Two comments:
1. Once, at an office party on a California beach, we were grilling shark steaks on a large barbecue pit. This seagull who had clearly been trained by the ospreys and bald eagles on the Mississippi, swooped down and lifted a one pond steak straight off the fire!
2. Ar another time, my house was attacked by woodpeckers, who loved the brown cedar siding. We got a life-size plastic grey horned owl, which it took all of 15 minutes for the woodpeckers to figure out. We then got a machine which made eagle and falcon sounds at random intervals, but the neighbors threatened to kill us. I wish I had had these birds back then. At $2100 a day, though, it would have been tough to pay the mortgage.
55
Hmmm. Imagine that, birds fighting humans for New Jersey food.
51
Simple solution: Ban food on the beach and limit dining on boardwalk. The birds should not be eating human food (seafood they catch themselves okay).
27
I would love to know 'how' these falcons and hawks are trained not to kill, but merely to scare off the seagulls. If the raptors understand the distinction, presumably the gulls do as well. This is just another example of the intelligence of animals -- if they could speak I imagine they would complain bitterly at man's callus disregard for their welfare.
50
Interesting how birds are hatched with an instinctive fear of raptors. I wonder what features are encoded in its brain that allows it to identify one? I had thought speed or silhouette, but the article mentions the mere sight of one on the boardwalk was sufficient.
26
Ever had fried sea gull? I did years ago in California. A guy I knew lived in a tent not far from Long Beach's Cherry Beach. It tastes like chicken left out in a plastic bag in your back yard for a week in the sun. Yummy..
Anyway, who wants to see gulls ripped to shreds and eaten in front of them by raptors? It's not a pretty sight watching predators ripping its prey apart to consume and they don't always just fly away with them.
8
@Martino Please read the article carefully and you will learn that the gulls are not being ripped to shreds and eaten by these raptors.
81
I recently lost a lobster roll to an aggressive gull.
It's great that the city has chosen a natural means of confronting these aggressive gulls. Enjoyed the photos very much!
55
Canadian geese.
When I lived in Reston, Va., on the shores of a lake, the geese terrorized me.
I tried to plant a water garden, and they ate it.
I put my dog on guard one day, and 24 of them surrounded him and circled in for the attack.
I ran out with a stick and they hissed at me and stood their ground, which at least allowed the dog to escape.
I wish I had read this article earlier.
58
I lived in Long Beach for a couple of years, and hada nre urge to be a bird watcher, specifically to watch the war between the gulls, the chicken hawks and also the various black birds. It was fascinating. it ran from about fifteen miles from inland to the long Beech coast. At the North end, I saw a chicken hawk dive on a crow and biting his head off; the surrounding birds scattered in a frenzy, while the hawk feasted. A week or two later I saw that hawk being chased by a flock of crows, and a week later I saw what seemed like the same hawk being dive-bombed in flight repeatedly by very large gulls until he stayed away. Mr. Swanson had better watch out for his hawks, once the gulls and even crows get the lather up!
19
As a kid summering in Ocean City, I would marvel at how the gulls would drop fresh clams from high altitude onto the boardwalk in order to crack them open. How resourceful, I thought. Now, just like us, they are addicted to fast food, taking the easy way out. Should we be surprised?
63
@Rick Morris Well, they're being pretty resourceful to get the fast food.
10
They need something very scary to place on the beach and frighten away the birds.
Is Chris Christie available?
169
The gulls are aggressive because people feed them. I know at Johnny Reefs on City Island, if you turn your back on your food even for a second, the gulls will swoop in and take it You have to stay inside if you want to eat in a relaxed manner. If you go outside, you must go into a defensive crouch and who wants to eat that way? Despite the hassle, I go back every summer for the fried lobster tails because I am still that Bronx girl.
30
Just don't order the raw chicken pizza.
6
A gull tried to steal my hoagie once so I punched it out of the sky and it died.
15
@Fredward You were hungry!
5
Go raptors!
12
We could sure use some Raptors in Washington D.C.
34
Have they tried a drone ,much cheaper?
4
Hitchcockian.
