Gulls wear out welcome

EVERETT – She’s tried using a fake owl.

There was a kite shaped like an osprey.

Once, Gisela Hinchcliffe, 77, placed a nail-covered board on her dock, but those pesky gulls simply stepped between the sharp points.

Even the ravages of a garden hose don’t deter them for long.

“Why do they come to my dock?” Hinchcliffe mourned one sunny afternoon as gulls, one by one, began their daily social gathering. “Why are they here? Is the view better here?”

Dan Bates / The Herald Eating appears to be the primary competition among gulls. Here, a gull chases another away from a salmon head at the Everett public boat launch on Tuesday.

Hinchcliffe has been fighting the birds since she moved to her home along the shore of Lake Stevens 28 years ago. But lately, she said, it’s gotten worse. Now, Hinchcliffe’s narrow pier is nearly covered with fowl feces, from the 50 to 75 gulls she said rest there each afternoon. Even a good rain doesn’t wash it away.

“It needs to be professionally pressure washed,” she said.

From islands in Possession Sound, throughout coastal cities and toward inland communities, gulls and their gifts from above leave residents scratching their heads, searching for a solution.

They’re scavengers, Hinchcliffe said, nearly spitting the word. And to her, the gull’s prevalence seems worse than ever before.

No concrete evidence exists to indicate that there are more gulls inland this year, but migration patterns may have changed due to a food shortage, said Julia Parrish, a University of Washington associate professor of biology.

“Gulls have catholic diets – very broad,” she said. “Unlike children, they will eat almost anything you put in front of them, even if it’s bigger than their head. We’d expect that they wouldn’t respond to fewer fish, but there are some reports that gulls have been stressed.”

That’s just the sort of situation that has Jack Wagner, founder and president of BirdBusters, a Virginia-based fowl deterrent specialist, eagerly peddling his wares.

“People worldwide are worried about birds, but you’re only limited by your imagination,” he said.

Wagner sells quick fixes with names like “Daddi Long Legs” – a multi-legged contraption that sweeps areas of four or eight feet to prohibit loitering gulls. Two-foot “Scare Eye” balloons that hang from reflective streamers are sure to do the trick, he said. Want another option? The “Zon Gun” propane cannon “emits automatic thunderclaps.”

Three years ago, Snohomish County officials installed an audio system that broadcast the piercing cries of distressed birds throughout the campus. The noise not only scared away the gulls, but also startled visitors on county business. The county kept the audio system for about two months, county spokesman Steve Smith said. It was dismantled when the birds simply went away.

But Dan Robinson, owner of Dan’s on the Dock at the Everett Marina, wants his guests to enjoy the spaces along the boardwalk where gulls currently swarm. Wire contraptions, scary balloons or cannons will likely deter not only the gulls, but his customers as well. Instead, Marina visitors simply have to watch out.

“You’ve got to be quick out there,” Robinson said. “I had one try to dive-bomb me just the other day.”

Reports of bombardment make some residents wonder whether the pooping is pre-meditated.

Absolutely, 90-year-old Ernest Anderson said. A lifetime of seaside living has him convinced.

He recalls walking along the waterfront in Everett years ago when a gull overhead took aim and fired.

“It missed me by a foot or two,” Anderson said. “Then it circled around and got me on the second try.”

A sure sign of intent?

Yes, Parrish said. Gulls have few methods of recourse when they’re threatened, so they often resort to dropping bombs.

“What would you do if Godzilla came into your apartment? You’d protect your kids,” she said.

The best way to fight back against the gulls is to make sure there are no available sources of food or garbage for the gulls to feed on, Parrish said.

No one at the Everett Elks Lodge on Rucker Avenue can remember ever setting out food on the Lodge roof, but a long-formed gull colony persists. In fact, the roof has been so thoroughly invaded for so long that Lodge manager Ty Whalen doesn’t even try to keep it clean.

“That would be impossible to do,” he said. “They have little ones and everything up there. That’s their home.”

Gulls begone

* Do not feed gulls. Ensure that all garbage is enclosed.

* Keep grass at 12 inches or higher to limit a gull’s ability to see predators.

* Install barriers on window ledges and roofs.

Cleaning the mess

Large accumulations of gull droppings may contain disease. These cases have not been reported in the Pacific Northwest, but are present elsewhere in the United States. Use caution when cleaning gull droppings.

* Wear a full-faced respirator approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

* Wear disposable gloves, a hat, coveralls and boots. Remove these items while still wearing the respirator and seal them in a plastic bag. Wash the coveralls separately from other clothing.

* Before cleaning the droppings, wet the area down to keep spores from becoming airborne. Keep droppings damp for as long as you are working on them.

* Put droppings into sealed plastic garbage bags.

The law

Gulls are protected under federal and state law and cannot be hunted or trapped. A federal permit must be obtained to use lethal means to control gulls when extreme damage is occurring on private property. Permits are only granted after non-lethal control has proven unsuccessful.

Source: Russell Link, urban wildlife biologist, Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, author of “Living with Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest.”