Calvin Duane: Bird Deterrent System 

Calvin Duane, Manager of Environment, Canadian Natural

I'm Calvin Duane. I’m manager of environment for Canadian Natural. I look after all the environmental aspects of our operations which includes wildlife on the periphery of our site.

One of the ways we manage wildlife is this system here. This system, our LRAD or long range acoustic device is here to keep the birds away from our tailings pond.

The tailings pond is the place where we deposit the ore after its been processed and the bitumen has been removed.

The problem with this deposit is the small amount of bitumen that is still left over after processing.

The birds, if they land on it, can cause them problems. 

So this is why the LRAD system is here to keep the birds off of this area so they don’t get that problem.

So the bird deterrent system is composed of various parts. First of all, there is a radar system which detects birds coming in two to three kilometers out and it responds to those birds by emanating sounds.

Large sounds come into these speakers we have here, each one positioned to be in direction of where birds might come from. 

The sounds start off with, first of all being sounds of birds of prey sort of sounds, hawks, eagles, those sorts of things to scare ducks and geese away.

If that doesn’t work then it moves into more of a louder, shocking sound like a shotgun blast or something along that line and then finally if the bird is not deterred from that point it goes into a distress call of a bird of a similar species so that the birds will actually think that there is a very serious thing that they need to avoid.

Then at night, we have this as well. It spreads out a pattern of green laser light across the pond to give a very eerie affect to it so that the birds coming in are very surprised to see this large shimmering surface of the tailings pond and they’ll try to avoid that because that is something that they don’t like.

And that assures that in low light, this system comes on and does provide that extra layer of protection to keep the birds away from the tailings pond.

I really enjoy my job because it gives me the chance to make a difference.

We find ways of doing things better to protect the environment.