26
The NRA has gleefully offered its services. It will pay for shotguns and taxidermy to vanquish this anti American menace.
9
But the gulls in Moscow are so tough they take down whole airliners.
19
Ms. Gustafson's photograph of the children eating ice cream and looking at the falcon is right up there with Gary Winogrand's photos of America.
37
Here in Australia we call Gulls ‘rats of the air’...Aargh!!!
24
How long before the bolder gulls figure out that the predatory birds are trained not to kill them, I wonder?
15
I can still remember my grandmother's face when in about 1962, on the lawn by Eel Pond in Woods Hole Massachusetts, a herring gull swooped down and took half a tuna sandwich out of her fingers and swallowed it whole. "Horrified" doesn't begin to describe it.
18
What about blasting out the recorded sound of barn owls or even the recorded screeches of peregrine falcons along the boardwalk?
5
Humans have created the problem in OCNJ - and elsewhere - by feeding wildlife. My family has been at the shore forever, and gulls have always gone after food. Gulls do not attack people; they deftly separate food from people.
There are many problems with the aggressive approach OCNJ has taken to combat a problem that humans have created.
First, the area has the largest colony of laughing gulls in the world. Juvenal laughing gulls had just emerged at about the time this policy took place. Juvanals are still being fed by their mothers, and the mothers are being harassed by mostly non-native raptors flying as high as 2,300 feet. Second, migrating shorebirds are returning from breeding grounds in Alaska and the Arctic, traveling thousand miles, depleted, and now have to contend with non-native predators. Third, the handlers claim the predators will be well fed and will not hunt and eat the resident population of gulls and shore birds. So, will the resident birds grow complacent and lose fear of their natural predators?
There have been no studies done on what happens to resident and migratory birds when non-native predators are released in their habitat. These birds are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty. It is unlawful to harass these birds.
30
How about a squadron of drones outfitted with homing radar which would close in on any nearby gulls? Surely this would be an opportunity for software designer to create extremely bothersome and threatening attack software to endlessly pursue the gulls. Perhaps the drones could even be outfitted with raptor-like feathers and features. Seems to me there are a lot of teenage video gamers and drone pilots that would love to spend their summers clearing the skies of pesky gulls while showing off their skills.
19
Years ago Boston brought in trained dogs (and handlers) for the geese on the Esplanade. Worked wonders.
15
Having predators frighten the gulls won't solve the long-term problem. The predators should be encouraged to feed on the gulls to reduce the gull population. Anyone caught feeding gulls should be arrested and fined, and warning signs should be posted to that effect.
37
Expand this notion to include wolves to tame the deer population of the northeast. Collisions with deer account for countless accidents, and deaths. There must be a way to do this safely.
40
A seagull swooped and took a little dog out of a garden in the U.K recently.
Sometimes i feel sorry for them (seagulls) listening to them sound all evocative of cold slippery desolation way way out there, where i wouldn't have a snowballs chance, no supermarkets out there, no no no, and so on, but dolphins always look happy and sharks always look moody, so mostly i don't.
22
@graham
I think you have the beginnings of a nice song there
28
Providence, RI introduced peregrine falcons some years ago -- they nest up in the high rises -- for pigeon control. The birds have done a wonderful job, and the vast flocks of pigeons no longer plague the city. Birds of prey have made a comeback here overall; we have a nesting pair of eagles not far from our house, and we see red tail hawks often. I don't see why raptors can't be introduced near beaches to help control the gull population. As far as I'm concerned, they would be welcome to dine on the sky rats.
68
Good story.
I was at Point Pleasant Beach yesterday and enjoyed a delicious lobster roll sandwich off the boards and later an ice cream cone on the boardwalk without noticing the antics of gulls. Only "problem" was intermittent rain, which I doubt would have deterred determined gulls.
So, was I just fortunate yesterday or is there something different about Point Pleasant Beach, which is further north on the Jersey Shore than OC, and the manners of its human and avian visitors?
RF
11
There weren't enough predators to keep the gull population in check. Brilliant idea to bring some in. Can we do something about those Canada geese now that they've decided not to migrate any longer?
