HomeNewsArticle Display

The bird men of Tinker, BASH team secures the skies from avian offenders

  • Published
  • By Howdy Stout
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Some people enjoy bird watching. This team watches out for birds.

Comprised of Tinker's resident biologists, airfield managers and state and national wildlife agencies, the Tinker Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard team is working to reduce the risk that birds pose to Air Force operations.

Bird strikes are a serious hazard for any aircraft. In January, bird strikes brought down a United Airways flight in New York, forcing the former Air Force pilot to make a dramatic -- and successful -- landing on the Hudson River. Twenty-four crewmen on an AWACS aircraft in 1995 weren't so fortunate. All died after their aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska after hitting a flock of geese. To date, it is the only operational AWACS loss and one keenly felt among AWACS crews.

"The ultimate goal is flight safety," explains John Krupovage, Tinker's Natural Resources Program manager. "Our role in natural resources is to manage sustainable wildlife populations in a manner that does not create an unsafe flying environment. Some species are hazardous to aircraft operations: some are not. We pay special attention to those that are."

Employed by the United States Department of Agriculture and Wildlife Services, Clarke Baker and Matthew Gage spend their days patrolling Tinker's nine square miles in an effort to keep the Air Force and nature from colliding.

"It's enough of a problem that we need them on the airfield," says Ben Barker, airfield manager. "We need their help to focus on BASH because we can't do it on our own."

Tinker was among the first Air Force bases to address the problem by using a pair of USDA specialists to help coordinate wildlife control. One of their first jobs when the program began in 2001 was tackling an urban menace -- the pigeon. Thousands of pigeons were calling the hangars around base home with obvious, unsavory, results.

"Our first year we removed 2,500 pigeons," said Mr. Baker, a USDA wildlife biologist.

Other birds, such as starlings, raptors, egrets, herons, gulls and even pelicans pose hazards on the flight line. Mr. Baker calls birds like the 30-pound pelican a "flying cinderblock" because of the damage they can do to aircraft. Last year, two birdstrikes alone did $289,000 in damage.

"They aren't struck that often," he says, "but when they are hit they can cause a lot of damage."

Part of Tinker's problem is it sits along the routes used by migratory birds. That makes spring and fall hazardous times for aircraft operations. In fact, from mid-September to mid-November the airfield automatically goes to an elevated level of bird-threat readiness. Early morning and late afternoon are high-risk times of day during migration season. If severe enough, flight operations are suspended.

Nearby Lake Stanley Draper and several landfills provide perfect resting and foraging places for migratory birds. And when seasonal rains hit, worms come to the surface and provide a ready source of food, making Tinker's large aprons, taxiways and runways an open invitation for the migratory fowl to dine.

"It attracts a lot of gulls," says Mr. Baker. "And those gulls have learned. They come in by the thousands."

"That's not a good situation," says Ray Moody, Tinker biologist.

Because many of the migratory birds are also federally-protected species, moving them can be an issue. As a result, the BASH program takes the long-term solution of making Tinker an uninviting environment.

"Trying to eliminate any habitat at all is key," Mr. Moody says.

Airfield managers do that by keeping grass around the airfield between seven and 14 inches tall, a height that discourages birds from alighting because it might hide predators. Eliminating nesting areas by covering culverts is another way to make the area uninviting. Mr. Baker uses hanging plastic strips to prevent barn swallows from nesting in culverts while still allowing water to flow.

"It's just an idea we've thought of and it works pretty well," he says. "You have to be pretty innovative. When you're dealing with wildlife, it's never the same."

Not all birds are the same, either. Mr. Moody says the base has a "zero tolerance" policy for geese. People feeding geese encourage them to stay in an area rather than traditionally migrate, resulting in a geese population explosion locally and globally. "They're going to be a continuing problem for us," Mr. Moody said.

As USDA officials, Mr. Baker and Mr. Gage can also address off-base issues that affect flight operations at Tinker. The pair regularly visit nearby Draper Lake. The USDA also has specialists at the nearby landfills to deter birds from calling the area home, a job Mr. Gage had before joining the Tinker team.

An Egret rookery, or nesting colony, west of base with more than 10,000 large birds was successfully relocated several years ago after AWACS planes struck several of them. At one point, Mr. Baker said, "we had a thousand of them crossing the airfield every morning."

"We did have some strikes," Mr. Krupovage said. "A dangerous situation, but USDA removed the colony by altering the nesting habitat during the winter months when the birds had migrated south. When the birds returned in the spring, the modified habitat kept them from nesting at that location again."

The BASH program also uses pyrotechnics, species-specific chemicals, recordings of bird distress calls and old-fashioned wooden clappers to chase birds away. Raptors are often trapped with Tinker-designed pole traps and relocated. Of the 15 to 20 captured each year, Mr. Gage says, less than a handful ever return.

Birds aren't the only hazard to airfield operations. Coyotes, beavers, skunks and deer also venture onto the airfield. Mr. Krupovage recalls the day in the 1990s when thousands of migrating Monarch butterflies resulted in an elevated watch condition that alerted air crews to the hazard. "They were just so thick that there were concerns of butterflies being ingested," Mr. Krupovage said. "And they still come through."

Even for the experts, wildlife is unpredictable.

"There's always something new going on," says Mr. Gage.

In an effort to better understand birdlife on Tinker, ornithologists from Virginia Tech are currently conducting a base-wide study of birds on base. "They'll identify every bird and give us an inventory," Mr. Moody said. "It's giving us a lot of good data."

Accurate data will allow BASH biologists to make better environmental decisions.

"It's more than being out here all the time," explains Mr. Moody of the BASH program. "It's looking at the data and making science-based improvements. But wildlife is unpredictable. You never know where the next threat will come from."