Thousands of birds to be killed after airport scare (PA)

[Donna]

 BENNER TOWNSHIP — More than three years after an airliner taking off from University Park Airport struck a flock of European starlings, federal officials plan to poison perhaps 15,000 of the birds in the State College area in the days ahead to reduce the threat.
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Theresa LeMire/Courtesy Cornell Lab of Ornithology

University Park Airport Director Bryan Rodgers said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan to use a pesticide on the starlings results from an Aug. 19, 2006, incident when a commercial airliner ran into a flock after takeoff.

“They did sustain engine damage and the aircraft did return back to University Park Airport,� Rodgers said. “It was those starlings back in ’06 that are an issue here today.�

The Federal Aviation Administration’s wildlife strike database reports that the Air Wisconsin-owned Canadair jetliner, flying for US Airways, sustained “substantial� damage.

Substantial damage is the third most severe of four FAA levels. The fourth level is “destroyed.�

Rodgers said the damage was to one of the two jet engines on the airliner, which has about 50 seats. He said no one was injured.
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“I don’t believe the pilot declared an emergency or anything of that nature so it wouldn’t have been a newsworthy item,� Rodgers said.

But as a result, Rodgers said, the FAA “mandated that we conduct a wildlife hazard assessment� through the USDA.

USDA spokeswoman Carol Bannerman said a starling flock found in the area contains 15,000 to 20,000 birds.

She called that a “significant� roost and the USDA expects to kill about 90 percent of them.

“This certainly is big enough to cause serious concerns,� she said. “There’s a large roost near the airport that poses a safety hazard.�

The USDA’s “Notice of Pesticide Application� came in identical letters from USDA district supervisor Craig Swope in Bolivar, Pa., to municipal officials in Ferguson, College, Patton and Benner townships.

Officials in State College and Harris and Halfmoon townships said they did not receive the notification. Swope couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

The Jan. 7 letters say a “catastrophic bird strike� could result “if management action is not taken to reduce this roost.�

The letter also says that if residents find dead starlings in their backyard, children or pets should not be allowed to play with or be around them.

Property owners should instead call the USDA wildlife service state office at 717-236-9451, the letter says.

The USDA letter identified the pesticide to be used as DRC-1339 (EPA Registration No. 56228-30 or 56228- 10), which is classified as a “restricted use pesticide� only for USDA personnel trained in bird control. It’s a slow-acting avicide that kills blackbirds, cowbirds, grackles and starlings in one to three days.

Bannerman said the pesticide has been used for 25 years. She said it will not kill anything else.

She said a cat would have to eat nothing for 100 straight days except starlings killed by the pesticide before it would get sick. She said residents may use plastic bags to dispose of the dead birds.

Bannerman said the municipalities that got the notification were chosen because starlings don’t feed at the same place where they roost.

After they’re poisoned, she said, they will feel bad and go in various directions to roost.

The bird poisoning will take place one day within the next two weeks at a single location at a farm in one of the municipalities. Bannerman said federal law forbids her from identifying the farm.

European starlings like to eat agricultural seeds, and the location will be “pre-baited� to draw the birds there until the day — the weather must be cold — when the USDA will poison the bait.

The USDA prefers to poison starlings in winter. They are prone to get together in big flocks in winter because food sources are limited, they find warmth in numbers and they’re naturally social animals.

“They like to be in these beautiful big flocks,� she said.

A year ago this month, reported from Franklin, N.J.: “The black carcasses of dead starlings still pepper the snowy roads and lawns of central New Jersey’s rural Griggstown community three days after federal officials used a pesticide to kill as many as 5,000 of the birds.�

“It was raining birds,� Franklin Township Mayor Brian Levine told the AP. “It got people a little anxious.�

After that experience, Bannerman said, the USDA has altered its notification process.

“In New Jersey, we told people but they didn’t read their e-mail,� she said. “So now we do it in advance and in a wider area.�

Ferguson Township Manager Mark Kunkle, who alerted the Centre Daily Times to USDA’s plan, said Wednesday that he was finding it difficult to get more information from the federal agency.

“They really have to be a little more forthcoming with some of their stuff,� he said. “Residents have a right to know what’s occurring.�

QUICK FACTS

• Starlings are chunky and blackbird-sized. In flight, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, their short, pointed wings make them look somewhat like four-pointed stars, giving them their name.

• The European starling is an invasive species that reportedly first came to the United States in 1890 and 1891, when Shakespeare enthusiasts decided that America should have all the birds mentioned in the bard’s works.

• Shakespeare mentions the variable-voiced starling only once, in “Henry IV (Part 1),� when Hotspur complains that the king won’t let him mention Mortimer: “But I will find him when he lies asleep, and in his ear I’ll holla ‘Mortimer!’ Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but ‘Mortimer,’ and give it him to keep his anger still in motion.