Dogs make a difference at DAFB
Border collies shoo geese away from base flight paths

By JAMES MERRIWEATHER
Dover Bureau reporter

The News Journal, Wilmington, DE
11/25/2003

The gaggle of perhaps 40 Canada geese was about 100 yards deep into a muddy field, eating half-buried remnants from the fall corn harvest.

Karen Voltura pulled her vehicle to the shoulder of North Little Creek Road a few miles east of Dover and north of Dover Air Force Base. Then she unleashed Bill, a 6-year-old border collie on patrol to keep birds away from the base flight paths.

With a few instructions from Voltura, Bill sprinted toward the birds. The geese took flight, disappearing into low-hanging fog. Bill continued to harass the birds until Voltura's shepherd's whistle called him to her side.

Voltura makes her daily patrols under a contract with the base for a program in effect since February 2000, when Nick Carter of Melrose, Fla., a private contractor, introduced two dogs to the base's Bird Aircraft Hazard program   Voltura's employer, Flyaway Farm and Kennels of Bolivia, N.C., took over the the $95,000-a-year contract from Carter in October 2002.   Base officials said the number of bird strikes dropped 55 percent in the first year of dog patrols by Flyaway Farm and Kennels.  Bird strikes are a threat to aircraft taking off and landing, and the birds are more than a safety concern. In 2001, geese sucked into a C-5 cargo jet's engine caused $798,000 in damage.

The daily bird hunt is intended to push birds back as much as six miles from the base. Dawn and dusk are the high-risk times for bird strikes. Base arrivals and departures are limited as much as possible at those times.

"In most cases," Voltura said of the birds, "we shoo them off in the morning and they don't come back during the day. Some of them may come back at dusk."

Rebecca Ryan, a dog trainer who owns Flyaway Farm, also has a contract with Charleston (S.C.) Air Force Base, where egrets, herons and other wading birds are the primary problem. She also has contracts with municipal airports at Daytona Beach and Fort Myers, Fla, and has sent trained dogs to Costa Rica, where they chase away fish-eating birds.

At Dover, Voltura, who has a University of Oklahoma doctorate in behavioral ecology, tracks the breeding grounds and movement patterns of various bird species and advises base officials about vegetation and habitat likely to attract birds and wildlife. Flyaway targets geese and various gulls attracted to ponds and gravel pits near the base.

Pyrotechnics are used along with the dogs, but it takes birds only so long to figure out that they're not being killed by the noise. Paintball guns are used to chase seagulls.

"If you see pink or blue seagulls," Ryan said, "those are some of ours."

Border collies originally were trained to herd sheep. Now, they keep bird watch on golf courses, municipal airports, military bases and even fish farms.

The breed is about as docile as they come. But, since they run silently with their heads down and keep a constant stare on their prey, they're perceived by birds and other wildlife as sinister and deadly.

"Geese and wildlife see them as coyotes or foxes," Ryan said. "But they don't have a killer instinct. They just want to do whatever their job is, and that's to get all the birds to go away."

On patrol with Bill last week, Voltura encountered a two-dog situation.

Trixie, the 7-year-old ace of Voltura's four-dog entourage, joined Bill in spooking some 8,000 to 12,000 snow geese. The migratory geese arrive in October to bed down until March in the Delaware Bay marshlands, moving inland during the day to eat corn, soybeans and winter wheat.

Voltura called the base's flight tower, then the offices of Philip Cartanza's farming operation to warn of the impending fray between the dogs and waterfowl.

Paul Cartanza Sr., who runs the family farming operation, said he supplements Voltura's patrols with hunters to try to minimize crop damage.

"Right now, it's the cornfields, then they'll go to barley," said Cartanza. "It's like a seven-day-a-week job just to keep them moved back."

It would take 30 minutes for Trixie and Bill to deal with the flock.

"They know, especially Trixie, that their job is to make sure those geese are gone," Voltura said.

Ideally, the birds would fly off to the north and east, away from the takeoff and approach lanes used by the Dover base's giant C-5 cargo aircraft and visiting planes.

So far, the collies are doing the job, said Master Sgt. Curt Cushman. In the budget year that ended Sept. 30, the base experienced 24 bird strikes and incurred just $1,300 in damage.

"Overall, we're doing extremely well," Cushman said.

Reach James Merriweather at 678-4273 or jmerriweather@ delawareonline.com.

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