Annoying gulls shut out of Bings Creek facility
Several hundred seagulls have taken flight from their winter home at the Cowichan Valley Regional District's Bings Creek Transfer facility on Drinkwater Road. But not by choice.
It began with one gull, who told two friends and so on. It wasn't long before several hundred hung around from October through April. With the facility handling 23,000-plus tonnes of garbage a year, it was just too rich of a paradise for the gulls to ignore.
The gulls were problematic for operation of the site, not to mention the mess.
"I had several complaints from my customers and commercial operators when these guys loomed overhead,'' said facility supervisor Brett Chester in a press release. "We attempted several initiatives to combat the problem before finally showing them the door.''
Air horns, professional falconers and other ideas didn't work. Innovative thinking by staff, with help from DSS Welding, found an answer to the problem.
Automated seagull gates were built. Equipment operators activate the remote control gates when commercial vehicles need to access the building.
The gulls have since disappeared. There are still three or four stubborn holdouts, but not nearly the massive flock that had become the norm.
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