They keep many Alkmaarders awake, tear open garbage bags and can be aggressive when they have young. Ever since the fox chased the gull out of the dunes, Alkmaar has been dealing with gull nuisance. There is now a whole package of measures to curb this nuisance, including so-called tolerance roofs. Together with urban ecologist Roland-Jan Buijs, we visited the breeding seagulls.
City ecologist Buijs knows very well that the seagull has an image problem. Yet we have to accept that the birds will never completely disappear from the city again. “We have to learn to live with the seagull. We are building the whole of the Netherlands without taking nature into account. We like it on National Geographic, but when they breed on your roof, it suddenly comes very close.”
One of the measures to limit the nuisance of seagulls are the tolerance roofs. The roof of the old printing house of the Noordhollands Dagblad has been designated as a tolerance roof. A good load of shells should ensure that the seagull has a good time. “We must ensure that there is breeding success on roofs near industrial estates. Gulls then see that their congeners are successful there and may start breeding there as well.”
seagull plates
Due to the seagull nuisance, the municipality of Alkmaar is working with a escalation ladder† In addition to placing signs warning not to feed gulls or to leave litter lying around, in extreme cases it may be decided to move nests, remove them or treat the eggs with oil to prevent them from hatching. Alkmaar is the first municipality for which such an exemption has been issued.
But according to ecologist Buijs, this has only happened a dozen times. This really concerns extreme cases, such as a seagull that was aggressive towards residents of a care home. “To protect their young, they perform feint attacks. If the elderly are startled and fall and break a hip, you are further away from home.”
NH Nieuws visited the tolerance roof with cute gull chicks and watchful parents, view the images below:
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“We are not into pest control, they are not flying rats,” says Buijs. “However, there are situations that are not acceptable. If we do not arrange it with an exemption, people will go to court and then we will really be separated from God. People who have complaints should call the municipality.”
Whether the tolerated roofs really ensure that the gulls return regularly to breed remains to be seen. The birds are therefore lured to the nest with a cage so that they can be ringed. “That way we can see if they stay here, but we also see if gulls whose nests have been treated with corn oil come this way.”
Lawsuit
The Vogelwerkgroep Alkmaar and the Faunabescherming believe that the municipality should take care of the seagulls peace have to let go. They filed a lawsuit to have the waiver revoked as the bird is a protected species. The judge did not agree. “Alkmaar without seagulls is not Alkmaar, in that respect, I agree with the Bird Working Group. But I think that we really make a very good assessment of what is a nuisance and what is not.”