Hawk eyes set to boost safety at Prestwick airport
02 May 2008A hawk has been hired to boost the safety of aircraft operations at Glasgow Prestwick airport in Ayrshire.
Four-year-old Harris hawk Jasper, one of a team of hawks owned by pest control company Rentokil, has been recruited to stop seagulls flying too close to the airport runway and potentially colliding with planes.
Fears were raised recently when a colony of seagulls took up residence on the roof of a Scottish Water building near Prestwick airport.
Nets were installed to control the movement of the gulls, but some birds became trapped and injured, leading Scottish Water to search for a humane way of keeping them at a safe distance from the airport.
Rob Crusher, head of facilities management at Scottish Water, said: "We hope that using the hawk, in addition to the netting, will halt them this year, break the cycle and encourage them to nest elsewhere in future."
Steve Thomson, Prestwick's airfield operations manager, added: "The action Scottish Water is taking is excellent because the gull colony that was there was a severe hazard because it was so close to our runways."
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