My poor seagulls

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

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.

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

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.

Get a terrier

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Yes

Glory?

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.

I have lived in a seaside town virtually all of my life with the exception of 3 years when I lived further inland. I have never known it as bad as it is now.

Well whoopee doo your party were not attacked durhamjen .I dare say I could take my three DGC out tonight and we might not be attacked either, does that mean it doesn't happen?

The point I have been trying to make it that there are far too many of them (seagulls that is, not grandchildren ) and they have forgot how to act like SEA birds. They seem to live out of dustbins and snatch food from peoples hands. I have seen it with my own eyes several times and the attack I witnessed on Friday would have most definitely resulted in hospital treatment. Have you seen the beaks on these things?

I had four children with me, gillybob, all sitting down eating icecream, as were the four adults. We were not attacked.
I did not say they should not eat them. I said they should not walk around with them. You can do what you like, but it's daft complaining about being attacked by them when you are carrying what they think is food for them.
They are just animals wanting to survive, after all.

So children shouldn't eat ice creams/candi-floss or whatever at the seaside dj ? That's ridiculous.

Actually there are cases where people can't even go into their own gardens to hang out the washing for fear of being attacked by these enormous gulls.

Agree with you, whitewave.
I have a woodpigeon who sits in the waterbowl on my seed feeder, and drops seeds all over the ground. I just think that they are then destined for the groundfeeding blackbirds and dunnocks, etc.
I did once ask a roofer to block up the hole in my roof so no starlings could get in. He spent a lot of time on my roof doing nothing and fleeced me of £450. I'd rather have the starlings.

The answer to not being attacked by gulls is not to eat icecream or anything else while walking at the seaside. Did it myself on Friday. Sat outside the shop under an awning. Watched lots of gulls, but they did not attack.

I don't feed the seagulls only the local songbirds. The pigeons are an unintended consequence , and so after trying all sorts of defence I gave them their own food and we have settled at that. The seagulls merely took up residence, living by the sea it happens.

I am a wildlife lover, and do not distinguish between those wildlife that know their place and those that don't. It does not to me seem a rational position to prefer one sort of wildlife I.e. those that don't make a nusance of themse!lves and those that do.

Only about one in four fox cubs survives to adulthood.

Disliking and discouraging vermin does not make me an animal killer, whitewave. Most people would not be happy with an infestation of rats or mice in their house. Or pigeons living on and damaging the fabric of their house. Feeding seagulls is almost certainly what made them lose their fear of humans in the first place - and anyway, they don't really need our help; they are pretty adept at stealing all the food they need, right out of people's hands!
My poor dear FiL, in his late 80s, became frightened to go out in his garden because the woman in the adjoining bungalow used to stupidly throw food up onto her roof for the herring gulls. They consequently nested there and would dive bomb him almost every time he went out. As he was nearly blind and had lost virtually all of his hearing, he had no warning and on several occasions they made him stumble. He was really very scared that he would have a fall with serious consequences. They are pests, pure and simple, and should not be encouraged. This was in Brixham and if you talk to any of the residents there they will tell you what an absolute curse these birds are.

Well I do know that she has been feeding them for about ,5 years now . Generally it is just one or two adults and in season the cubs turn up then as the year advances they disappear leaving just one or two again.

Daily feeding for foxes is not even good for the foxes. They get used to regular meals that appear before them without any hunting, so they rely on them, and the young ones never learn from their parents how to find their own food. Come the autumn they move off to find their own territory and have to start from scratch. Then they become hungry and aggressive trying to get their "rights" from another human.

An occasional windfall that fell "accidentally" from a human's hand is OK, and if you know from their traces that foxes frequent your garden that gives you a chance to see them, but regular feeding is not a good idea, from anyone's point of view. They are not pets dependent of man's bounty for their daily bread.

No they have been around for quite a few years now - the mice I mean. I have a terrier so no mice in the house!

I have no mess from the pigeons? They fly down, eat, argue then fly off again until tea or breaskfast. It is the sparrows who make the most mess they have their own feeder and are incredibly choosy, throwing the seed they don't want all around! This gets swept up and recycled for the mice who are sweetly gratful.

The starlings make the most noise and rather remind me of the grans as they bicker.
We also accomodate a goodly number of frogs but I don't feed the!m merely rescue them from the resident terrier!

The foxes simply disappear to live their life after their dinner.

My sister also feeds a stray cat who seems to live quite happily alongside the foxes.

That dear little mouse family you're encouraging will multiply very quickly - all looking for somewhere to live.

I wonder if you will like them quite as much when they're looking for some warmth in the winter and move into your house?