Seagulls dive down to try to steal some food on the Boardwalk during the summer of 2024.
Summer after summer, it seems clear that the trained falcons and other raptors that patrol the skies over the Ocean City Boardwalk have gained the upper claw, er, hand, in their battle with the pesky seagulls.
The city’s highly publicized hiring of a company that flies falcons, hawks and even an owl around the island to frighten the squawking gulls was the first of its kind for a town at the Jersey Shore when it started in the summer of 2019.
Widely viewed as a success, the “gull abatement program,” as the city refers to it, will continue this summer, but there is a possibility that another contractor may be hired.
At a meeting Thursday, City Council approved a resolution to advertise for competitive bids for the gull contract. Bids are expected to be opened on March 20, followed by the award of the contract at the March 27 Council meeting.
“To make sure we get a highly qualified contractor, we’re going to use a competitive contract process. This will let us consider many factors and not just the lowest bid. This program has been a great success and I’m looking forward to continuing it,” Mayor Jay Gillian said.
Since 2019, the city has been using East Coast Falcons of Lodi, N.J., to handle the gull contract. The city gave East Coast Falcons a $328,000 contract extension in 2024. But the company will now have to compete with other bidders the way the contract is being set up this year.
Falconer Angelina Caselli, of East Coast Falcons, leads a raptor down the Boardwalk to patrol for gulls in August of 2023. City officials made the decision to hire East Coast Falcons in 2019 after hearing numerous complaints from tourists and local residents about hyper-aggressive gulls swooping down on the Boardwalk to snatch French fries, pizza and other food right out of people’s hands.
As part of its contract extension last year, East Coast Falcons was given the responsibility of shooing away gulls in the downtown business district, the 34th Street business district and other areas of town – in addition to the Boardwalk.
Council members Keith Hartzell, Tony Polcini and Jody Levchuk said during a meeting last August that it appeared there were times when the gulls were congregating on the Boardwalk in larger numbers and making an even bigger pest of themselves than usual.
Half-joking, Hartzell wondered whether the seagulls were getting “smarter.”
However, Hartzell and Levchuk gave an encouraging update two weeks later when they reported that the gulls seemed to be disappearing from the Boardwalk again, thanks to the trained raptors owned by East Coast Falcons.
The gull-abatement program is designed to drive the aggressive birds back into their natural habitat of the bays, marshlands and ocean – not to kill them.
The pesky birds snatch a meal.
