BASH Flash

The National Military Fish and

Wildlife Association annual

training workshop will be held

March 8-13, 2020. Registration

is currently open. As in past,

this meeting is held in conjunc-

tion with the Wildlife Manage-

ment Institute (WMI) 85th

North American Wildlife and

Natural Resources Conference.

The workshop will be held at

the Hilton Omaha in down-

town Omaha. The Hilton

Omaha (downtown) and Oma-

ha Marriott are currently show-

ing no vacancy. Please check

surrounding hotel accommoda-

tions for lodging at the current

federal per diem rate.

To view the draft agenda,

training courses, and register

for the conference as well as

field trips, please go to:

https://www.nmfwa.org/

workshop2019.html.

NMFWA in Omaha, Nebraska

Jenny Washburn has served 2

years as co-chair of the BASH

WG. During this time, Jenny

has assisted with BASH train-

ing, conducting working group

meetings, facilitating feedback

and providing BASH aware-

ness and updates.

Co-chairs serve for 2 years and

then rotate out for a new co-

chair. Jenny will be stepping

down this year and Grant will

serve one more year.

Interested in having a say in

the direction the BASH WG

takes? Want to make changes

and have more participation? If you

are interested in running for co-chair,

please submit your bio and a picture

to Grant Harter and Jenny Wash-

burn by February 24, 2020. A

compiled list will be sent out by

March 2 of who is running. Elec-

tions will be held at the BASH

WG meeting at NMFWA.

NMFWA BASH WG Elections

NMFWA BASH Working Group

January 2020

BASH in the News 2

The Cornell Lab’s Merlin 2

Turkey Translocation Project - Air-port Birds from NC to Texas

3

Species Identification 3

Brain Teaser - Word Search 4

Inside this issue:

BASH in the News

Page 2 Newsletter T i t le Volume 1 ,I ssue 1

The Cornell Lab’s Merlin - A birder’s

best friend

list to the species you are most likely to see

in your location and time of year.

With more than 28,000 images taken by top

photographers, Merlin offers 15,000 audio

recordings from the Macaulay Library, ID

tips from experts and range maps from the

Birds of North America Online and Neo-

tropical Birds.

More information at:

http://bit.ly/MerlinApp

Download the Merlin Bird ID app today

on the Apple App store or Android App

on Google play.

The free Merlin Bird ID App by The Cornell

Lab is a instant bird ID for over 4,500+ bird

in North and South America, Europe, Asia

and Australia.

How does it work?

Answer 3 simple questions about a bird you

are trying to ID and Merlin comes up with a

list of possible matches.

Or Use a Photo. Snap a photo of a bird or

pull one in from your camera roll and Merlin

Photo ID will offer a short list of possible

matches. Photo ID works completely of-

fline, so you can identify birds in the photos

you take when you are far from cell service.

More than 650 million observations from the

eBird citizen-science project are drawn upon

to help with ID. Merlin will customize your

USDA, Michigan Air Guard program cuts risk of bird collisions

Full story: https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2051809/usda-michigan-air-guard-program-

cuts-risk-of-bird-collisions/

Bird Island on San Antonio’s West Side looks vastly different after cleanup effort

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Bird-Island-on-San-Antonio-s-West-Side-looks-

14988440.php?cmpid=gsa-mysa-result#photo-18904537

Air Force Developing Strategies to Combat Bird Strikes

https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/air-force-developing-strategies-combat-bird-strikes

USDA creates program to protect predatory birds, Airmen

https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1920555/usda-creates-program-to-protect-predatory-

birds-airmen/

USDA Wildlife Services Provide Environmental Safety Training onboard NAS Whidbey Island

https://www.dvidshub.net/image/5869022/usda-wildlife-services-provide-environmental-safety-training-

onboard-nas-whidbey-island

Approach: BASH Issue. The Navy and Marine Corps Aviation Safety Magazine

https://safety.navylive.dodlive.mil/files/2019/02/Approach-Vol-62-No-3-Web-Formatted-Magazine.pdf

Coyote on Arizona Airport’s Airfield Causes Delays

https://www.travelpulse.com/news/airlines/coyote-on-arizona-airports-airfield-causes-delays.html

Incident: Ethiopian B737 at Dire Dawa on Jan 9th 2020, swarm of grasshoppers

http://avherald.com/h?article=4d1de8cc&opt=0

Turkey Translocation Project-Airport Birds from NC to Texas

Species Identification- What am I?