23
This article is outstanding! Full of relevant information and hysterical! You are a gifted writer.
29
This is an extreme situation, but I have been at the beach many times seeing people feed the gulls. They think it is cute to show their kids how the birds will eat. My own boyfriend does this and I have tried many times to get him to stop. They have learned that where there are people, there will be food.
DO NOT FEED WILD ANIMALS!!!
122
@Miss Dovey You are right! It's not just birds. Don't feed the chipmunks or ground squirrels either. They transform into aggressive rats that don't scare off, but bite! Don't feed the deer, they get wasting disease. Don't leave out food for your cat or dog, the raccoons and cougars will come in and eviscerate them.
48
$2,100 per day from Memorial Day to Labor Day is more than $200,000 annually. How much would it cost to create or restore a breeding habitat for a few raptor pairs in the area?
59
@m
I'm wondering about my future career in raptor training and keeping...
13
@m Well said M. I have no doubt that raptors living naturally nearby would keep most of the gulls away for very little cost.
13
Thank you, NY Times, for using the common name 'gulls,' rather than the overused and incorrect term 'seagulls.' On the other hand, why is this story appearing over a week after the Washington Post (and many local NJ papers) covered the story. The Post story was posted on August 6th!
13
Ok, birders want to know. Are these Harris Hawks and Peregrines? Something else?
23
Can those birds do anything with a president?
317
We could send a few raptors to Washington D.C......
93
"Whether it’s hawks or falcons in urban areas to reduce pigeon populations". Peregrine Falcons have greatly reduced the pigeon population in Chicago. “the introduction of the raptors seems to have improved the conduct of the gulls.” Do what Chicago did, create a place where raptors can breed and eat the gulls.
43
Quite apart from the fact that it is annoying to people whose food is being stolen by gulls is that human food is not the natural diet of gulls and a lot of it is bad for them if they eat more of it than their natural diet of fish. They seem to have become lazy, just going after the easy food, and if they end up living on it, there are going to be some gulls with nutritional deficiencies and birth defects. I have seen starlings and blackbirds with malformed legs and feet around dumpsters and it is pitiful.
18
@Rosemary Fletcher-Jones
"The Principle of Least Effort" "just going after easy food" applies to a lot more than lazy gulls. It is pulling the strings backstage of much of our human and planetary ills. For more see my paper "Technology, ease, and entropy: a testimonial to Zipf´s Principle of Least Effort"
16
@Rosemary Fletcher-Jones You're right Rosemary. Also, this type of food is less than ideal for people.
16
Gosh, imagine if spiders were the ones doing this (ha).
1
Maybe I missed something, but no one seems to have suggested OBSTRUCTIVE PARASOLS (or umbrellas), hoisted prior to visiting any french fry stall or lifting pizza to any mouth...
6
@Waggtail. Picture this - Mom, Dad, couple of kids, wallet in hand, pizza, fries, drinks, towels, boogie boards, buckets, shovels plus a bunch of umbrellas. Multiply by five or six families standing in line.
13
@Waggtail
Wings are wonderful things for circumventing obstacles like that.
9
@Waggtail You realize these are birds right? they can easily fly around or underneath umbrellas ..
16
Have lost various meals to many a gull in OCNJ: an entire peanut butter and jelly swiped directly out of the mouth (and hands) of a babe, French fries galore, pizza, ice ream cone remnants, and one avocado toast with hard boiled egg which was left unattended on a deck for 20 seconds.
15
I was born and raised in Margate, just across the channel from Ocean City. If tourists did not feed gulls (locals NEVER do), this problem would not have gotten as out of control as it's become.
25
@Jane did you miss the part where people aren't feeding the gulls - the gulls are attacking people? Read the article again if you don't get this.
1
@Multimodalmama - NOW they're not feeding the gulls. It's hard to believe they were not feeding them before the gulls' behavior became so aggressive. Everywhere I go, I see people feeding food--mostly human food--to ducks, gulls, and songbirds. Even when signs say 'Don't Feed The Bird.' For some reason, people think this is cute/fun/humane/something to teach their children. It isn't, for many reasons.
