![]() Instead, they looked to the past with the thousands-year-old art of falconry. Ocean City officials knew that they needed to act for safety, public health, and tourism, but they didn’t place a bet on weapons or harmful chemical pest control methods. It got my hair and everything as it was pulling away with my sandwich,” laughs Charlene, recounting a story from a few years ago. “I was eating a sandwich, and I turned my head to talk to someone, and it came down just like that. That situation was terrible,” says Kazmarck.Ĭharlene and Bruce Twiggs, who have lived on the island full time for more than 30 years, also watched as the gulls’ aggression transformed from a nonissue into something more serious. Then you’re pulling a 15-hour day and you want to go home, but instead you’re trying to get a seagull out of the building. ![]() “We really couldn’t get them out until the mall was closed. It created a hazard for shoppers as the birds frantically flapped their wings and zoomed around the store. ![]() He remembers frightened and confused gulls darting into the store and then desperately trying to escape. Kazmarck owns the Surf Mall, one of the larger businesses on the boardwalk, which sells an assortment of souvenirs and beach gear. It became a very serious scenic safety risk for a lot of the families on the boardwalk, and they wouldn’t even see it coming,” says Wes Kazmarck, a lifelong Ocean City resident and the president of the Boardwalk Merchants Association. “I mean, aggressive, like borderline attacking and going for people’s food. In previous years, the city used flyers with photos like these, warning visitors not to feed the seagulls. While “America’s Greatest Family Resort” boasts 8 miles of beaches and a welcoming atmosphere, the boardwalk has become known for a more menacing presence in recent years: gulls who watch for their chance to swoop in and steal everything from Old Bay–seasoned french fries to funnel cake to entire cones of chocolate custard. Packed with candy-colored miniature golf courses, two amusement parks, one water park, and countless caloric delights, the beachside attraction sees hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Ocean City’s lifeblood is its popular boardwalk, which Karen and the other birds from the mews defend with beak and talon. “Once it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood,” he explains. To him, birds and the ancient art of falconry are sacred. Brown smiles and talks to Karen as if she were a family member. He’s been tending to her for only a few days, so the two are getting better acquainted. Just before 10 a.m., as the town’s 2.5-mile boardwalk comes to life with shorebirds and humans riding bikes, veteran falconer Bill Brown is outside the mews preparing to feed a quail to a large Harris’s hawk named Karen. This birdy hangout is not a summer home: It’s a falconry mews, where up to 18 birds of prey, or raptors, eat, rest, cool off, and get groomed. Inside in the darkness, a hawk snoozes, a hungry falcon flaps its wings, and an owl stares intensely with orange eyes. NESTLED IN the beach town of Ocean City, New Jersey, a nondescript summer home stands among rows of vacation rentals. ![]()
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