Working like a dog on the Gordie Howe International Bridge project

Two-year-old black lab Demon works alongside the falconry team at the Gordie Howe International Bridge site. (Source: Gordie Howe International Bridge/YouTube)

On an average morning, Demon a two-year-old black lab, eats her breakfast, dons her safety vest and heads to work on the Gordie Howe International Bridge site.

Named for her mischievous ways as a puppy, Demon is one of about five dogs helping to keep the bridge project moving along.

“The dogs work in conjunction with our falconry team and with the birds of prey that they bring on site,” Jordan Scurr, environmental monitor with bridging North American explained. “The birds of prey are great for some of the birds that build their nests, hide their eggs away.

But we have a lot of birds on site that will also lay their eggs directly on the ground so, with the presence of that dog it kind of gives off the presence of a predator and hopefully makes those birds want to build their nest somewhere else.”

Scurr said it’s very important to keep birds and wildlife off site, as there is the potential for large portions of the project to have to be shut down should those animals nest.

Each day, there are at least two dogs helping to ward off birds.

“They’re here every day, one in the morning one at night,” Nate Soucie, falconer with the Kingsport Environmental Falconry Services, said. “We have about four or five dogs that we change in and out. No dog wants to work seven days a week.”

Demon has been working at the bridge site with the falconry team since she was about seven months old.

“We come to site and we’re at site our falconers will take the dog to prescribed areas and run the dogs looking for geese, duck, killdeer – those type of nesting, ground nesting animals and we will move them off site,” lead falconer Jason Zaleski said.

After the job is done, Zaleski said Demon and the other dogs are taken home, fed and rewarded for a job well done.