43
It’s the pattern. First the feeding the birds learn so they continue to do it after they are accustomed to the east food.
6
I once watched in fascination as a gull tried to lift a 1-lb. steak from a hot grill. That was 40 years ago on the beach in Amagansett.
20
Crab fries too?
1
A testament to my culinary skill, sizzling pork chop plucked from a hot grill right before my eyes. Surf City, NJ
14
It's been at 40 years since "Born to Run" was heard on any boardwalk.
10
@caljn 40 years in LA maybe. Down the shore in Jersey? Every. Week.
28
The gull was clutching a HOAGIE, not a “hero sandwich,” whatever nonsense that might be
58
@momalle3
No it was a Sub.
25
Just let them kill and eat the gulls as well. Circle of life and all that.
29
Michelle Gustafson, the photographer for this article, captured stunning shots of these top-of-the-food-chain birds. And to think that she didn't use a drone.
39
Too bad there are no more wild raptors doing this job. Falcons love to harass & attack gulls just for fun.
15
Last year during an outing to the Santa Monica pier, I bought a Cinnabon. As I lifted this (thousand calorie) treat from the bag towards my mouth, a gull managed to snatch it from my hand. After getting over the shock, I figured it was God's way of telling me to stay on my diet.
244
"... it was God's way of telling me to stay on my diet."
I doubt God had anything to do with it, however that gull should consider going on a diet, because fat gulls can't fly.
21
It's a small step from biting humans to get their food to realizing just how tasty humans are. I'm so glad they are stopping this before it gets out of hand.
19
Would love to have a couple of falcons and their handlers visit me and work on the plague of crows that infest our neighborhood. The crows take over other bird's nests, kill the fledglings and other small birds and have managed to decimate the bird population of our street. We no longer have doves, mocking birds, sparrows or any of a wide variety of birds that used to frequent my bird bath. Just crows.
17
@MB, If the sparrows you're talking about are house sparrows, they aren't native to San Francisco and also have a practice of taking over other birds' nests.
8
@MB I was attacked by crows three times in two different places in downtown Seattle a few months ago while walking to work. Apparently crows attack to protect a nest. I did not know the nest at issue might have been appropriated from another bird family. Thanks for the factoid.
5
I wonder if raptors could help control the pigeons in Venice, Italy?
12
What about just some pepper spray? Much cheaper than raptors for hire.
2
Very shallow reporting. Not one mention of the fines that police can impose on people feeding seagulls.*
Instead of blaming the humans, this article makes the seagulls the bad guys.
* "In 2016, the city [Ocean City] passed an ordinance to fine those who attract the birds by tossing them scraps of food."
Ocean City using trained raptors to deter hostile seagulls from Boardwalk
by AVALON ZOPPO
Aug 3, 2019
pressofatlanticcity dot com
4
@BVD I connected the dots but you are right. NY'ers are outraged by rats but they litter, don't clean up after their dogs and the city doesn't use proper garbage bins.
22
Appreciate starting a new day with a story about human trained animals - gulls and hawks - is refreshing. No bullets, no deaths, no pulpit bullies, no broken promises, no greedy lying leaders. Thank you!
52
correction: gulls and falcons, not hawks
1
"... a state [New Jersey] where pugnacity is considered a plus."
Stereotyping an entire state is horribly offensive. The Times should show some respect -- Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel lived in New Jersey.
10
@BVD: Pointing out that Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel lived in Jersey is like pointing out that Lincoln was a Republican: It just shows how very far both have fallen into the abyss.
33
@BVD
So did Thomas Edison.
7
And Sinatra and Bruce.
4
If ever an article cried out for video, surely this is it.
66
@Henry
Too bad Alfred Hitchcock isn't available...
17
Wouldn't be cheaper with a bunch of kites that shaped like falcon?
4
I thought you were supposed to be able to stare them down. or would that take too much manpower?
