Excessive gull populations can cause numerous problems at various types of properties including severe damage and reduced lifespan of roofing materials due to nesting colonies, water quality degradation and swim bans due to e. coli loading from gull droppings, unsightly build-up of droppings on vehicles, buildings and light fixtures from loafing gulls in parking lots, and potential liability risks from people being attacked by aggressive nesting gulls or gulls looking for food. Wild Goose Chase and Migratory Bird Management can help prevent or minimize all of the risks associated with an overabundant gull population on your property.
Sea gull control is essential for many businesses and owners of properties with various types of water and open areas. These areas are often gathering places for the intrusive presence of sea gulls and can be detrimental or hazardous to the public as well as prove to be a liability risk requiring time and monetary investment in clean-up efforts.
Our years of experience in wildlife management has taught us that each wildlife conflict is unique and an integrated approach to solving wildlife problems results in a successful outcome. That's why Wild Goose Chase/Migratory Bird Management offers customized sea gull control programs to fit the need of each individual customer.
The term gull refers to members of a group of 23 North American bird species that belong to the family Laridae, subfamily Larinae. Gulls are robust birds with webbed feet, long wings and a slightly hooked beak (Fig. 1). They all possess exceptional flying ability. They are often seen swimming, and occasionally dive underwater. Adult gulls are white, with varying patterns of gray and black over the back, wings, and head. The young of larger species are often gray and take several years to develop adult plumage. The sexes are similar in appearance.
Most gulls nest in colonies on sand-and gravel-covered shorelines and islands. They build nests on the ground and produce 3 to 5 eggs per nest. In the Great Lakes region, the number of ring-billed gulls has been increasing at about 10% per year since the early 1970s. Bent (1947) said of it, “the ring-billed gull yields readily to persecution, is easily driven from its breeding grounds and seems to prefer to breed in remote, unsettled regions far from the haunts of man.” However, a colony on Leslie Spit on the waterfront of Toronto, Ontario, increased from 20 pairs in 1973 to 75,000 to 80,000 pairs in 1982 (Blokpoel 1983). It appears that ring-billed gulls have changed some of their habits in recent years and have adapted to humans in their environment. A colony of laughing gulls in the Jamaica Bay Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, New York, increased from 15 pairs in 1979 to 7,600 pairs in 1990 (Richard A. Dolbeer, pers. commun.).
"We share very few migratory birds with Europe and Siberia. There are ducks and geese that winter in Siberia and molt in Alaska, but they don't come down here," said research scientist A. Marm Kilpatrick, co-author of the study.
The U.S. has also been trying to keep the disease at bay by testing and quarantining all poultry imported from infected regions of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
But there is very little poultry trade between Asia and Europe and the U.S., Kilpatrick said, so the risk of the U.S. getting infected that way is very low.
Furthermore, few birds migrate between Europe and the Americas, Kilpatrick added.A far greater risk is that many countries in Latin America import poultry from infected regions of Europe and do not have strict testing and quarantine systems in place, Kilpatrick said. In addition, more than four million birds migrate annually between the U.S. and Latin America.
"If your neighbor gets the virus and birds migrate, you're at risk,'' he said.
