At England's Gloucestershire airport, they found that playing Tina Turner records over a sound system worked much better than recordings of bird distress calls. Now we're seeing a few airports use dogs. It started at Southwest Florida International Airport near Fort Myers. The airport is near the sea and in a rural area. Its 5.5 square miles are surrounded by fences.
Natural predators have a tough time getting in.
Without meaning to, the airport created a bird sanctuary. Dr. Nick Carter of Border Collie Rescue of Melrose, Fla., thought of a solution. His nonprofit institution tries to find good homes for border collies. The dogs have a natural herding instinct. They can be trained to respond to whistles and verbal commands to guide birds away from runways rather than just run and scatter them.