My poor seagulls

But Donbobs...surely you would agree that we have to take action against some living things?

In general I like to ‘live and let live’ but live with a tape worm, with ecoli, with head lice? Share my water and food with rats (viles disease)?

Humans are more than happy to wipe out the measles or small pox bacteria and that is a living thing too isn’t it?
Just not a pretty one.

And I’m sure if Alabama rot affected a loved dog people would be crying out for a cure that killed it off!

I’m just making the point that Humans are fickle, and so long as they aren’t inconvenienced they don’t see the other POV.

As someone else pointed out It’s our fault for feeding gulls and other creatures and making them both rely on us and see us as sources of food.

I can see this is a really old thread but came across it after having had a young seagull fledgling killed in my garden. Have noticed there are a number of comments regarding gulls moving into urban areas and have got lazy as they should be out fishing! You should be aware that the population of coastal gulls has dropped by 40% due to us reducing fishing trawlers and reducing by catch so food supply is now in shortage, factor in over fishing and a disaster. Now that we recycle our food, local rubbish dumps no longer have a suppy of food scraps that gulls used to live off so subsequently they have been driven into urban areas. Competition for food is extremely high so attacks on people who have food is the outcome. The bigger point is why do humans get to decide what is vermin and what isn't? Gulls are protected by the way and it is a criminal offence to deliberately injure, kill or harm a nest. No wonder this world is the state it is in with certain people deciding what should live and what should die.

Good on ya gal. A lady after my own heart!

well said. I've just sneaked out some left over breakfast kipper for them, whilst DH is out with the dog.

I hope that your Seagulls are ok Whitewave. I live in the countryside and have many different nests around my house. I have House Sparrows and Starlings under the eaves of my cottage and lots of Dunnock's in the hedges and Robins, Wrens and Blackbirds in my trees of which I allow Ivy to grow through as it's great coverage for nests.
I wouldn't be without birds, I love their song and their cheeky antics.
What is a garden without bird song and what is a seaside town without the cry of a gull?
It infuriates me to see notices about being fined £1000 if you feed a Sea Gull or Pigeon! These creatures are not vermin, they are just trying to survive.
For goodness sake, there are so many human "vermin", but they are all fed and looked after.
Lets not forget God gave us all these creatures and we are not the only living race on the planet!

Quite right - they have their dignity. My DIL has a lurcher with a diamante collar - it looks awful.

My terrier absolutely refuses anything but a collar and lead and even that you can tell he isn't keen. We had the idea of a harness - thought it was kinder. We put it on and he refused to take one step in it.

I quite like the idea of the red leather boots, but I think the dogs might be a bit embarrassed. I always feel so sorry for dogs that are dressed up and carried around like dolls.

whitewave sounds like your seagulls need parenting classes and maybe some relationship counselling. 3rd time lucky?

They would look cool though. Red leather boots!

I have five Labradors - by the time I had managed to get 20 boots on it would be time to go home!

Live and let live is what I say..................................

However..............

When the song birds have their nests in my hedges and trees, and the bloody Magpie comes along.. I run out into the garden and clap and tell it to b... off.

Yes that is what I read. The trouble is that only the tiny fraction of dogs survive. I would be inclined to get boots for my dog if I lived there. There are some very nice ones you can get. Dogs in very cold countries wear them in the winter.

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.

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.

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.

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 .

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.

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!!!

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

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.

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 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.

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.