Pilots Keep an Eye Out for Blackbirds Thousands of Birds Are Migrating Near the Augusta Airport.

By ADAM FOLK

AUGUSTA – They’re early to bed, early to rise and have been bothering pilots in the skies.

Thousands of blackbirds have found a home in the 360 acres of county-owned marshland northeast of Augusta Regional Airport and are posing a flight risk to airplanes.

To avoid hitting the birds, flights into and out of the airport are restricted for about 20 minutes at dawn and dusk, when long lines of the birds make their way over the airport.

Birds in flight can severely damage airplanes, jeopardizing the safety of passengers and crews.

At worst, the ban affects about four flights, two in the morning and two at night, according to Tammy Strange, interim airport director.

The birds migrate to the area every November and typically stay until the middle of March, Assistant Director of Operations Tim Weegar said Thursday at an Augusta Aviation Commission meeting.

In an attempt to change the animals’ roosting habitat, officials from the nearby wastewater treatment plant, under the supervision of the Georgia Forestry Commission and Savannah River Ecology Lab, have tried to burn the acres of cut-grass and cattails in the marsh with a flamethrower.

Allen Saxon, assistant director of the plant, said that the number of birds has begun to taper off but that officials at the wastewater plant will evaluate how to change their roosting location after the birds migrate north.

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