10.02.05
Birds could benefit from Coventry Airport's planned expansion, according to a nationally-renowned expert. He told the inquiry into the expansion of Coventry Airport yesterday: 'If there will be a reduction in training and testing and more use of jet aircraft, there could be a positive effect on bird populations.'
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and anti-airport campaigners have argued Coventry Airport's expansion threatens various rare species, with a higher risk of them being hit by aeroplanes - known as 'birdstrike'. But Dr Roy Armstrong, senior lecturer at the Centre for Animal Conservation in Cumbria and a member of the UK birdstrike committee, believes that far from endangering birds, increasing passenger flights could help them.
'The aeroplanes used by Thomsonfly rise very quickly and leave the area very quickly. But low-level flights, like those used in training and testing, bring a 'predator' response - the birds go into panic mode, believing they are being attacked by a bird of prey. It creates much more stress than noise does. Birds acclimatise to noise - particularly predictable noise,' Dr Armstrong said.
Among the birds said to be at risk by the airports expansion are Canada geese, and the wildlife trust has stated it will not allow any measures to limit their growth on its land. But Dr Armstrong believes the species can be controlled with a clear conscience. He said: 'Canada geese have an adverse effect on the area they live in. They shouldn't be there in the first place, and have a marked impact on fish species.'
'Even if the trust does not allow these measures at Brandon Marsh, these birds will go to nearby ponds, and if a cull was required by the Civil Aviation Authority it would be achievable. I would recommend non-lethal control measures to the trust, certainly next to an airport. It could only be a gain to the nature reserve.'
Dr Armstrong expressed astonishment that the trust took issue with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which has raised no concerns about Coventry Airport. He said: 'The trust has no significant ornithological expertise compared with the RSPB. It seems a strange stance to take, unless the trust has a university research station we don't know about.'
But the trust's conservation director Beth Gardner argued the figures do not accurately represent facts. She asked Dr Armstrong: 'Do six herring gulls hit in July constitute one bird strike?' The doctor agreed it did - but said: 'That's how the CAA records it. We have a spectacularly low birdstrike rate. It's a very safe place compared with any other airport I've looked at. I believe a Thomsonfly pilot thinks he may have hit a gull. But even that counts as a birdstrike. And modern jet aircraft are far safer than propellor-driven aeroplanes from the point of view of birdstrike.'
Dr Armstrong's research found a birdstrike rate at Coventry Airport of 0.86 per 10,000 air traffic movements - compared with a national average of three to six.
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