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?

When I go to pick DD up from work I park near a McDonalds. The seagulls are always hanging about waiting for food. They will jump up and take the bags out of the bins and shake them so the contents fly out and then pick through what's left.
The top of the bin is solid and they are too big to perch at the opening. So they wait until the blackbirds have hopped in and got a bag and then attack them for it.
I opened my car window the other day and about 20 of the buggars where sitting staring at me hoping for food.

Gulls are typically coastal or inland species, rarely venturing far out to sea, technically there is no such thing as a seagull, hey all are different types of gull but seagull has become a generic term for them. When they attack in gardens it is usually because they have young nearby, in towns, seaside places etc swooping for food is brazen and scary, some species are a massive size !

Oh the grey bird with a big wingspan certainly does sound like a grey heron as a pp suggested. Rather beautiful in flight.

@irisetta Was that the one on the Cornish Beach? In front of children? Good, vile man

Don’t go to Cardiff OP, I’ve never seen such big gulls! They wander around like the own the place too, cocky as you like!

Have you had flying ant day yet OP? Apparently the gulls swoop around cramming all the flying beasties into their gobs and the ants produce a substance that makes gulls high. So they get even more bolshy. Save yourselves while you still can!

@brokenbiscuitsx I used to live in Cardiff,and on bin day, there was always one on patrol up and down the street, it's beady little eyes waiting to pounce on any bin bags put out. I used to wait until I'd seen it do its recce and then put mine out! No wheelie bins in that area

@AlfonsoTheMango agree that sounds like a heron. Beautiful big birds they are. You do get them in London and in other cities: they can adapt quite well to urban living.

[quote LoveMySituation]@brokenbiscuitsx I used to live in Cardiff,and on bin day, there was always one on patrol up and down the street, it's beady little eyes waiting to pounce on any bin bags put out. I used to wait until I'd seen it do its recce and then put mine out! No wheelie bins in that area[/quote]
🤣 They’re a different breed! My friend got five bombed by one down the Bay, tried to steal her ice cream cone!

Dive bombed*

They're certainly good at surviving Scouse gulls aren't to be crossed either..

@Puzzledandpissedoff

Trouble is, they don't go to sleep at night and roost like other birds. they are governed by the tides ( we are a seaside city), so depending on the state of the tide, they will be wheeling and screaming at 3 or 4 a.m.

I never knew that but have recently been in Bournemouth and couldn't work out why they were shrieking at silly times. I just assumed they'd been disturbed but know better now

So since you know about gulls, here's the biggie: why do we never see a dead one? I realise that if they die on land that foxes, etc, will help themselves, but you'd think to see one sometimes ...

Actually we do! When we take a walk along the beach, quite often we see 'bits' of carcass lying amongst the washed up debris, seaweed, etc, (not to mention the plastic and bits of fisherman's nets,and fishing lines.) We always make a point of taking home any nylon line or net, and plastics, and destroy it, so no small creatures can get tangled in it.

Maybe the gulls mostly die at sea, so get washed up. It can be a bit stinky sometimes!

This bugger menaced me for my Greggs tuna salad just last week.

The week before that I was walking through town eating a pasty and suddenly felt nails in the back of my head, a slap on the side of the face and a sharp pain in my fingers. A bastard seagull, probably that one, did a fly-by mugging on me and bit my fingers so I dropped the food on the floor for his henchmen to gobble it up.

Not only are the scary bastards violent, they are highly organised and resourceful.

A local pub has a speaker where every hour an hour it plays the calls of birds of pray.It keeps the pigeons and seagulls away

Was at the coast last week having a coffee in a coffee shop and a huge seagull just casually comes sauntering in;my kids thought it was hilarious but the girls working there less so as they have to chase them out;apparently it's a regular occurrence.

We had a baby full waddle into the shop where I worked once. It was bloody huge. Non of us fancied shooing it out so the owner tried but as she is about 4'6" watching her trying to coax (from a distance) this enormous squawking bird out had us in hysterics. Her husband hid downstairs and only came back up when it eventually waffled its way back out. Nastiest animal that came into another place I worked was a squirrel, kept trying to bite anyone that went near it😬

@LoveMySituation

They're certainly good at surviving Scouse gulls aren't to be crossed either..

😁

Why does the smile emoji translate to that awkward one on MN 🤣

I've just been watching a walkabout type video of Liverpool and the guy said the seagulls were attacking his drone

Yesterday 18:12 purplesequins

when the adults kick out the youngsters it's quite brutal.“

Not quite a brutal as a human being climbing up to their nests and piercing their eggs.

And people think gulls are vicious?

We have a problem with gulls. They nest on a neighbour's roof and their mating calls and then the calls from the babies as they beg for the food that is delivered regularly is awful. Then of course there's the guano...
Anyway, my husband constructed a bird scarer - one of the yazoo type things you see at New Years and a carpet tube inner - straight with a 90degree bend to direct the noise up on to the roof. The effect is incredible. The gulls start making that loud raucous alarm call which attracts all the other gulls in the bay. They wheel around squawking all the time, then realise there IS no threat, then all bugger off together. A neighbour has bought a 5foot owl and put it on a flat roof. The gulls sit on it!! (that's sit with a silent H)