Will gull warning signs fly in the east end?

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Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator
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Hamilton Spectator
Aug 22, 2013
By Matthew Van Dongen

A feathery flap over road kill is poised to turn Eastport Drive into Hamilton's first gull safety zone.

No, you're not being gulled by mischievous wildlife activists.

By next spring, yellow-and-black bird hazard signs topped with flashing lights could greet drivers zipping along the harbour-hugging road. Think school zone warning signs — but for water birds.

City traffic engineers have offered the watch-for-wings signage in response to a gull mortality study last year that revealed hundreds of bird-car collisions near Pier 27, the spring home of a massive colony of ring-billed gulls.

Traffic operations manager Martin White suspects the $4,400 pair of solar-powered signs would be unique in Ontario. The city already posts signs to protect threatened wildlife such as turtles — but in this case, opinions may differ on who is being protected.

"I know some very dedicated people are concerned about the number of birds dying in that location," he said. "I hope this will help, but to be honest I'm more worried about driver safety."

White said the road kill count suggests the growing ring-billed gull colony — 8,300 nesting pairs last year — could pose a hazard for motorists. That's just the population of smaller, common gulls; the pier area is also home to larger herring gulls and cormorants.

On the other hand, White said traffic collision statistics aren't particularly high along that stretch of Eastport. Well, at least not for humans.

Last summer, McMaster University student Shakil Salim collected close to 400 dead gulls, mostly younger birds, on the road near the pier within two-and-a-half months. The highest number of dead birds found in a single day was 55.

The death toll also costs taxpayers, who have already paid animal services to collect about 360 dead or dying birds from that area this year.

White said the proposed signs will go up in the fall unless the original gull advocates reject the approach. Salim and his biology professor, Jim Quinn, initially pitched a drop in the speed limit along the road from 80 to 50 km/h.

The Spectator couldn't reach them Wednesday, but recent emails from both men indicate their preference remains the same.

"Some drivers prefer to drive slow when they see the birds but they are obliged to maintain a speed close to the speed limit," Salim wrote last week, suggesting even a 20 km/h drop in the posted limit would help.

White said a drastic speed reduction along the road, a popular bypass around the James N. Allan Burlington Bay Skyway, would result in "high driver noncompliance."

Ward Councillor Chad Collins agrees, but added residents tell him doing nothing about the growing number of pier gulls — protected as migratory birds — just won't fly.

Collins said some residents are "appalled" by the vehicular slaughter — while others want to see a radical reduction in a gull population experts acknowledge has exploded, not just in Hamilton, but across the continent.

"I would certainly say not everyone is out to save the gulls, but there are different trains of thought," he said.



mvandongen@thespec.com

905-526-3241 | @Mattatthespec


http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4042434-will-gull-warning-signs-fly-in-the-east-end-/
 
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