From Michael Dryden, chairman, ornithology section, Société Jersiaise.
I NOTE that the Airport authority has decided to support the idea of filling in the pond on Simon’s sandpit in St Ouen’s Bay.
The purported reason is to reduce bird strikes on aircraft using Jersey Airport, especially wildfowl, but I feel that there is a large element of ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ behind their statement.
I would be interested to see the statistics on which it is based.
In 24 years of working at the Airport, in a department directly concerned with bird strikes and their effect upon aircraft, up to retirement four years ago, I cannot recall a single bird strike involving either a duck or a goose.
It should also be noted that flights of ducks, mainly mallard, between St Ouen’s Pond and the sandpit habitually take place at low level, certainly below 200 ft and therefore below the height of the Airport runway.
Thus the only aircraft that could possibly be threatened by these birds would be one flying below airfield height, and this should only be an aircraft granted exemption from the Low Flying Rule by the Airport authority. Such flights must accept an element of risk in undertaking these low-level manoeuvres.
The main significant species involved in such collisions in Jersey are herring gulls, kestrels, stock doves and the occasional barn owl — on one occasion a short-eared owl. None of these species has any direct reliance on the sandpit, and herring gulls would be a feature of the Island with or without it. It is, therefore, spurious to argue that the draining of the sandpit would help in any significant way.
Going a step further, the Airport may or may not have noted the low incidence of lapwings and golden plovers on the Airport grass, even in the winter when hundreds are present in the Island, this being quite different from many airfields elsewhere which do support large populations of roosting birds. And why should this be the case? Precisely because these species prefer to roost at St Ouen’s Pond and in the sandpit!
It can, therefore, be argued that to remove this facility would actually increase the danger of bird strikes at the Airport should they resort to roosting there as an alternative.
It should also be said that the Environment department is working hard to protect lapwings as a breeding species in Jersey, and that the sandpit is currently their only successful breeding site. 7 Pier Road,
St Helier.
Sandpit nonsense
From Michael Dryden, chairman, ornithology section, Société Jersiaise.
I NOTE that the Airport authority has decided to support the idea of filling in the pond on Simon’s sandpit in St Ouen’s Bay.
The purported reason is to reduce bird strikes on aircraft using Jersey Airport, especially wildfowl, but I feel that there is a large element of ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ behind their statement.
I would be interested to see the statistics on which it is based.
In 24 years of working at the Airport, in a department directly concerned with bird strikes and their effect upon aircraft, up to retirement four years ago, I cannot recall a single bird strike involving either a duck or a goose.
It should also be noted that flights of ducks, mainly mallard, between St Ouen’s Pond and the sandpit habitually take place at low level, certainly below 200 ft and therefore below the height of the Airport runway.
Thus the only aircraft that could possibly be threatened by these birds would be one flying below airfield height, and this should only be an aircraft granted exemption from the Low Flying Rule by the Airport authority. Such flights must accept an element of risk in undertaking these low-level manoeuvres.
The main significant species involved in such collisions in Jersey are herring gulls, kestrels, stock doves and the occasional barn owl — on one occasion a short-eared owl. None of these species has any direct reliance on the sandpit, and herring gulls would be a feature of the Island with or without it. It is, therefore, spurious to argue that the draining of the sandpit would help in any significant way.
Going a step further, the Airport may or may not have noted the low incidence of lapwings and golden plovers on the Airport grass, even in the winter when hundreds are present in the Island, this being quite different from many airfields elsewhere which do support large populations of roosting birds. And why should this be the case? Precisely because these species prefer to roost at St Ouen’s Pond and in the sandpit!
It can, therefore, be argued that to remove this facility would actually increase the danger of bird strikes at the Airport should they resort to roosting there as an alternative.
It should also be said that the Environment department is working hard to protect lapwings as a breeding species in Jersey, and that the sandpit is currently their only successful breeding site.
7 Pier Road,
St Helier.
Article posted on 24th July, 2008 - 3.00pm