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Bird Control Program Forward Landfill—Manteca, California <br /> bird control program, observations are made by an independent observer as an added oversight. <br /> The independent observer noted two cases on Thursday, February 7, 2013 where gulls began <br /> feeding at the active face. In both cases, the gulls were able to begin feeding but were deterred <br /> by the control program prior to reaching the site-specific failure criteria'. Forward staff was <br /> notified regarding the gull incidents. Based on discussions with landfill staff, it appears that the <br /> position of the active face may have prevented the controllers from observing the gull landings. <br /> The controller was notified of this incident. Measures taken to deter future gull landing and _ <br /> feeding included requiring the controller to monitor areas that may be screened with the support <br /> of landfill staff in constructing additional access roads. Therefore, given the limited number of <br /> incidents and the responses to the observations noted above, the control program continues to be _ <br /> successful. <br /> Gulls Approaching the Landfill and Flying Past the Landfill _ <br /> The falconer conducting the gull control documented the numbers of gulls that approached <br /> and flew past the landfill. These observations are presented in Appendix 1 and summarized in <br /> Table 1. It is important to correctly interpret the data in Table 1 and Appendix 1. The numerical <br /> estimates of daily numbers of gulls are not estimates of the numbers at the landfill or even the <br /> numbers approaching the landfill. Many of the gulls in the totals were birds that flew past the <br /> landfill without visiting it. The numbers of such gulls were usually higher during the influxes of <br /> migrants and during periods of stormy weather that drove the gulls inland from the coast. <br /> Over the three years of the study, the number of flocks of gulls that approached or flew past <br /> the landfill ranged from 6.3 to 11.8 per day during the November-March period in each year, or a <br /> little over one flock per hour. The average flock size ranged from 7 to 21 birds during each of the _- <br /> three years. These are very small numbers when compared to the large numbers that used to feed at <br /> the landfill before the control program began. The results indicate that the gull flight lines from gull <br /> night roosts in the delta or on San Francisco Bay no longer passed over the airport on route to — <br /> Forward Landfill but rather had moved further north en route to Foothill and North County landfills. <br /> Observations by LGL Personnel V <br /> LGL personnel conducted spot checks at the Forward Landfill. There were 9-11 visits <br /> per month and each visit was about 3 to 3.5 hours long. During the periods 1-10 October 2012 <br /> and 15 April-15 May 2013, the LGL biologist was present on the site for 6-6.5 hours on 8 and 21 <br /> days, respectively during which he performed gull control using a model airplane glider. The <br /> results of all of these visits are presented in Appendix 2 and summarized in Table 2. — <br /> The data gathered by the LGL personnel were consistent with the observations by the <br /> falconers on the same days (Table 1). In fact, the falconers generally recorded more birds because <br /> they were always searching for distant gulls approaching the landfill and they were on site earlier <br /> in the morning when more gulls approached the landfill. Therefore, it is again concluded that the <br /> data collected by the falconer/controllers are reliable and unbiased. — <br /> Letter from LGL Limited to Lewis Engineering dated June 21,2012. <br /> Min 5 30 December 2013 <br />