2
After Labor Day they need to let the raptors truly have at the sky rats. We love "our" Cooper's Hawk "Victor" who has our yard and chimney on his rounds. He has totally cleared out the pigeons. There are also Red Tails that do a check in at the MSP hangars now and again. They come in, clear out the pigeons and go on their way. Raptors rule!
26
"Though the raptors are certainly capable of killing gulls, these have been trained just to frighten the gulls away."
So the headline is just click-bait: "Flying Assassins Are Called In to Combat Aggressive Gulls".
9
Dont worry like most people from Jersey the gulls will be moving to Florida
7
@D
And at least half of those will then return to NJ...
7
Nah
They move to North Carolina after a couple of years
We call them halfbacks
3
No. A lot of us in NJ will not move to the red state of Florida.
10
I'm curious why predators like these haven't returned to the area naturally. I would assume that the food rich environment (seagulls) would be perfect for them to breed and and multiply.
13
@Makenna
Probably no suitable breeding habitat. But this would not be a difficult fix. Red-tails do live in Manhattan. I don't know the area, but this is one of the usual problems.
14
<< “The best way to put nature back into balance is to bring back predators,” >>
While I completely agree with the use of raptors here, let’s call this for what it is: it is nature out of balance being kept that way for the benefit of people.
12
I just visited Atlantic City, New Jersey a few weeks ago. My friends and I were walking the boardwalk in the morning, and out of nowhere one of these little gulls dive-bombed us. We didn't have any food though, so it flew away. Those gulls are everywhere down there. AC could use a few raptors too!
11
It is too easy to underestimate how smart gulls are about food. On a West Coast beach, I watched a couple eating some fancy cheese from a local specialty cheese factory. They put the cheese back into a plain brown paper bag, and put it on top of their basket, among other foods, and left to go into the water. A couple of gulls immediately pulled the cheese bag out of the basket, ripped the bag open, and stole the cheese. They were so fast I could not do anything to stop them. They obviously knew what they were after.
20
I took some training up in Canada on working with raptors a few weeks ago. LOVE it. I think this is something that I will keep up with. Seems to be in the news a lot lately.
Love using nature to solve problems.
30
As soon as I saw this headline I knew it was Ocean City, NJ. For I too was attacked by the gulls in the summer of '09 when I lived there after college. I remember walking back to the surf shop on the boardwalk I was working at with a slice of pizza. Out of nowhere a seagull dive bombed me, shrieking and with his yellow beak furiously chomping in the noon-day sun. My slice fell and I was surrounded by a torrent of gulls. I returned to work hungry and pizza-less. I'm still angry about it. Well, who's laughing now, seagulls of Ocean City?
134
Raptors were introduced in San Francisco in the early 2000's and the difference was almost immediate. They are the best thing to have to control pigeons and gulls, and I do not care if they eat them. That's fine by me.
72
This is wonderful! Raptors are magnificent animals that few know anything about them. I am thrilled that children in particular will witness them up close and personal.
65
Why weren't any gulls interviewed to get their side of the story?
286
Why so expensive?
4
@dejordy
It is an old and subtle art to train raptors; not everyone is suitable for the job. Likewise, raptors do not breed every month like rats, and take time to train to hand and to mature as predators. Keeping raptors involves providing appropriate food - no curly fries - year round. You also need appropriate housing for them. It's not like keep a parakeet in a cage.
140
@dejordy The cost seems appropriate to me. Five trained raptors managed throughout the day to save a town's primary source of income?
44
@dejordy Because it takes a lifetime to learn how to train these birds, manage their health, feed them, etc. And because it's a rare skill.
35
Great article, thank you!
39
Given that they’re trained -not- to kill, aren’t the raptors less “flying assassins” and more “flying scarecrows” (scaregulls?)?
104
@David G
Exactly, if they started killing the gulls only then would it likely have any sort of long term effect on their other gulls and overall population. However it would also likely scare some of the children and offend the delicate sensibilities of some adults.
24
Given the large numbers if gulls, even if the raptors at the numbers currently being used would kill the gulls, I suspect it would not make much of a dent in the gull population — but maybe they would move elsewhere.
