A feathery meteor flashed over the Bradley Landfill, blowing away the half-dozen sea gulls scavenging over the fresh mountain of garbage. For decades, the sea gull had ruled the roost at the Sun Valley dump -- the bane of bulldozer operators and neighbors susceptible to their rain of rotting leftovers. Nothing would dislodge them -- until Joe Suffredini unleashed his fleeting falcons.
SUN VALLEY — A feathery meteor flashed over the Bradley Landfill, blowing away the half-dozen sea gulls scavenging over the fresh mountain of garbage.
For decades, the sea gull had ruled the roost at the Sun Valley dump -- the bane of bulldozer operators and neighbors susceptible to their rain of rotting leftovers.
Nothing would dislodge them -- until Joe Suffredini unleashed his fleeting falcons.
"Amazing," marveled Doug Corcoran, head of Waste Management's landfill operations throughout the Los Angeles region, as sea gulls disappeared at the sight of the brown and ivory raptors.
"Used to be we had to chase 'em off the trash. Now, when they see this guy, they just leave the entire site -- just gone."
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Each week, Suffredini employs falcons at the Bradley and Simi Valley landfills to ward off flocks of "nuisance birds."
He dons his leather gauntlet. Doffs the hood of one of six highly trained falcons. Unleashes its talons. And with a blast of his whistle, sends the bird boomeranging over newly dumped lawn clippings and discarded deck chairs.
"It's just a scarecrow. We're here to intimidate 'em," said Suffredini, owner of Avian Entertainment, which has provided trained animals for such Hollywood productions as "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" and "The X Files."
"The falcon is the shark of the sky. They chase anything away -- sea gulls, pigeons, starlings, crows. Only ravens will gang up on them, if I let them."
While the mighty raptors have long been used to deter birds at airports, falcons are increasingly being employed at vineyards, farms and now landfills.
For the 32-year-old master falconer, chasing gulls was a lark.
For years, dumps across the nation had struggled to ward off pesky birds. They tried "bird bombs," or gun blanks. They tried whistles and sea gull distress sounds. They even tried kites and balloons fashioned to look like predators.
All worked, for a time. But nothing could banish gulls or ravens, drawn to refuse since the first human trash heap.
One day between films, Suffredini dropped a load at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill.
"I saw they had a sea gull problem, thousands of sea gulls ignoring the whistles," said Suffredini, of Castaic. "If a landfill has a sea gull problem," he thought, "falcons are the answer."
So the former trainer at Universal Studios animal shows drew up some brochures and sent them to local landfill companies. The Simi Valley Landfill called him the next day.
Five years later, Waste Management officials deem their falcon program an unqualified success. Now other dumps are beginning to follow suit.
"The demonstrations I've seen work pretty well," said Mark de Bie, manager of permits and inspections for the California Waste Management Board, who said there may be five landfills in the state using falcons. "A few sea gulls may be a problem, but a large number can interfere with operations."
"Offhand, I don't know of any other dumps that use falconers," said Darryl Perkins, president of the North American Falconer's Association. "It's an environmentally safe, ethical means of pest control."
A master falconer and graduate of the Exotic Animal Training and Management program at Moorpark College, Suffredini founded Avian Entertainment to stage educational shows and supply trained birds for film and TV productions.
Now alternating days between the Simi and Bradley landfills, the lithe trainer with the wraparound shades has banished birds largely without harming wildlife. In five years, he said his falcons have managed to kill only three lame birds.
"We just intimidate 'em. Very rarely do they catch 'em."
Suffredini now employs falcons to chase away sea gulls who had pestered outdoor diners at the Bacara Resort in Santa Barbara.
It's nature used to control nature, he said of his captive-bred Lanner and Saker falcons, which originated in Africa and the Middle East. Federal conservation laws ban the use of domestic raptors.
"I think all birds are fascinating, but the falcon is what really gets me. I love all birds, even sea gulls, but I really root for the falcon."
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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
