A young gull in the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.

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Nicolas Montard

  • Every year, Boulogne-sur-Mer tries to prevent the nesting of gulls in the city center.

  • This spring, the municipality will use a drone to locate the places concerned.

  • Droppings, noise, gutted garbage cans…, the multiplication of gulls could be untenable without action from the town hall.

Make way for the drone!

Here is the new weapon of the municipality of Boulogne-sur-Mer, in Pas-de-Calais, to fight… against gulls.

Or rather move them.

"With this drone, we can fly over the roofs of buildings to identify areas likely to host nests", explain Jérémie Marion, head of Opale Capture, an animal service linked to the City, and Xavier Pruvost, city councilor in charge of actions relating to animals.

“We save a lot of time, it's more secure, while allowing us to monitor places that are difficult to access,” they say.

This drone, loaned to the municipality by Xavier Pruvost's company, Côté Drone, is the symbol of the fight against the proliferation of gulls in seaside town centers.

With the disappearance of their natural habitat (collapse of cliffs, urbanization) and open dumpsites, herring gulls fall back on towns.

As long as they proliferate in the port area of ​​Capécure in Boulogne-sur-Mer, no problem.

In the city center, it is more problematic, with the noise, the droppings, the gutted trash cans and the rubbish spread out in all the streets, without forgetting sometimes a greater aggressiveness during the periods of laying or feeding of the young.

On the roofs, their nests can also block the drains.

The municipality has displayed signs on the promenade between the fish shelters and Nausicaa to remind people that gulls should not be fed.

- Nicolas Montard

Hence, each year, the mobilization of services during the nesting period, between March and mid-May.

“The idea is to limit nesting in the city center, and therefore building nests, because once there is an egg, it cannot be destroyed, the herring gull being a protected species.

»We must therefore remove any element, such as branches, which could allow gulls to build their habitat here, and ultimately encourage them to join the port area.

Fakir rugs, panels, bins ...

In Boulogne-sur-Mer, this fight requires full collaboration between donors, owners and the municipality.

If a resident notices that gulls are likely to settle, he contacts the animal service.

Jérémie Marion performs the diagnosis and gives his recommendations: cleaning, installation of fakir mats (metal trellises) on roof terraces to discourage gulls from landing there, etc.

The intervention is free.

On the other hand, we do not sterilize the eggs in the nests, a method which has been used elsewhere in France, such as in Nice or Calais.

The municipality of Boulogne follows the recommendations of the ornithological group of Nord-Pas-de-Calais.

The number of gulls squatting the town center of France's leading fishing port represents around a hundred pairs.

Fighting against their presence also takes place at ground level.

Thus, the City has multiplied underground garbage cans and closed waste bins, birds being particularly attracted to litter.

And signs have recently been installed to remind French fries lovers not to feed them.

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