The rooftops of downtown New Bedford host a Herring Gull nesting colony. Yesterday and today I went searching for gull nests. I climbed up onto the roof of First Unitarian church, roamed the top deck of the Elm St. parking garage, stuck my head out of one of the skylights in our apartment, and poked around into a small urban park, and the video has footage from all four places.
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Yesterday while I was shooting video up on the parking garage, I wound up talking with one of the people who works at the parking garage. Last year, they had a dozen nests up there, and the Herring Gulls made something of a nuisance of themselves. This year, he’s up on the top deck every day, sweeping out nesting material before the gulls get a chance to get settled in. “Just call me an apex predator,” he said.
One final note to those of you who are birders — I’m pretty sure I saw nesting Great Black-Backed Gulls from the roof of the Elm St. Parking Garage, but they were far enough away that you’d need a scope to be sure. They were on a building just about due east from the parking garage.