Three days a week, a pair of hawks named Mowgli and Melvin are stationed by the edge of an artificial pond at the Water Garden, an office park in Santa Monica.

The birds, known as Harris' hawks, are majestic creatures with white-tipped tails and neon orange talons. They're making sure that the pond and its environs remain free from the hundreds of seagulls, pigeons and crows that would otherwise leave behind droppings and bacteria.

"Before I started working here, they had an issue with seagulls actually living here," said Nricco Iseppi, a master falconer and independent contractor for Airstrike Bird Control, a bird abatement business near San Luis Obispo. "They'd be on top of the roof, and, come lunchtime, they'd be trolling around the tables trying to steal food. So the first thing I did was, I set the hawks on them."

After four months of the hawks' intimidation tactics - swooping down and scaring the gulls out of the water, for example, or simply flying in their vicinity - nearly all signs of the other fowl disappeared.

At a time when many business solutions seem to come in the form of apps or other software, Airstrike Bird Control is promoting the ancient sport of falconry to potential customers.

For each Airstrike Bird Control assignment, a master falconer is deployed to scare away problem birds by using hawks or falcons. Hawks are better for smaller spaces; falcons, which fly at a higher altitude, are more suitable for large areas, like vineyards.

"The objective of the program is what we call hazing," said Brad Felger, co-owner of Airstrike Bird Control. "You're intimidating them, you're scaring them, so they don't want to be there."

The practice is catching on, particularly among farmers and wine growers whose livelihoods depend on sustaining their crops, Felger said.

He would not disclose what the company charges its clients but said the falconers received hundreds of dollars a day. "Before it was me saying, 'Yeah, it works.' And they're saying, 'Really?' They were looking at me like I was trying to sell them a used car or something," he adds.

Felger has been a master falconer since 1982. He was inspired to form his company in 2003, when the California Department of Fish and Game began issuing permits for licensed falconers to use certain raptors as a way to control birds.

"The more you become informed about what it is, and how it works, it makes ethical sense," Iseppi said. Not that everyone immediately understands what he and his birds are doing.

"There was a woman who thought I was looking after a powerful CEO's status symbols," he said. "She thought I was a hawk babysitter."