Feds hope lasers will deter car-befouling birds on N.B. bridge
Cormorants dropping their waste on vehicles travelling on the Van Horne Bridge has been an issue for years
![cormorants on bridge](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nexus/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/0425-tb-cormorants2.jpeg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&h=216&sig=jDyPkCL1nH4_3E6j1_TY6w)
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Dalhousie’s Eric Tremblay has no problem with giving the dirty birds that hover over the Van Horne Bridge the heave-ho.
He recalls crossing the span in Campbellton that connects northern New Brunswick to Quebec a couple of years ago with his sunroof open when he was suddenly spattered with unwelcome presents from the cormorants above.
“It came in all over me and filled the windshield,” he said. “Luckily I was able to keep the car under control.”
The cormorants, which have numbered in the hundreds in years past, usually arrive in April and stay until October. But, with some luck and some modern technology, they’ll have a harder time sticking around to befoul crossing cars this year.
Their numbers – and their droppings – have become such a problem that the federal government has stepped in to find ways to keep them away, which this season will include using lasers.
Michèle LaRose of Public Services and Procurement Canada said some trial attempts started last September, as officials worked with “visual and/or audible signals to make the bridge less appealing.”
She said officials learned from that trial and began planning to try again this spring with what she called “hand-held specialized bird-deterring lasers.”
LaRose said the lasers create a visual disturbance for the birds and have been shown to be an effective tool in other areas.
“Application of the lasers was intermittent at varying times and of different duration. The long-term objective is to determine and implement the most effective methods to dissuade birds from roosting on the bridge,” she said. “The lasers are safe for the public and wildlife, including the cormorants.”
She said the method has proved to be successful at other bridges with similar bird problems, which tend to be rather complex in nature.
“The root cause is not the bridge itself, but more likely the loss of predator population and loss of perching/nesting habitat,” she said.
She didn’t say when drivers can expect to see workers with the hand-held lasers on the bridge, but it can’t come soon enough for Campbellton’s Trish Duguay, who, like Tremblay, has been a victim of the falling filth.
“It shocked the crap out of me when I crossed last year, and I thought it was rain,” she said. “It wasn’t cool…I went straight to the car wash.”
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