To think if you don't like seagulls don't move to the coast

I’ve lived by the sea for a decade – it’s standard to grumble about the seagulls, but they’re in charge. My favourite was one flying through the flames of a disposable beach barbecue and making off with a raw sausage. Found a dead one in the garden once and it’s only that close that you realise how fucking enormous they are. Lovely, squawky bastards.

I live in the West Midlands, about an hour from the sea, and we have seagulls. In the past week the only birds I have seen in my garden are pigeons, magpies and seagulls. Neither us or any of the neighbours have ponds and even the nearest canal is about a mile away but we are getting more and more.
If I moved to the coast I would expect more of them!

A couple of incomers who moved not far from friends in N Devon, near the coast, wrote to the local paper complaining about the noise of air-sea rescue practice flights at night. They received so much hate mail, they sold up and moved on!

@oakleaffyits when she puts out raw chicken so then the gulls disperse of the bones all over our front gardens 🤢 funnily enough they appear at sunrise when the good probably goes out about 9pm.. they are obviously snoozing then 😀 but they do indeed have good body clocks!!

Did he move to Brixham? 😂 Maybe he's bragging "those bloody birds spoiling our beautiful house/view
But the seagulls were there first! It's a bit like moving next to an old church and complaining about the bells or clock/sunday parking. Did he not think ahead?
There are things you can put on the roof, guttering etc to discourage them but I think they're quite canny birds - especially if you're outside BBQing - watch your sausages! 😂
I'd secretly feed them whilst I was there just to wind him up - but I'm twisted!

Oh goodness yes...Where my friend lived, there was an old woman who used to put out food for foxes at 6 pm on the dot.

You would see wheeling seagulls circling above her garden like vultures, but they never entered friend's garden.

Gulls seem to have a very good memory for what time it is.

Gulls gorge and regurgitate...like this hot dog!

Hilarious! We are by the sea, the seagulls don’t bother me APART from our next door neighbour puts out food for the foxes 😳 so every morning the seagulls swoop on the bowl and literally clatter it about the garden… I think they are annoying for doing that but blame the neighbour for that issue!!! I find it comforting to hear them overhead!

Visited a friend at Weston, and the Crows were masters of the Beach there..
Wonderful birds..I shared my sandwich with them willingly and they were respectful of space and distance, and they seemed to enjoy being chased by dogs as well.

I have heard in summer when tourists are about that the Herring Gulls take over and they are less mannerly than the lovely Crows.

‘Tell your BIL to invest in a decoy hawk or a kite’

our neighbour got a really big impressive decoy hawk, paid someone to get on the roof to install it. The seagulls sit on top of it 😂presumably for a bit of extra height as they yell across the road at the gulls on the opposite roofs 🤣
Our school paid ‘hawk man’ to fly his hawk over the school for a week- that I did seem to work. There was a particularly big, vicious gull swooping g on the kids looking for food.

He sounds a prat 😆 we used to run a pub in a little village and it had a church behind it. A lady moved into the house directly opposite us then promptly started complaining about the noise from the pub -everyone was very well behaved it was just laughing and chatting not pub brawls and loud music constantly. Then she went on the rampage about the church bells ringing 🙈

He’s going to have to accept that the only thing he can really control is his own attitude toward them! Unless he wants to hire a hawk, invest in some water guns and make sure his bins are sealed property and tidy

I love them apart from the fact they use my car as target practice (never dh’s)

There are ( safe, legal) things that can be done to discourage the seagulls if they’re actually on his roof/nesting or in his gardens etc.
This time of year they’re starting to nest and have babies so can be very noisy and territorial! We have a nesting pair on our roof every year - prob the same ones coming back- and the babies are hilarious. They’re really curious and will tap the velux windows for attention, run around the roof, drop pebbles etc. bit annoying when it’s 4.30am but they’re very fluffy and cute…

Even if you don't live by the sea, you can't escape them. I'm 20 miles inland and we've got loads of the buggers here.

Oh dear, the poor fool has become fixated. I live near the sea and yes, they can be loud and bothersome. I have definitely sworn under my breath at the young ones calling incessantly for their parents from neighbouring roofs. But the coast is their home and I moved here, so....

You need to say something pragmatic to him to try and deflect his obsession. Even if it doesn't achieve the aim of shutting him up it might help you feel better to get it off your chest.

This reminds me of a stand-off I had with a seagull over a sausage roll once 😂 In fact I’ve had a few stand offs with them.

We live fairly close to the sea, I remember once during covid going to a covid testing centre set up in one of the tourist car parks. I can’t remember what it was, I think half a bag of crisps or something, but I rolled back the roof of the car so the glass roof was exposed and said watch this to my DCs. I drove to the middle of this giant empty car park and emptied the contents of the crisps outside and quickly shut the door. I’m not exaggerating when I say dozens of seagulls swooped down on us fighting for the crisps. They’d obviously been starved due to the lack of tourism during lockdown. I wish I’d had the for-sight to record it.

Oh ffs now it’s there twice 🙄

Darn it Link didn’t post

Tell him they’re penguins

Totally with you. Though my sister lives by the sea and there’s always about a month where they actually can’t have the kids playing out in the garden because there’s a seagull taken to nesting next door and it actually divebombs the kids heads if they go out there during that time. But they still don’t moan about it like the person you’re talking about!

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Laughing at the vision of your relative trying to scare the gulls away with a tea towel......let us know if that works.

Were the gulls not in evidence when he viewed the house?

Sounds like your relative is overreacting - of course they'll be flying around! But... I'm very close to sea and whilst I don't object to gulls per se and know to watch for them diving for seafront chips at certain time of year, when they are nesting on your roof and defending their babies they can be quite aggressive during the summer - I dread a baby falling into our garden for that reason.

Buy him a seagull ornament for the garden

I hope he doesn't own a chihuahua.
Or - he could move to Malta. I've been on holiday here for a week and not seen a single seagull.