Ad van Erve (61) is a nature lover, but his profession makes life miserable for birds. He is a member of the Defense Department’s seven-member Bird Control Unit. That team tries to prevent collisions between birds and planes at Eindhoven Airport. That failed on Sunday evening and a departing plane had to make an emergency stop.
Van Erve and his colleagues get up early every morning. They carry out the first inspection half an hour before the first flight at Eindhoven Airport. The checks continue until the last aircraft has taken off or landed at the airport.
“Our main job is to repel birds that are on or around the main runway.” Not an easy job. This morning alone, Ad came to a count of 109 birds that could threaten the safety of air traffic.
“We try to do everything we can to prevent animal suffering.”
“Kestrel, pigeon, buzzard, lapwing and starling are the most important bird species that we control here. We have relatively little trouble with crows such as the jackdaw, magpie, jay and carrion crow”, Ad sums up.
These birds are chased, captured or, in extreme cases, shot. “We’d rather not do that. All team members are great nature lovers, so we try to do everything we can to prevent animal suffering,” assures Van Erve.
In his ostentatious yellow official car he drives dozens of rounds at the airport every day. His car has a solid sound system on the roof. If Ad’s clapping doesn’t make the birds bounce, he presses the audio button and sends a shrill squeak into the air. “We play fear sounds from birds. That usually works.”
The birds that won’t be fooled, the Bird Control Unit tries to catch. For example, birds of prey are lured into traps with bait. The birds are then released again at a distance from the airport.
Unfortunately, that did not work out with a small kestrel on Sunday evening. After a collision with a plane of the Hungarian airline Wizzair, the pilot had to abort the take-off with screeching tires. Passengers and crew escaped unscathed.
Also to the relief of Van Erve and his team, who not only chase and capture birds, but are also busy counting butterflies, mice, rabbits, bats and hordes of birds of prey.
The area around the airport is probably one of the best known nature reserves in the Netherlands. Including the freezer in which the delicate body of the unfortunate kestrel is kept.
