A staggering amount of gulls are in Cleveland right now thanks to a moving food supply (video/photos)

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - If you have been in downtown Cleveland and think you’re seeing more gulls this winter, you might be right.

“Overall what we are seeing is above average,” Naturalist Jen Brumfield said.

Brumfield said the gull population is about the same, however, we are seeing more in downtown, in the river and in areas like East 55th Street due in large part to the frozen lake.

“Typically, the river freezes after the lake,” Brumfield said.

Gulls will seek any open water, since the harbor is slightly warmer than the lake the birds will flock inside the break wall.

Brumfield told Cleveland 19 that shad, a fish that gulls prefer, swims into the harbor for the slightly warmer temperatures, and shallow waters, but will die off and create feeding opportunities for the populations of gulls.

“They are absolutely part of the recycling system,” Brumfield said about the gulls. “They are far more successful at being scavengers.”

Brumfield noted that bird watchers will head to Edgewater Beach this time of year to spot the variety of gulls that pass through northeast Ohio.

And, one more thing Rocky River Naturalist Jen Brumfield added, “There’s no such thing as a seagull, they each have their own unique name.”

The most popular variety of gulls in Cleveland include, the ring-billed gull, the herring gull, the great black-backed gull, the Iceland gull, the glaucous gull and a bird watcher’s favorite, and the Arctic gull.

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