The ridiculously cold weather in Pittsburgh that I’ve been complaining about and occasionally enjoying has resulted in another interesting consequence. Recently us Pittsburgh residents have been noticing a much higher number of seagulls than the typical occasional sighting.
In fact, there are WAY more seagulls than normal. We normally only have a handful that flock around the rivers, but now it seems like they are everywhere. They flock in huge numbers around the point where Pittsburgh’s rivers converge. The gather on the ice at the banks of the rivers, and congregate on large pieces of ice making their way down the river.
After noticing all the seagulls I did a little more research to figure out what they were all doing here. Evidently, many of them have come from the Great Lakes after the Polar Vortex and long string of freezing cold temperatures caused the lakes to freeze over. This is a rare and interesting phenomenon in itself, but it’s caused the seagulls to look for nearby open water.
So basically the poor seagulls ran out of open water on which to swim, feed and live so they came to Pittsburgh searching for a new home. It’s pretty cool to see them here!
According to the Pittsburgh newspaper, about 8000 gulls have been observed around Pittsburgh’s rivers. There have been seven species of gulls located in the area.
The search for open water has also brought some other species of birds to Pittsburgh. During one of my seagull spotting excursions I saw a type of loon in the Ohio river and according to the local news there have been various different loons, ducks and other water birds here.
Now that the temperatures are rising I’m not sure how long our new seagull friends will stay, but it’s been very fun welcoming them to the city!
Have you had any unique nature experiences this winter?
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