Straits Times 14 Oct 12;
Orchard Road's hawk patrols have failed. It turns out that the bird of prey is no match for the pesky, noisy mynahs plaguing the shopping strip.
It is the latest attempt to fix the bird nuisance that has failed, and for business owners there it is back to the drawing board.
Mynahs have been bothering retailers and shoppers since 2008, after the Somerset carpark was redeveloped and the trees felled.
The birds moved from that roosting spot to the area near Cathay Cineleisure Orchard and The Heeren, and an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 descend at dusk, especially between 6.45pm and 7pm.
People have complained about noise and droppings that strike pedestrians, cars and walkways. So far this year, the authorities have received 13 reports about the bird nuisance.
When earlier efforts flopped, the Orchard Road Business Association hit on the idea to bring in the hawks last year, hoping that regular hawk flights would shoo the mynahs away.
Jurong Bird Park was happy to help, and provided a hawk and handler for three test runs from September last year.
Alas, the big bird was found to be intimidated by the large flock of mynahs, said park general manager Raja Segran.
He thinks there are other reasons why the idea could not take off, though some might suspect these are just a hawk's excuses:
The mynahs' new surroundings meant the hawk needed a long time to adjust;
The thick-canopied trees made it difficult for the bird handler to keep contact with the hawk;
Vehicles could knock down the hawk.
"The movement of the crowd and noise from vehicles along that stretch made the hawk very distracted," he said. "The flow of traffic on Orchard Road made it too risky to fly our birds there."
Just in case anyone thinks it might all be a case of a cowardly hawk, he also had this to say: "Birds of prey are persistent hunters, and if they decide to go after a prey the pursuit can sometimes lead to accidents."
The main thing, though, is that the mynah numbers proved overwhelming.
In the trials, which included releasing the hawk onto a tree, it was found that at first the hawk frightened the mynahs off.
"But after a while, the mynahs were seen coming back to the tree where the hawk was, as if very curious to see what bird it was," he said.
It proved too much for the intimidated hawk.
In 2009, several Orchard Road malls installed sonic devices to scare the birds away. That did not work. The use of chemicals to get rid of the birds was deemed inhumane.
Using birds of prey to solve bird nuisance problems has worked elsewhere. In Britain, two hawks, accompanied by their handlers, successfully drove seagulls away from a mall in Exeter. They did four flights a week for 20 weeks.
For now, mynahs rule in Orchard Road. And the search is on for the next best idea.
Jessica Lim
