Warning: Distressing images

A theory surrounding more than 20 dead birds on a Bay of Plenty beach is that someone ran them down deliberately.

A farmer spotted the birds when walking along Pukehina Beach this morning.

“I just thought I’d come down and enjoy a nice Friday morning catching a couple of kahawai for myself and my wife,” says Ray Neville.

“I turned up there this morning at about 8.45am and cast my spinner into the water. Upon doing so I noticed a seagull flicking around and slipping in the water, which I thought was strange.”

When Ray stepped back on to the beach, he noticed a dead seagull lying on the sand.

The run-over seagulls cover the Bay of Plenty beach. Photo / Ray Neville

Following tyre tracks along a 60m stretch of the beach, Ray found 22 dead seagulls including what appeared to be a couple of rare black-billed gulls.

“Someone’s been having great fun running over the bloody seagulls,” he says.

“It’s a pretty grim scene.”

Ray says the council has been putting in a lot of money and effort into building a fenced area to protect endangered birds like dotterels and oystercatchers.

“This is right next to the enclosure, [the birds are] all freaked out, huddled in the corner down there.

The run-over seagulls cover the Bay of Plenty beach. Photo / Ray Neville

“An older guy, he’s actually staying down here in his camper wagon. He heard this vehicle come about one o’clock last night driving along the beach.

“There would have been hundreds of birds resting there for the night. They [drivers] have just charged through them, squashing them. A senseless act.”

The Department of Conservation (DoC) has been contacted and is investigating.

The run-over seagulls cover the Bay of Plenty beach. Photo / Ray Neville

“The Tauranga district office has had a report of dead seagulls at Pukehina and is investigating,” says a DoC spokesperson.

SunLive has contacted police, who say a report of this isn’t currently in the system.

- SunLive