My poor seagulls

Well you see ,gillybob seagulls were doing very well as sea birds until we fished all the teeming fish from the seas until we now have to have quotas. This drove hungry birds inland looking for food which they found in our rubbish dumps. They then made the rational decision to nest nearer the food source, and so began to nest on "cliffs" in the form of buildings. Seagulls make extremely good parents unlike some humans and will defend their young from any perceived threat, and being bird brained wthat will include another species who happened to be walking by.
We also used to love feeding them, but suddenly when the seagulls anticipate that the food in our hands is for them and grab it before another seahull gets it we change the rules and say they are vicious etc.

If we are to value this world and all the variety it offers, then we must be somewhat cleverer than we have been to date and learn to live with all the glory that is our natural world.

Glory?

Yes

There is still teeming fish in the sea for gulls! We may have fished out the cod and haddock, which may well be sea-bottom feeders anyway, but there is plenty more, it's just easier for the gulls, less effort to swoop on a sandwich.

It may not be a nuisance for you Whitewave, but there is no doubt at all it is for a great many people who live by the sea.

Just as starlings were a big problem for cities a few years ago and also pigeons, which they had to do something about, so used birds of prey( like airports do.)We can't always accept the glory of nature.

I remember them snatching food out of the hands of people sitting peacefully eating on a seaside bench long before we overfished the seas (and there are still fish there for them).

They started going inland for food when so much food was thrown away uneaten and ended up on rubbish tips. Chicks learnt from their mothers where the easy pickings were and passed on the info. Before that we wasted less and it wasn't worth their while.

I visited a zoo in the Czech Republic where there was an enclosure covered in mesh containing as exhibits some of that rare exotic species (a long way from the sea) - the herring gull.

"We also used to love feeding them . ." It would have been better if they hadn't learnt that human hands contain food for them.

We have overfished by 90% in the past 50 years. As a Cornish woman I can remember the vast amount of herrings now no longer in existence. O ne of the staple herring gulls food
Gulls wouldn't take our sandwiches they have been train ed to do so by us

The bottom fell out of the herring market, as it were, nobody wants them anymore, am sure there are plenty in the sea for the gulls as well as other fish.Animals always go for the easier option ( of course.)
I realise this thread was started as a light one, but think that even if you disagree with their reasons, a lot of people do not view seagulls as particularly nice birds, or have the same feelings about them as you do.Or pigeons, or mice for that matter.My sister's house is overrun every Winter by mice.

Get a terrier

Not everyone wants a terrier either!Or a cat. mind you, most cats just add to the mouse population of a house in my experience.

Of course there was the poor little dog that was pecked to death by gulls in a garden. !

If you read my earlier posts you will see that I was nearly knocked to the ground by a full trying to get to a person in front who had food. I jad none in my hand. And my FIL, as I said earlier, was dive bombed virtually every time he went I'm his back garden. Neither he nor I were being stupid by attracting the gulls in any way.

Gull, not full. And in his back garden, not I'm. Stupid iPhone

I live some 12 miles from the sea yet seagulls are a still a pest. They do attack people, and no matter how much of a nature lover you are if an animal (or bird) attacks a child the reaction is to get rid of that animal, - just like the "good parent gulls". Gulls will also attack other birds they consider rivals for food.

Rick Stein enjoys the babies walking into his house. What a kind man!

I thought the young were ferociously guarded and protected by the parent birds - certainly round here you daren't go near one without an adult gull squawking and swooping at you!

Well he obviously gives off kind vibes - he doesn't even mind them pooping! Respect.

As long as he keeps them out of his restaurant in Padstow!

Still sitting!!!!

You get this with broody hens too, sitting for months on eggs that are not going to hatch. They'll get the message eventually and give up.

As well as sitting seagulls I now have what appears a perfectly healthy pigeon that can't fly! He is sat in the greenhouse at the moment -I will give him another chance this morning (dog in house) if he is still the same he will have to go back in the greenhouse away from dog and cats.

Is he ringed? Racing pigeons get lost and tired. There is enough information on the ring to contact the owner.

Put pigeon in cardboard box with something soft, water and grain. He may well be strong enough to fly away before too long.

Hey whitewave ever been to Mevagissy?

We arrived at lunch time; trippers were carrying fish n' chips to eat outside. A man opened his fishy parcel wide, revealing the enormity of his battered fish. While flourishing his lunch, a herring gull swooped. leaving the man with only small bits. lol
Who'd want to eat a scrap after it had fallen from a gull's beak? Yuk.

An aerial scrimmage ensued. The first gull lost half to another and so it continued.

BTW, we stayed overnight in Gloucester, in the city - on different trip. We were kept awake by the herring gulls' raucous calls. They only quietened when the lights went off :-( Then restarted at dawn.]

Can't find a smiley for tired or shattered.