In the winter of 2018, a plan that had

been in the works for over a year

finally came to fruition. A large flock

of eastern wild turkeys approached

the bait site at Columbus County

Airport shortly after dawn. Andrew

Taylor, Bo Benton and North Caroli-

na Wildlife Resources Commission

(NCWRC) staff were tucked away

inside the wood line in two blinds.

Three, two, one, bang! The rocket net

was deployed over the first airport

turkeys in the state of North Carolina.

This process was repeated several

more times at Piedmont Triad Inter-

national and Odell Williamson Air-

port, yielding 25 wild turkey cap-

tures. All of these tur-keys were

banded, sampled and flown to Texas

as a part of restocking effort in the

Lone Star State.

Wild turkeys do pose a risk to avia-

tion safety, due to their large body

size and gregarious nature. Through

airport staff reports and NCWS

Wildlife Hazard Site Visits, we iden-

ti-fied multiple airports with turkey

issues. Once we established that

there were enough turkeys on prop-

erty to warrant trapping, trap sites

were scouted, pre-baited and moni-

tored with trail cam-eras.

In 2017, NCWRC gamebird biolo-

gist, Mr. Chris Kreh gave us a heads

up that the Texas Parks & Wildlife

Department was looking for eastern

wild turkeys for a restocking pro-

ject. NC had several airports with

hazardous turkeys, our program had

two rocket net setups at our dispos-

al. So we had all the puzzle pieces,

we just had to put it together and

start catching birds. TX wanted at

least 80 birds per year, NC provided

over 30% of their target in our first

year. Several other states (IA, MO,

I look like a hawk with sharp

beak and talons, behave like a

vulture, and am technically a

large tropical black-and-white

falcon. I’m instantly recog-

nizable standing tall on long

yellow-orange legs with a

sharp black cap set against a

white neck and yellow-orange

face. I’m a bird of open coun-

try and reach only a few states

in the southern U.S. I fly low

on flat wings, and routinely

walk on the ground.

Page 3 Newsletter T i t le Volume 1 ,I ssue 1

WV) also contributed birds to the

project this year. This restocking

project will be ongoing for the

next three years.

There were a lot of moving parts

to this project and needless to say

the real work started once we had

turkeys in the net. Each bird had

to be banded, blood sample

drawn. Once the birds were

worked up they were boxed and

transported to Delta Cargo at

ILM or PTI. From there the birds

flew to Houston were they were

picked up by Texas Park & Wild-

life Department (TPWD) Turkey

Biologist, Mr. Jason Hardin and

James E. Capps (USDA APHIS WS)

held in staging facility until the

Texas A&M lab gave the thumbs

up. Upon their clean bill of health

the banded birds were released in

the center of a massive 12,000

acre ranch in eastern Texas.

This project proved to be a huge

success overall. A win for the

airports-decreasing their strike

risk and a win for turkey conser-

vation-translocating them to an-

cestral ranges in Texas for re-

stocking.

This was a great success story that

continues to this day with the col-

laboration of parties including

USDA Wildlife Services –North

Carolina, National Wild Turkey

Federation, NCWRC, and TPWD.

Charter for Bird/Animal Aircraft Strike Hazard (BASH) Working

Group of the National Military Fish and Wildlife Association

https://www.nmfwa.org/uploads/1/0/2/2/102279086/bash_working_group_charter.pdf

Co-Chairs

Grant Harter, USDA-APHIS-Wildlife Services

Email: Grant.E.Harter@usda.gov

Phone: (301)-342-5905

Looking for more information?

https://www.nmfwa.org/bash.html

Jenny Washburn, USDA-APHIS-Wildlife Services

Email: Jenny.E.Washburn@usda.gov

Phone: (419) 202-7425

NMFWA BASH Working Group

Interested in

contributing?

Have a story you want to share? New methods in

management? Ideas, comments? Contact us!