Cannon prevents avian damage

YUMA PROVING GROUND - A duck or a goose may not seem like much of a match for a military aircraft, but they can cause millions of dollars in damage, which is why Yuma Proving Ground is taking steps to prevent planes from hitting waterfowl.

Earlier this month, Jason Gibbons, a wildlife biologist for the environmental division at YPG, began implementing parts of a Department of Defense program aimed at reducing migratory bird hazards to aviation.

"Some birds can be more hazardous then others, but the large ones such as geese and heron can do a lot of damage to an aircraft," Gibbons said.

In doing so, Gibbons has placed propane operated cannons, commonly called a "bird scare cannons," at sewage lagoons in the main administrative area that are a short distance away from the installation's Laguna Army Airfield.

"We aren't trying to harm the birds, we are trying to scare them back to the Colorado River, which is about two miles away. Our concern is just as much about protecting wildlife as it is the safety of pilots."

Gibbons said the "bird scare cannons" are only being used to scare away any waterfowl and other birds at the lagoons to prevent them from hitting aircraft landing at the airfield. The lagoons are in the flight path to the airfield.

Migratory birds traveling through the area are attracted to the sewage lagoons as a natural retreat.

"That wasn't something that was taken into consideration when the lagoons were built," Gibbons said.

In describing how the cannon works, Gibbons said it is attached to a propane tank that feeds a cylinder which shoots off to make a loud noise to scare the birds.

When the cannons are set off, Gibbons said, the birds fly away and land somewhere else other than the lagoons.

The cannons mimic the sound of a 12-gauge shotgun and can be set to fire automatically at one hour intervals every 24 hours. The cannon closest to the residential section of the base only fires from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Gibbons said he has conducted a bird survey the past year to record the number of waterfowl and shorebirds that inhabit the water reservoirs throughout the installation.

"We have counted up to 700 ducks on the big ponds and 500 on the small ponds. The bird count ebbs and flows throughout the year, but it was no surprise to see it peak during migratory season."

Some of the birds will stay here and others will continue their migration, he said.

Future plans are to put a wire grid over the smaller lagoons, which should help keep the birds away. Gibbons said there have been very few bird strikes at YPG, with the most recent one happening in 2006. The only one prior to that was in the 1980s.