A thousand-gull flock on West Beach, several gull-related 911 calls, the increase of splatter in the Safeway parking lot and rumors of poop leaking into the grocery store’s air system have some Whidbey Islanders wondering if this year has set a record for seagull traffic. Experts say that this is seagull season but no more than any other year.

Dan Barrett, store director of Oak Harbor’s Safeway, said he could not comment on the seagulls around the store.

Island County Commissioner Jill Johnson said county Public Health received a complaint about alleged seagull feces contaminating the air system in the grocery store. She said the department isn’t involved in regulating such a concern, but officials are helping with making connections.

Excrement is a “terrible litmus test” for bird population anyway, said Ralph Downes, an officer with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, as food availability is an equally big factor as to where it shows up as number of birds.

“Thirty to 40 years of experience dealing with this kind of stuff, more often than not, it’s people looking out the window that aren’t familiar with the sites and they see something they think is abnormal,” he said. “For a guy that’s been on the water about four to five days a week, I haven’t noticed an abnormal increase in bird population at all.”

Jann Ledbetter, chair of the Whidbey Audubon Society membership, agrees. A larger flock indicates more prey fish in a specific area at a specific time, not necessarily a general increase of birds.

On West Beach specifically, it could be because of the trash infrastructure, Downes said.

“It’s just hideous,” he said “It’s an open trash system, and the birds predate on it.”

According to the Oak Harbor Police Department, five calls in the past week have regarded injured seagulls.

Generally, seagulls like the anchovies and eulachon off Whidbey’s shores, benefiting from the diving birds pushing schools to the surface.

Every year, starting in July, Whidbey gets an influx of gulls, said Steven Ellis of the Whidbey Audubon Society. Red-billed, California and herring gulls come from the Midwest. Heerman’s gulls come north from Baja California, and short-billed gulls come south from Canada and Alaska.

People likely see this rush of new birds and do not realize they are migrants, Ellis said, noting that he recently saw a flock of 300 California gulls at Crocket Lake.

Oak Harbor’s gulls are hybrids of glaucous-winged gulls and western gulls that have interbred so much that they are known as Olympic gulls or simply hybrids, he said. Whidbey’s easy winters keep them around and numerous.

Iceland gulls are a rarer species that arrives in late winter, Ellis said, which is a fun find for a birder.