Nucor Steel sponsored a unique program for science students at Blytheville High School Monday morning -- a chance to see birds of prey at work.
Employees of Sky Kings Falconry Service are in town to help Nucor get rid of nuisance birds at their steel mills.
Kevin Gaines, president of Sky Kings, has a background in raptor education, so the program is a natural for him.
Gaines brought four employees and five birds to the auditorium of BHS, including two Harris Hawks, a Peregrine falcon, a Kestrel and an Eurasion Eagle Owl.
He explained that the raptors are used to scare away the smaller birds which have become a nuisance at the plant. Among the nuisance birds are pigeons, blackbirds, grackles and others.
Les Jackson, manager of environmental services at Nucor, said many methods had been used to rid the mills of the birds, without great success.
"We could have killed the birds, but at what cost to the environment?" Jackson said. "Even if there were no long-term effects to the soil or water supply, who wants to be the employee assigned to scooping up dead birds?" he asked.
In addition to causing problems with production, the droppings of the nuisance birds carry all types of illnesses, which can be passed on to the workers.
Gaines and his employees showed students how the birds are trained to return to their handlers.
The birds are taken into an area during the time the nuisance birds are traditionally seen. Once released, the raptors simply fly through the area, being seen, which frightens the nuisance birds out of the buildings.
The birds of Sky Kings are so well-treated, they rarely attempt to capture one of the nuisance birds. "We've had only two birds killed in our week-long work at Nucor," Gaines said.
He told students how the Peregrine falcons were almost extinct because of exposure to the insecticide DDT. "It caused the shells of their eggs to thin and the mothers couldn't sit on the eggs to incubate them.
So a special group of people got together the remaining 32 Peregrine falcons in the world and started a breeding program. The were able to release 5,000 falcons into the wild in a short time. The Peregrine falcon is no longer listed on the endangered species list.
dhilton@blythevillecourier.com