‘Falcons are the great white sharks of the sky. Put one up, all the birds leave’
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – There will be birds of prey flying the skies over Ocean City this summer to scare away the gulls and a mix of new and familiar faces on the ground controlling them.
Wildlife Control Specialists, LLC of Lebanon in north Jersey is the new handler for the falcons that will be patrolling over the Boardwalk and beachfront to keep gulls from harassing people below.
Earlier this month the firm was awarded a $193,600 contract, triple the amount spent last season when Ocean City experimented with “humane and effect” gull control starting in August. Last year the city paid $65,000 to East Coast Falcons for a contract that began in August and ran until the end of the season. It proved highly successful in stopping the gulls from bothering people trying to eat their popcorn and French fries and pizza in peace, and it also proved popular with visitors who loved seeing the birds up close with their handlers.
Wildlife Control Specialists was founded by Joe Kosakowski and his son, Joseph Matthew, known as Matt. They’ve been in business since 2007 working on a wide range of animal control. The father, who ran “a number of multi-million dollar companies,” helped his son start the new company after Matt got out of college because he was always good with wildlife. Kosakowski thought it would be an interesting business.
Wildlife Control Specialists covers animals including bats, beavers, birds, coyotes, squirrels, fox, groundhogs, moles, opossum, pigeons, raccoons, skunks and snapping turtles. Among their many divisions they have contracts with large firms doing jobs such as using border collies to keep geese off of properties.
His son got him interested in the idea of becoming falconers, a process that is not quick, especially for commercial applications.
Kosakowski said there are fewer than 5,000 people in the U.S. who have falconry permits, fewer than half who are active and most do it as a hobby. To do it commercially requires a falconer to be at the master level.
Across the nation, he said, there are only about 100 abatement permits to use falcons commercially like they are in Ocean City. To become a general licensed falconer he had to spend two years as an apprentice under a sponsor. After five more years he could apply for a master’s level and then he had to get a falconry-based bird permit from the federal government.
He got his federal permit about four years ago and has been working with falcons commercially ever since. He said he also has one of only 22 permits in the U.S. to provide falconry experiences, but more on that later.
Kosakowski works in the falconry division of Wildlife Control Specialists and will be among those in Ocean City handling the falcons this spring and summer, depending on conditions when the city is open for business.
Other falconers are able to work as sub-permittees under his federal license and one of them is PJ Simonis, a falconer many residents and visitors saw last summer when he worked with East Coast Falcons on the Ocean City Boardwalk. Simonis, Kosakowski said, works well because “he has the right personality” to work in public. “I want people with a good EQ – emotional quotient – who interact with people well. We’re interested in making sure everyone has a great experience.”
Kosakowski points out there are two facets to using the falcons. One is for the intended part of keeping the gulls from harassing people. The other is the fact the falcons and their handlers become an attraction themselves.
On the first aspect, the falcons have a singular role, which is to be up in the sky.
“When you put it up in the sky it basically puts the fear of God into any bird that is below it,” he said. “I often describe falconry-based bird abatement at the shore as if you have a couple thousand people in the water and the lifeguard stands up and yells ‘shark!’ Everyone gets out of the water.
“Falcons are great white sharks of the sky. Put one up, all the birds leave.”
The falconers send up their birds of prey into the sky and then call them back down. They keep away about 95 percent of the gulls. When some of the gulls try to hide behind a wall or other safe place, the falconers use a Harris Hawk. “They are ideal for that because it is more of a pursuit. You’re carrying them around on your glove, you see a seagull, the hawk chases the seagull and the seagull flies off then you call the hawk back to you.”
East Coast Falcons often brought an owl to the Boardwalk and Wildlife Control Specialists will do the same thing, but that is more for public relations purposes because they are night hunters. He said owls are “great ambassadors” that have become more popular since the Harry Potter books and movies. And that gets to the other side of the equation.
“From Ocean City’s point of view this is an attraction. People will come to see the birds. It’s an experience to get to talk to the falconers and see the birds fly. That adds to he appeal of the Ocean City summer experience,” he said.
Kosakowski has connections with falconers across the United States. He was president of the New Jersey Falconry Club (“I know every falconer in New Jersey”) and was elected director of the Northeast in the North American Falconers Association and represents falconers from Pennsylvania to Maine. With all of his connections when he gets contracts in different areas he can often use falconers from those areas to fulfill them.
Falconry Experience
For those who become enraptured by the raptors at the shore, Kosakowsi has NewJerseyFalconry.com, a falconry experience. He has a relationship with a bed and breakfast on 23 acres in north Jersey where he and his falconers, including Simonis, allow people to be up close and personal with the raptors. “It’s a place where we can give people an experience with understanding raptors and falconry conservation.” He noted the B&B and related property also has a trout stream and provides fly-fishing experiences with another company
Ready to Fly
Kosakowski said Wildlife Control Specialists’ contract is for 116 days starting weekends in mid-May and then going every day from June 15 to Aug. 15 and then three- or four-day weekends until October. His firm was the low bidder on the contract. East Coast Falcons bid $212,480 and Foster Falconry, LLC, of Cossayna, N.Y. bid $280,000.
“We’re ready to start whenever the city wants us to start,” Kosakowski said.
