Dozens Of Dead Seagulls Litter Newly Opened Detroit Route

DETROIT, MI — During the three years the drawbridge connecting Detroit and River Rouge was closed, a flock of seagulls turned a lot on West Jefferson Avenue into a nesting site. Seagulls have been a nuisance in the area for years, but now they’re swarming in such high numbers that one construction worker told the Detroit Free Press that he felt like he was caught in a scene of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.”

Hitchcock could have written this plot. The seagulls went where they wanted when traffic was cut off in the area and co-existed with humans, even when humans were annoyed by the mess they left below and which could very well hit them. People cursed but didn't try to kill the seagulls. But then Jefferson Bascule Bridge reopened last fall, brisk traffic resumed and West Jefferson became a death trap for dozens of young seagulls, not yet able to fly, as they tried to cross the road.

No one knows exactly how many seagulls have died, but the eerie sight of dozens of bird carcasses along the road was enough to cause motorists to do a double-take and for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to step in to investigate their deaths. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Detroit Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, like us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

All the dead seagulls are juveniles, and none tested positive for West Nile Virus, the Free Press reported. It's also expected that tests for botulism and heavy-metal toxins will come up negative, because adult birds would have died, too, DNR wildlife biologist Zach Cooley told the Free Press.

“It’s the young birds that can’t fly. They get stuck in fences, they hang in the road and since they can’t fly, they can get hit,” Cooley said.

A long-term solution is in the works. For now, the city of Detroit, which owns the Great Lakes Water Authority property where the seagulls are nesting, will put up snow fencing to contain the juvenile birds. Also, the Department of Public Works is going to clean up the roadkill.

» For more on this, go to the Detroit Free Press.

Photo by Gabriel Pollard via Flickr Commons