Results tagged “canadageese”

Port Authority officials continue to fight off the terror threat posed by Canada geese, employing techniques from falconry to to shotguns to killing their eggs. With Captain Sully being given a hero's welcome back to the skies as he returned to work this week, it seemed time that we better check in on the villain that was disposed of, lest they come back bigger and stronger than ever. Officials from the PA say they are doing just that, not losing any momentum after over 1,000 were "rounded up" this summer.

The Post, which called war on Canada geese earlier this year after the bird strike that downed US Airways Flight 1549, adds to its list of bird vs. flying machine incidents, reporting that a bird dent the front of a Boeing MD-80 which was landing at Laguardia Airport yesterday.

The roundup of Canada geese around NYC airports is now nearly halfway complete with a total of 800 having been trapped and gassed. Operation "Goose-Be-Gone" has now removed geese from 15 of the 40 sites within 5 miles of Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports that is expected to kill around 2,000 birds. However one wildlife expert told the Queens Tribute that the city's removal program is only skimming the surface. Dr. Steven Graber said, “They’re definitely on the right track. They’re finally doing what they’ve been supposed to have been doing this entire time. However, they’re forgetting about 90 percent of the property and 90 percent of the problem.” A spokesman for the mayor's office disputed that saying, “In the City, there isn’t much open space that isn’t city owned." The Times had more pictures of the geese being rounded up earlier in the week at Randalls Island.

The Post, which basically called war on Canada geese after Flight 1549, continues to cover the geese culling/killing, reporting that 300 geese have been killed on Monday and Tuesday: "Death squads targeting Canada geese before they bring down any more commercial jets launched an amphibious assault on Fort Totten Park in Queens -- where they used an armada of kayaks to herd the flying menaces to the shore. Workers from the US Department of Agriculture and city Parks Department then rounded up gaggles of the pesky honkers, put them in crates and drove them on a flatbed truck to a secret location at Kennedy Airport. Officials wouldn't say if they were gassed there or transported to another location to meet their doom." And there are pictures, too. The city and Port Authority are trying to eliminate at least 2,000 geese from the area, in hopes of improving airline safety. Protesters gathered outside the PA's offices in Manhattan; one said, "This is a terrible precedent to set, that anytime there is a problem with wildlife — to just slaughter them is not a way to solve the issue."

According to the NY Post, Operation Kill At Least 2,000 NYC Geese is well underway: "Nearly 100 Canada geese were killed yesterday...Agents from the US Department of Agriculture hit four city parks and will continue rounding up the geese this week, said Allen Gosser the department's assistant state director." How did the USDA agents do it? They brought the geese "into a corralled area" and put them in "wooden crates," later gassing them with carbon dioxide. The city and Port Authority are trying to cull/kill geese in order to improve airline safety, since Flight 1549 was brought down when geese flew into the Airbus 320's engines. However, some critics of the plan say some humane measures, like scaring them with fireworks or changing the landscaping, might also be effective. Yes, what about the Geese Police, those cute border collies who help rid areas of geese?

The Humane Society of the United States has weighed in on New York City's—and the Port Authority's—plan to cull/kill/gas 2,000 geese. The city perceives the geese as a threat to airline safety, given that geese took down US Airways Flight 1549 (Mayor Bloomberg reiterated on his radio show, "We're trying to strike a balance. In the safety of flying, the public trumps the rights of the geese"), but the Humane Society says, "The best and most lasting solution to secure the safety of air travelers as well as preserve wildlife is to reduce the attractiveness of airport-vicinity open space to animals such as waterfowl and to limit access to other creatures."

Mayor Bloomberg expressed further support for the city and Port Authority's joint plan to kill 2,000 geese during their molting season in order to prevent accidents like the one that left Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. On his radio show yesterday, Bloomberg said, "There are people who care very much about the geese. But in the end, safety of the public is No. 1. There is not a lot of cost involved in rounding up a couple thousand geese and letting them go to sleep with nice dreams. We're trying to strike a balance. In the safety of flying, the public trumps the rights of the geese...(This way is) less stressful way of eliminating geese. They actually use carbon dioxide, and they just sort of go to sleep." Geese in various city parks within five miles of local airports will begin getting rounded into portable pens where they're killed with cabon dioxide-filled chambers on Monday. Wayne Johnson, a "free-land activist," told the Post, "There's a ton of nonlethal alternatives," such as chemical repellents and goose-frightening pyrotechnics.

In other Flight 1549 news, the city and Port Authority are embarking on a plan to kill at least 2,000 pesky Canada geese living within 5 miles of airports. Mayor Bloomberg said, "The serious dangers that Canada geese pose to aviation became all too clear when geese struck US Airways Flight 1549. The incident served as a catalyst to strengthen our efforts in removing geese from - and discouraging them from nesting on - city property near our runways."

After the Smithsonian's analysis of feathers and organic material left in the engines of US Airways Flight 1549, the National Transportation Safety Board said a flock of Canada geese did hit the plane on January 15. With its engines compromised, the Airbus A320 was then forced to land in the Hudson River, with all passengers and crew surviving. However, the NY Times reports it's unclear whether the birds were migratory birds or more native ones from the NY area: "Those that migrate typically weigh from 6 pounds to nearly 11 pounds, the safety board said, but nonmigrating geese are fatter and 'can exceed published records.' Either kind is too much for the engines to handle, however." The NY Post, which basically called war on Canada geese, seems pleased with the identification.

The National Transportation Safety Board released a photograph of a feather that was found in the left engine of US Airways Flight 1549, the plane which landed in the Hudson River somewhat miraculously without any deaths or major injuries. The plane's pilots had both said the Airbus A320 hit birds, suggesting the dual engine failure was due to a bird strike.

The Post continues its war on Canada geese—the type of bird suspected of downing Flight 1549—by explaining the geese population in the NYC-area is five times too big for human happiness. Apparently there are 20,000 birds in NYC and Long Island, but NY Department of Environmental Conservation specialist Bryan Swift says 4,000 geese would be the population "where people would say, 'These are a good thing,' and 'It's nice to have the geese around.'" And Cornell University bird expert Paul Curtis tells the paper, "The habitat can support them, but they exceeded the cultural carrying capacity, or people's tolerance for them, long ago." The DEC says hunting lowers the geese population (of course) and lawmakers have suggested control measures like "oiling unhatched eggs [to] prevent them from hatching" and "pouring gravel over fields [to] keep many from returning."

The NY Post, which proclaimed "PLUCK 'EM" to Canada geese after an apparent bird strike forced US Airways Flight 1549 to land in the Hudson River, is now angry at cab drivers for feeding birds at area airports.

The NY Post has found a villain in the Miracle on the Hudson story, and it's Canada geese!

It may have looked like simple joyriding on a Friday afternoon, but the Parks Dept. employee careening around Battery Park near Whitehall St. yesterday afternoon was actually a man on a mission, i.e. to kill as many birds in the park as possible. Martin Hightower has been a Parks Dept. employee since 2005, but was arrested after 911 started receiving calls about a man driving recklessly on a golf cart at the southern tip of Manhattan.

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a picture displaying the woes of cruising in a tacky limo on the streets of San Francisco.