Falcon brought in to stop hungry seagulls plaguing recycling centre
NO FLY ZONE: PREDATOR WITH ‘ATTITUDE’ CIRCLES TOWN TIP
A LANNER falcon has been deployed to tackle a curious menace many leagues from the coast as seagulls in search of food flock to a waste centre in Dewsbury.
The council in the Kirklees mill town has had to employ a falconer with operator Suez following reports of birds swooping on unsuspecting tip visitors and staff.
Jim Brown has been appointed to fly Midas the lanner falcon two days a week around the sprawling Weavings Lane site, in an attempt to get the gulls and pigeons to disperse and look elsewhere for food.
“Seagulls are attracted to large buildings for nesting sites and they also want to search for food among the rubbish,” said Mr Brown, who describes six-year-old Midas as a bird with “attitude” who has become territorial over the site.
Seagulls can be cunning and intelligent but they have an innate fear of birds of prey, he added, so even though the falcon may be smaller than the gulls, they will take flight at the merest sight.
“My job is to scare the birds but I also understand them,” said Mr Brown, who works for MBC Environment.
The seagulls “aren’t daft”, he added, explaining that he has to alternate which days he arrives at the Dewsbury Household Waste Recycling Centre, lest they work out any patterns.
“Often people don’t give animals any kind of intelligence rating but birds have intelligence, just not as we know it,” he said.
“Birds have no sense of smell but do have a fantastic sense of touch and they respond to visual stimulus.
“Once a seagull sees a falcon, even out of the corner of its eye, instinct takes over. They are frightened by the shape of a predator they have feared for thousands of years.”
Once a seagull sees a falcon, out of the corner of its eye, instinct takes over. FalconerJim Brown who works for MBC Environment.