The effects of changes in the Northern Lapwing population on the bird strike hazard in the UK

• Main Author: Bell, J. C.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 1999
• Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection; Vanellus vanellus
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/birdstrike1999/9; https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/birdstrike1999/article/1008/viewcontent/Bell_20Jenny_20Paper.pdf

Changes in bird populations have been recognised as affecting the risk to aircraft of a bird strike. However, in terms of bird strike prevention, changes are generally only considered at the local level i.e. reducing the number of birds on the airfield. At a national level, concern has been expressed about recent increases in waterfowl, particularly geese, and the implications that this may have for flight safety, and management of the risk. However, although work is currently being undertaken to investigate if higher numbers of large waterfowl are causing an increased risk to safety (Allan, Bell & Jackson in press), the work is being hampered by incomplete reporting, and lack of information on world-wide population trends. There has been little discussion of the implications of declining populations to the bird strike risk. This is in part because it is not perceived as a problem. However, it could be argued that if the risk is not recognised to have changed, then resources will continue to be allocated to try and deter a species from using airfields, which no longer warrants a high priority because of its declining numbers. Through this, it has been assumed that an increase in population will lead to an increase in risk and that a decrease in population will lead to a reduction of risk. However, birds are not randomly distributed across the countryside, and there may be behavioural factors which mean that this is not the case. The Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus ) is a wader species commonly found on UK airfields. Because of its size, and its habit of forming large flocks, it is usually considered as a particularly hazardous species. It is also frequently involved in bird strikes and for the years 1976-1995 was the most commonly struck species in the UK. Between these years 1704 strikes were reported in the UK, comprising 17.4 % of all strikes. It is fortunate that in the UK, long term population monitoring of many of the common breeding species has been carried out for a long period of time. This has ...