The Airporter Shuttle is known for taking on frequent flyers, but now they have some passengers of a completely different feather.
In September the Ferndale company became involved in Sea-Tac airport's Raptor Management Program, which traps birds of prey at the airport and releases them in Skagit County. When a bird is successfully trapped at the airport, it is put in a pet carrier, covered, put in the shuttle's luggage compartment and transported to Skagit County to meet Bud Anderson and his staff of volunteers at the Falcon Research Group.
The group measures, tags and releases the birds into the wilderness of the Skagit Valley area.
The raptor management program is in place to help reduce the number of collisions between the airplanes and birds. Raptors - hawks, owls, eagles and falcons - are attracted to the wide open area of an airport because of the prey they can catch there.
Before the Airporter Shuttle stepped forward to help, the responsibility of bringing the birds to Skagit fell to Anderson, who founded the nonprofit organization in 1985. In the past 10 years he's released 386 birds through his organization, which is based in Bow.
Recently the airport began increasing it trapping program, which potentially meant more trips to the Seattle area for Anderson. Working with Steve Osmek, a wildlife biologist at Sea-Tac, they approached Airporter Shuttle officials with the partnership idea.
"This (shuttle program) is helping so much, and it's something they didn't have to do," said Anderson. "It's meant a 15-minute drive for me, rather than two hours each way."
It's turned into more than just a pickup-and-dropoff project for some of the Airporter Shuttle employees and passengers. Since starting in September, the Airporter Shuttle has transported 11 birds, most recently two great horned owls, said Joel Litwin, marketing coordinator for Airporter Shuttle.
"Once I got to hold a Cooper's hawk, I became an instant convert," said Litwin. "Many customers think it's a wonderful program, and I agree. I see it as people really making a difference on a local level."
So far, very few of the released birds have returned to Sea-Tac. Anderson said they've tagged more than 120 birds, with six returning to the airport, four of which stayed only for a brief time. Along with finding a home in Skagit, the tagged birds have moved on to a variety of new territories, including eastern Oregon, Victoria, B.C., and Bellingham.
Of the 386 birds Anderson has released, the majority - 226 - were red-tail hawks. The airport has increased its evening trap program, which has led to capturing more owls.
MORE INFORMATION
• The Airporter Shuttle has more information about its involvement of the program, along with links to video of some of the birds it has transported, at airporter.com/raptors.
• More information about the Falcon Research Group and the raptor management program can be found at frg.org.
