My poor seagulls

I am used to mine. They seem to talk to each other each time they get to the chimney where they are "nesting" I suppose the winter might give them a clue that the egg won't hatch! They aren't there the whole time now but do spend part of the day on the nest.

I've only just read this thread. A gull took a chunk out of my husband's nose in St Ives some years back, snatching the ice cream from the cone he was eating. We weren't in an exposed or open area, we were sitting in the shade of a small building. We were ignorant at that stage about how aggressive they can be and there were no warning signs. To add insult to injury, it flew off a short distance, dropped the ice cream, pecked at it a few times and then flew off.

Pigeon is dead

Any animal that we find inconvenient is described as "vermin" but as whitewave said they have as much right to be here as we have, and if anything has made the world a terrifying, polluted and dangerous place, it is us.

I believe experts say that gulls are not deliberately attacking humans but because humans have fed them they see them as a food source. I don't really think it's a good idea, in the main, to feed wild animals.

Well they are off again to give it another go and rebuilding their nest. Every time they bring a twig back they yak away for ages about it - probably deciding where it should go.

The wind has just blown their nest that they have taken a week to build into the garden! I have a feeling they aren't much good at this parenting lark rather like some humans

Oh please...........can we stop being horrible to living creatures????? I don't like spiders but have for no right to kill them so I don't.

I got pigeons nesting on some ivy outside my window and it always touches me to see them coming back with twigs. I'd be bloody angry if anyone tried to get rid of them.

I truly hate seagulls. I'm not too fond of pigeons either.

I think seagulls are magnificent birds. Granted they are very noisy and pull stuff out of bins BUT.......

The things that disgust me are moths. Totally irrational and I don't kill them but they make me feel yuk

Ooh yes. I don't like moths indoors. [shudder] Or birds.

(I'm not a complete nature hater!)

Up here in darkest Norfolk, we get may bugs! I couldn't believe it when I first had one fly into my bedroom. Horrible droning sound and crashing into things. They are the weirdest looking things. Can't believe they are English as they look so exotic. Didn't get any this year strangely enough. Poor things don't live long and then you flind them on their backs all dried up.
It's probably instinct that causes us to shy away from these things.

I've just realised its not May yet! They may still come! Going senile, I am.

I love the colour in of seagulls beautiful white against that lovely soft grey.

I used to be frightened of moths Goodness knows why, but what stands out was the August night I was in labour with ahem an upset tummy sitting on the loo as a moth flew around the bathroom.

I have had a seagull dive on my icecream in Llandudno. They are viscious and this behaviour has been encouraged by the public feeding them. It must be utterly terrifying for small children. In many areas the public cannot enjoy eating outside in seaside resorts.

I put food out for garden birds. We get a lot of very fat wood pigeons and we have arranged the bird feeders so they cannot reach the seed hoppers.
We are along way from the sea but in our local town there are notices about not feeding the urban pigeons because of the mess they cause.
I would not tolerate feeding urban foxes or squirrels either.

We have just trapped our eighth mouse in 4 days. They had eaten their way into my garden shed. with the intention of nesting. I thought it was rats as I had seen one in the garden. Don't encourage vermin.

It's a difficult one! Seagulls are large, overbearing and opportunists. The way they now swoop down and literally take the food out of your mouth is because over the years people have fed them, myself as a child in Cornwall included. They're big strong aggressive, frightening birds, with no natural enemies and have become a blasted nuisance, terrifying young and old with impunity. Like all overpopulated creatures they need culling. Not sure how without incurring howls of protest and rage, so unless someone faces up to the problem nothing can be done to alleviate it. We have the same problem with Magpies! However, farmers have their own way with dealing with this overpopulation, not particularly pleasant, but our song birds are now flourishing! I do put bits and bobs out for our wild life, but always well away from the garden - I don't want any furry visitors in the house, they're wild animals and should never be encouraged near the home. My dog is a spaniel and only good for picking up! not ratting!

I wondered about this and knew that there are different species of gulls- in Newcastle we have the most inland breeding colony of kittiwakes. So I looked them up on the RSPB website and discovered that even the Herring gull-which I assume is the one most people are referring to is listed as amber status- that is decreasing numbers of breeding birds- kittiwakes are red status. If you are interested
www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/families/gulls.aspx
I haven't checked them all but haven't found a green listed one yet- so maybe they aren't doing as well as you think.

Not surprised that they are on Amber the way my two are making such a pigs ear of producing young.

Well they are to their third nest and I assume an egg has been produced - but I reckon there is little chance of it hatching as they both go off on jollies for ages letting the egg cool. When they come back they make a huge fuss jabbering away and fiddling around until one of them settles to sit on the egg. Useless!!!

I know seagulls can be a pest, but I do love listening to them at the coast, there is something really evocative about the sound, taking me back to family holidays when young.

I still love to feed them when I can, by the sea away from others, or when on a boat and they are following, all whirling and so acrobatic, against the sky. I think they are beautiful.

Inland I know there are problems with them, they eat the rubbish left on streets etc and have adapted to feed on rubbish dumps. Perhaps they'd leave the streets if there were no food to eat.

I am with you whitewave . I cannot understand why people refer to other creatures as vermin . Every species has as much right as any other to live their lives without being got rid of in some way .

We have a similar but different problem in the New Forest with people feeding the ponies and donkeys - please don't! They become accustomed to thinking of cars as a source of food which means that lots of them get killed or injured every year. Also they think that everyone will have food so when small children try to stroke them (not a good idea by the way) they can get a very nasty nip. These animals are not technically 'wild' as they all have owners, but they are not used to being handled. On the topic of vermin if you kept chickens you would definitely consider rats and foxes as vermin - it may be natural for a fox to decimate a hen house but it doesn't make it any more pleasant when you have to bury the bloody corpses.

morghew been reading about Alabama rot. How are dog owners managing? Wonder if affects the Fox population?

We like walking in New Forest but sadly have avoided it the past couple of years.

There have a been a few cases - it is still extremely rare, not sure of the percentage of people/dogs who walk in the Forest daily are affected, but it is tiny. The advice is to check dogs for any lesions, cuts, broken skin. Just be vigilant. There are a number of different theories and one of them is that it comes from algae in stagnant water and gets into the skin through a small cut. Everyone I know still walks their dogs and my local vet has only had one case.