Although most wildlife strikes do not result in significant damage or catastrophic consequences, having a well-defined system for investigation when this does occur will help explain why the strike occurred, how it may be avoided in the future, and it may even be useful is cases of litigation. Significant strike investigations collect key data relating to the species, the aircraft, the airport, meteorological conditions, and so on, to provide a complete picture of the strike event. Dr Jeff McKee joins Kylie Patrick to talk about the how and why of strike investigation.

Melbourne Airport is the primary airport serving Melbourne, Australia. With the upcoming addition of their third runway, they will be facilitating more than 77 million passenger movements and 429,000 aircraft movements each year. And their current wildlife management program is in a very good position to manage any increase to the wildlife strike risk. In this episode, Kylie Patrick talks to Fiona Beach (Airfield Safety and Operations Coordinator) and Bevin Buchanan (Senior Airside Safety Officer) from Melbourne Airport about their wildlife issues and how their program is managing them.

Melbourne Airport Wildlife Hazard Management Policy

Melbourne Airport LinkedIn

Martin Ziviani and Kylie Patrick discuss the complexities of using lethal control to manage hazardous wildlife on airports.

Counting birds on airports is one of the standard elements of an airport's wildlife management program. This data can be used to measure the progress and effectiveness of your program, identify emerging issues, and assess risks. But these counts need to be well established and implemented to have any benefit. Martin Ziviani (Snr Wildlife Biologist) joins Kylie Patrick (Principal Consultant) to talk about the how and why to set up and do bird counts on airports

Alexandra Stone joins Kylie Patrick to talk about how to best manage ducks on and off airports.

Avisure is taking a break over the holidays but we'll be back with more great epsiodes from February 2023

Avisure CEO, Jeff Follett, joins Kylie Patrick to talk about how and why off-airport land uses can significantly elevate an airport’s strike risk because of the wildlife they attract. They talk about the types of land uses that are problematic and how to work with land users and land use planners to mitigate risks and safeguard airports.

National Airports Safeguarding Framework (Australia)

ICAO Airport Planning Manual Land Use and Environmental Management Doc 9184 Part2

ICAO Airport Services Manual Part III Wildlife Hazard Management Doc 9137

Civil Aviation Authority (UK) CAP 772 Wildlife Hazard Management at Aerodromes

Christchurch City Council District Plan

Kylie Patrick is joined by Tony Goodwin (Avisure Wildlife Management Officer ) and Shane Van Dijk (Avisure Wildlife Biologist) to talk about Little Corella, the risk they pose and the best approach to managing these charasmatic but problematic birds. Little Corella (Australian Museum) Little Corellas: Social and Ecological Research for Management in South Australia ABC News Australia: Wildlife experts question why huge corella flocks on coast

Little Corella (Australian Museum)

Little Corellas: Social and ecological research for management in South Australia

ABC News Australia: Wildlife experts question why huge corella flocks on coast

In one of our earlier Avicast episodes, we talked about a very small, but very common bird on Australian airports, the Fairy Martin. This little aerial forager is often mistaken for any number of little aerial foragers, including the topic of this episode, the Tree Martin. Alexandra Stone, Avisure's Wildlife Biologist, is back in the co-host chair to talk all about the Tree Martin and how to best manage them. 

Tree Martin

Kylie Patrick is joined by Avisure's Principal Biologist, Will Jamieson and Wildlife Biologist Tyler Rogers to talk all things Canada Geese. These geese have been implicated in some of the most spectacular and serious strike incidents, and in this episode we talk about how to best manage them.

FAA Wildlife Strike Report 1990-2020

NTSB Investigation Report - Miracle on the Hudson

Canada Geese range maps

Birds of the World - Canada Geese

Skybrary - Some significant wildlife strikes civil aircraft USA 1990-2021