scrambled eggs

One of our favourite Rotto breakfasts: scrambled eggs with feta and topped with a chive or two. There aren't many better meals to have on the balcony of our plush Geordie Bay beachfront balcony. "Now this is living," we congratulate ourselves as we tuck in.

The POST has a story today about scrambled Rottnest eggs of a different kind...

RANGERS on Rottnest Island have been shaking seagull eggs in an effort to control their numbers.

The rangers go to gull nests, shake eggs so the embryos are destroyed, and then replace them.

Because the eggs aren't broken the gulls don't replace them by laying new eggs.

A Rottnest Island Authority spokesperson said there'd been a university research project aimed at manipulating gull nest sizes which used egg shaking.

"The project was supported by the authority and was done under full naimal ethic approval," the spokesperson said.
"However, this was a study and not a routine option for pest bird control."

The authority's pest management plan sees gulls caught with nets and then gassed.

The spokesperson said more seagulls were in Rottnest settlement areas because there was no longer a landfill on the island.

The spokesperson said if gull numbers increased, egg shaking might become another pest management method.

In other Rottnest fauna news, a number of peacocks have been removed from the island: Peel Zoo took 23 of the birds.