Shore Birds by the Road

Efforts to control the population of shorebirds at the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel are working...somewhat.  College of William and Mary biology professor Ruth Beck tells the Daily Press that the laughing gull and herring gull populations on the tunnel's man-made islands have been cut by more than half in recent years, but adds that those birds have been replaced by rising numbers of terns.  The birds are seen as a safety hazard to passing motorists.

Some past endeavors to control the birds, such as an effort years ago to shoot them, have been controversial.  A more humane project to coat gull eggs with vegetable oil, thus suffocating the embryos, has proven more successful.

Read more in the Daily Press