Why are these men on the roof?

That's what I wondered. Let alone why they were taking photos of themselves, with a pile of garbage bags about.

Looking more closely, I realized that one of them was holding something. Not only that, but there were hundreds of seagulls flying about.

I was in Perth, about to go shopping. This building isn't used anymore, but the grocery store uses the parking lot to hold their plants for the summer.

I began talking to the nursery staff, and they told me that this company has been hired to pick up the eggs off of the roof of the flat-topped building. The seagulls laid their eggs there, and in order to keep down the seagull population, the eggs have been gathered. There are many ways to control birds like this. Many communities have complained about pigeons, with folks in cities coming up with new ones!
Some use hormones in pellets that stop reproduction. Others have used more or less violent means: controlling roosts, trapping them, netting, electrical wires, or scaring them with sound or water.

The same is true for seagulls: many companies offer wires, visual items: owls, coyotes, or roosting and landing inhibitors. These guys were preventing reproduction by gathering the eggs. Thing is, the seagulls were more than a little ticked off. They were using the falcon to keep them away from the men working. They were firing a loud flare gun, too.


The falcon was amazing. They brought her down, after her job was done. It was hot work on the roof, and the falcon was perched on a bucket where she was getting water. The water container was on top of her kennel.
You can see in the video below that they water her feathers, too, for that long trip home to Toronto.

After she was done, the seagulls came back.

For more camera critters #216