Falconry used for pest control

We are refurbishing the former Royal Mail Building in Liverpool city centre for Liverpool John Moores University.  The building has been vacant for 5 years, and during this time has had seagulls nesting on the roof.

Our scope of works includes roof works, and we therefore needed to prevent any nesting during the nesting season due to seagulls becoming very aggressive when protecting young which can potentially pose a health and safety risk to our personnel.

We have employed a pest control company who assisted us in identifying the species of Seagulls (different species are covered by different licences), and the best programme of works for addressing the situation.

We commenced works with a 10-day intensive falconry course at the start of nesting season as falconry deters the Seagulls from nesting and is an environmentally friendly deterrent technique.

We then follow this up with a weekly falconry visit and during these visits if any nests are identified they, and any eggs, can be removed under a general licence.

This has benefited all site personnel by reducing the numbers of Seagulls around the building, and the health and risk associated with them and roof works.

We are continuing to work with the pest control company to identify a long-term solution for the building following completion of our works.

The supervisor from the pest control company delivered a toolbox talk to site personnel on birds of prey and falconry.