As the year comes to a close, we’re looking back on 2014 and airing some of the Essential Pittsburgh stories that were most popular on our website, wesa.fm.
To hear the full-length audio for this story, please refer to the original post.
Back in February 2014, Pittsburghers were surprised to find thousands of seagulls making the North Shore their temporary home. We spoke with Bob Mulvihill, an ornithologist at the National Aviary, who explained that the gulls migrated to Pittsburgh because of the extreme weather conditions created by the Polar Vortex.
“These gulls are here because the place that they would usually be at this time of year is frozen solid. And that place is, collectively, the Great Lakes and surrounding areas.”
