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Photo: Gulls landing on former Latina's building

By Howard B. Owens

Well, it looks like the fake angry owls and streamers aren't doing much to keep the gulls from the roof of the former Latina's building.

RON GIBSON

lets get real. The only way you are going to get these flying rats to leave is to blast a few of them. never mine that you arent suppose to shoot them.

Mar 22, 2011, 7:45pm Permalink
Billie Owens

What happened to the logical, inexpensive idea that was suggested last year, namely, crisscrossing the rooftop with wire (or fishing line) so as to discourage, and hopefully prevent, the gulls from landing. This has worked elsewhere.

Mar 22, 2011, 2:32pm Permalink
Tom Klotzbach

Birds are very adaptable to threats and able to differentiate between a real bird of prey (such as a Great Horned Owl) and a fake owl. Another problem with using fake owls is that almost all owk species hunt at night. Gulls have had that drummed into them over thousands of years - putting up plastic owls during the day is just not sufficient.

To deter these gulls, someone will need to go up on the roof *every* day and clear away any nest that starts to be built. If you do that for ~60 days, the gulls *will* move on.

Practically speaking, I had an issue with the eviction of a non-native European Starlings from American Kestrel nestboxes, but checking the Kestrel boxes every 3-4 days and removing Starling nests *has* resulted in the Starlings giving up using the boxes as nesting site.

Bottom line - it will take some effort to deter the gulls, but it can be done.

Mar 22, 2011, 7:00pm Permalink
Bea McManis

....or
We can call it "The Gulls Come Back to Batavia" festival.
Batavia can become THE destination for a fun filled few months of music, dancing, arts and craft booths, and the other things associated with a good time.
The city can make more than enough on this festival to lower property taxes for all who live here.
How?
1. They can rent booth space to the vendors
2. Sell umbrellas to visitors to shield them from gull poop.
3. advertise far and wide inviting people to spend the summer in Batavia for the greatest, biggest, gull fest in the world. The restaurants and motels will be filled and the bed tax take will increase.
4. Sell licenses to our bakers and candy makers to make gull shaped cakes, cookies, candy (ala NFL licensing).
When you have lemons, make lemonade.

Mar 22, 2011, 7:12pm Permalink
Amanda Busch

I am going to argue with the killing/shooting the gulls. I feel there has to be another sufficient way to do this without harming these birds... after all they are NOT out to get us like people make it sound like... not being mean here just saying.

There has to be some person in the wildlife rescue world that knows how to handle these in a way other than killing them or trying to trick them with plastic owls (even though the owl thing was a funny idea :))

That is all!

Mar 22, 2011, 9:57pm Permalink
Bea McManis

Thank you Michelle and Tim...get into the spirit of "The Gulls Come Back to Batavia" - what does Capistrano have that we don't have?
Maybe we can have a song writing contest about the gulls.
After all, The Ink Spots made a fortune on their "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano". The city could sell the songs for additional profit.
Then there is the annual parade. Floats made entirely from produce grown in Genesee Co. Couldn't you just hear the announcer, "Here comes the entry from Elba. The gulls wings are made from cabbage leaves, the fine detail work on the head is entirely onion seed.".
The city is missing out on a great opportunity.

Mar 22, 2011, 11:08pm Permalink
Debra Nanni

Has anyone looked into the reason as to WHY they are landing up there? It has been proven that usually gulls are looking for something that looks comfortable to them, water?? What it looks like to us and what it appears to be from a gull are two very different things. something is attracting them. How about changing the roof color?? There is always a reason that animals are attracted to a certain area. It is not to irritate the humans around them, it is because they see something we don't.Sounds silly, but nothing else has worked!!

Mar 23, 2011, 1:02pm Permalink
jeremiah russell

I'm with Ron And Gary on this one. Shoot them, there only sea gulls. Town can pay me $2.00 a bird, and it will be a humane execution. Or put big dishes of used anti-freeze up there and give them a drink.

Mar 23, 2011, 5:53pm Permalink
George Richardson

One guy with a leaf blower, in the morning and evening, for one week can move them. But, then it becomes someone else's problem. Pass that leafblower around until they roost in the country. What brought them to Batavia to begin with? There were zero Seagulls in Genesee County in the 60's and 70's and I never saw or heard about them in the 80's or 90's either. What happened, did they get rid of the giant garbage dump near Grand Island? That was a sight for sure, a million and two sky rats going full tilt boogie as long as there was light.

Mar 24, 2011, 6:03pm Permalink

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