6
@Still Waiting... Don't know that kids would be scared. We used to have a vernal pond across the street from our home (before a developer built a house on it) that was a site for mallard ducks to nest. One year, a gorgeous red-tailed hawk swooped down, nabbed a male mallard and then proceeded to disembowel and eat it on a retaining wall along the sidewalk. The neighborhood kids of all ages, including mine, came out to watch and were thrilled by seeing Nature in action.
28
30 years ago, I was with my then one year old son and his godmother in Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island. We were having lunch outside on the boardwalk. A gull swooped in and grabbed my son's bottle by the nipple and took off. Aunt Roseann swatted at the gull with a knife and it dropped the bottle. It was difficult to explain to a one year old why he couldn't have his bottle back!
26
@Marylouise
About 30 years ago I had a Labrador Retriever that snatched an ice cream cone right out of the hands of a little girl at the beach.
5
The major expense of a trained raptor is the time and effort of the human handler. Time to start falconry clubs in local high schools? Let's put some raptors in the air!
76
The Dutch are using raptors to attack drones that hover too close to government leaders
48
@Buoy Duncan
Many American towns have a deer problem. When I lived in Wyoming I remember hearing from an old fellow how he watched a pair of golden eagles take down a deer. If every town that had the headache of roving deer eating not only backyard gardens but nearly every ornamental plant in sight, causing traffic accidents and proliferating at a rate that puts rabbits to shame could call on the services of eagle harassers it could help.
25
@dressmaker
We have deer in our garden quite frequently, especially when snow starts in the mountains. Much like this story, I've trained successive chessies and field labradors to chase them out of the yard. Quite humane, and it's fun to watch the sweet dogs that sleep on our kids' beds go nuts and scare away as many as 10 deer at a time.
17
Oh, those Dutch people!
4
A seagull on the OC boardwalk went after my son's french fries about 4 years ago and he is still traumatized by it! I've also seen them pluck sandwiches right out of people's hands on the beach.
5
Everything is fine now, but wait till those falcons develop a taste for curly fries. Yum...
26
This problem has increased because of people feeding the gulls on the beach even though there is an ordinance against it. I still see people baiting the gulls to try to get a selfie with them!
54
Why train them not to eat, falcons gotta eat, no?
Why do we have to anesthetize ourselves from real life?
12
Why do we have to take umbrage with every little thing these days? Why can’t we just enjoy this occasionally hilarious story for what it’s worth?
70
@Eddie B raptors that are trained have strict diets and wouldn’t keep “working” if they killed and ate a gull or two. They are fed by their trainers the same way dogs are...
105
Fascinating story! Not a thing hilarious about it. A few places that elicited an interested (but not amused) chuckle.
2
Excellent article. These raptors are beautiful and magnificent birds.
77
Brilliant writing, well-rounded article. Read it aloud over coffee to my NYC husband. Thank you.
86
Introduce breeding pairs of raptors or ban street food vendors?
7
Sure, why not destroy a tourist destination that brings in 150,000 people during the summer and obviously provides jobs to hundreds, if not thousands, of people? Get out of your bubble and think about people.
26
@Norah try to think. it's boardwalk storefronts and restaurants, not "street food vendors".
15
Years and years ago, my family was visiting some relatives who summered on Nantucket (in those days it wasn't anything like the tony enclave it has become). We were going to have a pot luck dinner and my aunt made a meatloaf. When she was ready to go, she took the plate out to the car, set in on the roof so she could unlock the door, and in that moment a gull swooped down and grabbed the meatloaf. It managed to snag a big bite and knock the plate onto the ground where more gulls immediately gathered around for dinner. My aunt was practically hysterical she was so frightened by the gull attack. My sisters, cousins and I thought it was the funniest thing we'd ever seen.
117
Ms. Pea, you do not have to apologize for Nantucket or for having relatives living on Nantucket.
What have we come to?
It has been a very long time since Nantucket was the abode of fishermen and inhabitants used outhouses for their necessities. Does it matter that now it's a bit more expensive even than when I visited some twenty years or more ago?
Gosh. Let's be allowed to live.
4