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Message: <blockquote data-quote="der_kluge" data-source="post: 215953" data-attributes="member: 945">Gulls do a nose jobRooftop nests fouling Midwest Express Center's airBy TOM HELDof the Journal Sentinel staffLast Updated: June 7, 2002Vendors and potential customers played "guess that smell" Thursday during a technology show in the Midwest Express Center, which has been odoriferously fouled by hundreds of nesting gulls.Midwest Express Center  Photo/Jack Orton Hundreds of gulls make their home on the roof near the fresh-air intakes of the Midwest Express Center.  Quotable  There's quite a huge mob of birds up there.  - Scott Diehl,wildlife manager, Wisconsin Humane Society  "It stinks big time," said Colleen Hartley, who worked in a display booth for the University of Phoenix Milwaukee Campus. "I got down here about one o'clock this afternoon, and it was horrible."Hartley's and other vendors' descriptions of the smell in the center ranged from a wet carpet in a musty basement to the cow barn at the Wisconsin State Fair. Most agreed, after some thought, that the funk came closest to matching the odor from the north end of Bradford Beach in August, although slightly less intense."Fishy," Hartley said.Midwest Express Center officials have been working diligently on the problem, which taints their $175 million building.In May, pest control workers sprayed corn oil on hundreds of eggs laid in nests on the roof. The Wisconsin Center District addled the eggs under a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Robert Seefeld, director of building services.Similar techniques have been used to stop goose eggs from hatching in county parks and other areas across the country where they have become a nuisance.Last weekend, workers removed 704 gull nests from the center's roof, also under the federal permits.But federal and state laws protect the birds and any nests in which eggs have hatched. Peering down from the 14th floor of the adjacent Hilton Hotel, Seefeld estimated that 500 gulls were roosting on the roof Thursday afternoon. Seefeld said that was about half the number that had been there before.Roughly four stories above ground, the gulls are safe from nearly all natural predators.And the garbage tossed along city streets below provides them with ample food.Nest near air intakesThe birds, a combination of ring-billed gulls and herring gulls, are situated near the metal air intake structures atop the building. There, the odor from their waste and from the food they regurgitate to feed their offspring enters the building's ventilation system."The odor is horrendous, and it's going to get worse as it gets hotter," Seefeld said.To combat the problem, Seefeld's staff has sprayed disinfectant on air intake units and added carbon filters to the ventilation system. The filters have reduced the intensity of the smell entering the building, he said.But the gulls nesting on the roof have caused other problems.Visitors attending trade shows and other events have complained about bird droppings fouling their cars and clothes, said Richard Geyer, president of the Wisconsin Center District."If you have a $400 suit, you don't want bird droppings on it," Geyer said."It's not fun," he said. "There were so many of them we had to take action. You can see their droppings everywhere."The birds also are aggressive, forcing maintenance staff to don hard hats when on the roof.The gulls have been a nuisance to downtown building owners for years, showing particular fondness for nesting atop the post office on W. St. Paul Ave. and the We Energies headquarters building on W. Michigan St. An ornithologist surveying nests in 1999 counted nearly 1,000 herring and ring-billed gull nests on the post office roof.Scott Diehl, wildlife manager with the Wisconsin Humane Society, said the nesting group on the Midwest Express Center has grown dramatically since 2000, when he counted about 50 pairs of herring gulls there.The next year, Diehl spotted about 100 pairs of the ring-billed gulls and another 50 pairs of the herring gulls. This spring, he counted close to 700 pairs of the smaller, ring-billed variety alone."There's quite a huge mob of birds up there," Diehl said.Possible solutions?He recommended several steps the Midwest Express Center staff could take: scaring the birds with noise, including starter pistols and tapes of gulls making distress calls; frightening them with scarecrows of humans and kites depicting predatory birds; and screening the areas under the air intake structures.Gary Verhalen, the Milwaukee area facility manager for We Energies, said he had great success in the fight against gulls by stringing fishing line in a grid pattern over the roof of two downtown buildings. The gulls appeared to see the fishing line, strung at 15-foot intervals about eight feet above the roof, and veer away, he said.Seefeld said he tried some of the measures Diehl recommended and was considering the We Energies approach. But his roof covers 180,000 square feet, which would make stringing fishing line difficult, and the other steps have not deterred the birds, he said."I like birds," Seefeld said. "I have a bird feeder in the backyard, and we feed them and it's great."But when we couldn't control the odor, I said they have to go."</blockquote>

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