Birds Blamed for Closure of Beach

Doheny State Beach is going to the birds. Literally.

Swimmers have been warned to avoid a 250-foot stretch north of San Juan Creek, where health officials have found high levels of bacteria. Though urban runoff or sewage spills have affected the beach in the past, the current culprit is a little bit harder to eliminate.

Thousands of gulls, including some from as far away as Alberta, Canada, take their winter vacations on the sand. And if you’re the kind of person who gets annoyed when a bird leaves its mark on your car windshield, you probably want to stay away from Doheny.

“There’s a lot of birds down there,” said Monica Mazur, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Health Care Agency. “And the birds--they pooh.”

The surf carries bird droppings into the ocean, where birds also roost, biologists say. It’s a problem every winter.

Health officials, who usually check bacteria levels weekly, have stepped up monitoring to twice a week. By Wednesday, the fecal coliform level was more than double the acceptable level. Enterococci levels were about 72 times the standard.

Both of those bacteria are found in the intestines of people, shorebirds and other warmblooded animals. Though the bacteria themselves do not cause illness, their presence is an indicator of disease-causing organisms, such as viruses and parasitic protozoa.

Swimmers also could get infections through cuts or experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and irritation to the eyes, ears, nose or sinuses. Children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems are strongly advised to stay out of the water, Mazur said.

Doheny State Beach, an unincorporated strip tucked into Dana Point, is plagued by other sources of bacteria. The environmental group Heal the Bay gave the area where the San Juan Creek flows into the ocean a failing water quality grade for 11 weeks from June 10 to Oct. 21.

Urban runoff from the creek is a chronic source of bacteria. The problem is especially bad after heavy rainfall. Even Monday’s light rain prompted Orange County health authorities to issue a routine health alert that bacteria levels in the ocean could be elevated this week.

The water quality also suffered after the Hector Mine earthquake Oct. 16. About 1,250 feet of shoreline was closed for five days after a pump malfunction at a Southeast Regional Reclamation Authority plant in Mission Viejo resulted in 2,000 gallons of partially treated sewage being released into the creek, Mazur said.

But the likelihood that the current high bacteria levels are related to a sewer leak is “pretty remote,” she said.

Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay, said swimmers should be cautious about polluted water regardless of the source.

While they may spoil the beach for swimmers, the birds attract bird-watchers from across the state. Doheny State Beach is one of the premier winter bird-watching locations in California, said Kaaren Perry, education chairwoman of Sea and Sage Audubon, Orange County’s chapter of the National Audubon Society.

Joel Wintraub, a biologist with Cal State Fullerton, said 16 species of gulls stop at Doheny State Beach from October through April. As many as 100,000 gulls pass through the area in that time, he added. Around Christmas, as many as 16,000 gulls are at the beach. Two-thirds are migratory.

“It’s a very significant wintering area for gulls,” he said. “Throughout the state of California, Doheny is known to bird watchers as the place in Southern California to see and identify gulls.”

Perry, of Laguna Beach, said she has been going to Doheny three times a week during the winter for 10 years.

“It’s wonderful. It’s breathtaking,” she said. “These birds return to the same place year after year. Being a part of natural history and able to witness it is a real treat.”

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Bird Problem

Droppings from thousands of birds have raised bacterial levels at Doheny State Beach, and health officials are telling swimmers to avoid the area north of San Juan Creek.