There's a gang keeping me prisoner in my own house.

[ScaredGul]

I get attacked every time I try and leave. Their parents are worse than they are and have even tried to attack my dog, and my children just for going in our own garden. They don't even let me sleep, and wake my baby up at 4am being loud thugs. Should I call the police?

@heronsinflight

I once saw a seagull holding a pigeon under water to drown it. And then eat it.

I've seen a gull do the same to a poor little puffin

Swooping is bad.

@stopyourhavering, watching some relaxing BBC nature programmes at the weekend, we were treated to 2 seperate scenes of herring gulls choking down other bird's chicks. The chicks were cute and fluffy and still alive. Isn't nature great!

I had an ice cream stolen from me by a similar vicious gang.

It was a planned attack.

The cute baby one walked in front of me as a distraction and 2 others flew down and took the ice cream out of my hand.

Totally unforgivable act

Red Kites are the noisy thugs around here but I can’t help admiring their graceful aerobatic skills. We used to have lots of small birds nesting -mostly blue and great tits- each spring then the Kites arrived and picked off the parent birds and this year all the little nest boxes were empty.I guess it may have put off gulls!

Our 6th form field trip involved a visit to a bird sanctuary in the Lakes. We were given bamboo sticks with feathers attached to the end and told to keep waving them above our heads to foil any dive bombing from the residents. Worth a try?

FGS whatever you do, don’t get any chips!!!

I was driving in East London years ago and there was a sea gull on the road pecking at something. I kept driving, because they always get out of your way in time. Only this one didn't. It was trying to fly away but had something in its beak that was too heavy so it couldn't get much height. At the last second, to save itself, it dropped the thing onto the bonnet of my car and flew off. The 'thing' turned out to be an extremely dead rat that looked as though it had been run over several times because it was, umm, mushy.

I spent the next few days having flashbacks and muttering 'yuck'.

For an entire summer I was petrified to leave my house for work because a crow had taken a disliking to me and dive bombed me on the way to my car. I had to use an umbrella but it didn't help much.

My sympathies OP.

They are vicious little fukers

You’ve got to admire how protective they are if their young - some humans could learn a thing or two from them.

We had a day out on the East Coast a couple of weeks ago. Of course there were hundreds of seagulls. We got takeaway fish and chips and sat on the wall by the beach. The gulls were obviously eyeing up every person on that beach, waiting for their chance. One stood in front of us. I thought I was being clever; I had my food on the wall and sat sideways on from him. Then I made the fatal mistake of turning slightly forwards to get a tissue out of my bag. The next second my husband was shouting my name to alert me, and a bloody seagull had come from behind (the one in front was probably the decoy) and snatched the whole carton. Then a whole bunch of others joined in. I'd managed to eat about three chips. The thing is, I'd put the top of the takeaway carton down when I reached into my bag, to be on the safe side, so they've obviously learned how to open lids, as well as how to steal your food. Luckily I wasn't very hungry, even though it had taken us one-and-a-half hours to drive there (twats).

I keep seeing seagulls eating pigeons recently. Seagulls are mean.

giphy.com/gifs/bird-chips-running-6U4v1NPgaonDi

We went to Brighton autumn 2019, and had lunch at a beach cafe. I could see gulls out the corners of my eyes, but surprisingly they stayed back which was great.

At the table next to us a German family decided to feed them some of their chips. Within seconds it was like a Hitchcock movie at their table.

I have heard that a kite shaped like a bird of prey is off-putting to some birds.

This thread is making me laugh (except for the murderous part, that is). Sympathies, OP.

I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, and I can tell you that they are unregenerate thugs! One of our favorite things to do was watch silly tourists decide to feed the "cute gulls" and get mobbed. I've had one literally snatch food out of my hand when I was NOT feeding them. Alas, I am not aware of ANYTHING that will rid you of them reliably.

Just checked into a hotel in Liverpool when there was a knock at the (6th floor) window. Frit the life out of me but there was Steven, who immediately got fed biscuits. I do wonder how many other guests got visited...

They fly between the buildings at night from the ground you could just see these ghostly white shapes. But yes I am glad they don’t live in the garden, I only have to listen to the magpies talking to each other (all day)

Show them a photo of Eric Cantona, they will leave!!

The smaller ones are actually quite comical when they walk, it's when they dive and steal your dinner that they lose their cuteness. Bit like toddlers really.

I may have watched a lady defending a roast dinner from a determined character at the weekend, whilst safely ensconced inside tucking into my own roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

They are a massive problem where I live, and we are nowhere near the sea. They start making a noise at 4am, they poo on our cars and washing, and generally terrorise everyone. A few years ago, the town council replaced their eggs with fake eggs to stop the next generation; they also obtained a bird of prey to try and keep them down. The council has recently applied for a licence to cull them, which got declined, as they are a protected species. Sleep is impossible because it is too hot and if you keep your windows open, too noisy. I hate these birds!

My brother’s cat hunted them. And as my mother refused to let her take them in the house, used to noisily eat them on the back step. Well, most of them. She used to leave bits, presumably for the useless humans she was stuck with. She was a proper cat…

@catwithflowers

I remembered fondly reading Jonathan Livingstone Seagull and thought I was saving the next Messiah

I love that book. Have you seen the film, with a sound-track by Neil Diamond?

Oh no! My friends has this but they only attack non residents, like visitors and the postie (RM stopped delivering at its worst, they had to collect their post from the sorting office) take it these don’t recognise you yet?