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Venice beach Falconry

797 views · Published 24 January 2012 · 0:39 · Indexed 14 November 2026

Channel: TONY VERA TVNEWS · 2012 · Pets & Animals

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Venice beach Falconry Aviators' best friend on airport runways / Falcon patrol / Airports turn to raptors to reduce threat of accidents between birds, jets
It comes out of the sun in a screaming dive, brushes the target with a whoosh and loops skyward for another run.

It's Sasquatch Millennium Falcon, a peregrine, trying out for a possible job on runway safety patrol at Oakland International Airport.

"Those killdeer are gone, man. They're out of here," said Billy Mayfield, a port worker who watched Sasquatch chase away a nearby flock of killdeer, one of the most bothersome bird species for both civil and military aviation.

Experts say the world's increasingly busy airports face a growing threat from airplanes smashing into birds, and some see falconry as an added weapon against an expanding bird population.
By Rick DelVecchio, Chronicle Staff Writer
Airports normally use noisemakers and, as a last resort, shotguns to keep birds away from planes. But the predator weapon has its advocates. Birds get used to man-made scare tactics, but they instinctively flee a fast killer on the wing.

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