CAMDEN, Maine — Neighbors in a seaside residential neighborhood have asked the town to come up with a local law to prohibit the excessive feeding of wildlife, claiming that this action is leading to an infestation of not only sea gulls but rats and other rodents.
Town officials said they would consider the request, which was made Tuesday evening by Martha Rogers of Chestnut Street. She said 24 of her neighbors are in support of a local law.
Rogers said two people who live in neighboring Chestnut Hill and Bay View streets feed sea gulls. Rogers said one of the people uses 25 to 50 pounds of bird seed a day, which attracts hundreds of sea gulls.
She said that the sea gulls have been drawn to the area by the feedings and roost on the roofs of homes. Guano from the large number of birds has damaged roofs, weather instruments on chimneys, house paint and cars. Homeowners are incurring expenses for cleaning their homes and are unable to hang clothes on the line outdoors to dry.
“This guano is unsightly, corrosive and just plain disgusting,” she said.
Neighbors also have reported rats, with one of the neighbors hiring an exterminator who attributes their presence to the feed left out for the birds. There also has been an increase in squirrels because the same people are feeding them unshelled peanuts.
“We have had three power outages due to squirrel suicides since January,” Rogers said about them getting on power lines while waiting to be fed.
Neighbors have spoken to the two people but they only stopped for a short time before renewing the feedings.
Rogers provided the select board with a copy of the ordinance adopted by the Rockland City Council in 2012 when there was a problem with a woman feeding birds from her home. That ordinance prohibits the excessive feeding of animals if it creates a nuisance.
Rockland Code Enforcement Officer John Root said Wednesday that since the ordinance was enacted nearly four years ago, there have been only a few complaints of people violating the law. He said there was an elderly woman who was feeding birds at Sandy Beach and she had to be warned twice when the feedings became excessive.
“They can cause a problem for a neighborhood,” Root said.
He said that in the case that led to Rockland adopting its ordinance residents had to spend a lot of money to clean their homes. And these neighbors were unable to have outdoor gatherings because the amount of bird poop was so great.
Rogers said she and her neighbors have gone to the town’s code office and were told there was no ordinance prohibiting such feedings in Camden. She said Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife officials also told the neighbors that there was nothing they could do.
Prior to Rogers speaking to the board, the selectmen also heard a presentation from Alison McKellar, a member of the town’s Conservation Commission, who said that some of the town beaches have high levels of bacteria, which is due in part to people feeding birds.
At the Tuesday night Camden meeting, the select board told Rogers that it would refer the matter to municipal staff and see what they can come up with to address the problem. Select board member Martin Cates recommended the town officials discuss the matter at its next workshop.
Rogers said she did not want to identify the two people who are feeding the birds and squirrels.
Linda Norton, who lives in the neighborhood, said Wednesday she feeds birds with bird feeders and also puts seed on the ground for the sea gulls. She said she has not heard any complaints from neighbors about what she does and was not aware it was causing a problem.
Norton said she will be winding down the feeding now that winter is over but will not stop all at once. Nearly a dozen sea gulls were on her roof Wednesday morning.
Norton, an artist whose studio is in her home, paints seascapes and her collection includes those with sea gulls. Norton lives in the home that had been her grandfather’s house and recalls a story he told her when she was growing up.
“When I was a child, my grandfather said he would come back one day as a sea gull,” Norton said.