FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Fairchild Air Force Base has been under a bad wrap lately.
First, with the contaminated water last year in Airway Heights and now birds are dropping dead from trees.
A KREM 2 viewer alerted us to this strange situation last week, finding several birds dead in their backyard on base.
Fairchild Air Force Base confirmed maintenance crews collected 300 dead starling birds in a neighborhood on the base. Turns out, the dead starlings found on base were killed on purpose by the United States Department of Agriculture for a bird control initiative.
According to district supervisor of USDA Wildlife Services in Eastern Washington Wade Carlson, thousands of starlings flocked to the Medical Lake landfill on Graham Road a few months ago, never left and became a nuisance.
They are a nuisance for a few reasons. Starlings are not native to the United States and are considered an invasive species because disease organisms grow in accumulations of starling feces. The risk of spreading the disease can affect livestock and humans.
Carlson said beyond that, starling droppings damaged equipment on the landfill site as well.
According to Carlson, employees at the landfill tried non-lethal measures, like harassing the birds to get them to leave but they were not successful. They contracted with USDA Wildlife Services to control the damage.
Wildlife services baited the starlings with a "french fry waste" laced with a pesticide. The pesticide only affects birds and is not harmful to pets that may discover the dead starlings.
Carlson said the pesticide takes about 12 to 24 hours to metabolize in the Starlings and then they die. He said wildlife service crews stayed on site to ensure only starlings ate from the bait pile.
So why were hundreds of dead starlings found on Fairchild Air Force Base?
Carlson said it is likely the starlings ate the poisoned bait at the landfill, then flew a short ways to perch in trees on base and died there.
According to Carlson, if you find a dead starling in your yard, it is safe to pick up with rubber gloves and put it in the garbage.