properties north and south of our primary
patrol areas and harassed over 75,000 
geese in
November and December of 2003 from fields 1.5 to 3 miles from the
ends of the runways. Birds in this area had created a high risk
environment and caused the runway conditions to remain severe for
over 3 hours one morning. We were able to move the largest flocks in
about 15 minutes and they remained gone for the rest of the day and
only returned to that area twice more before abandoning the area
entirely. Because of the positive relationships with these
landowners, we now get calls
from other local farmers volunteering to cooperate with the base and
allow us on their property.
