Why are seagulls such a pain?!

[Fillyfrog]

I actually think seagulls are the bane of most seaside resorts. We went to Llandudno in north Wales today, it's such a lovely place and been a favourite for many years. But today the seagulls were so awful, I saw countless people getting their food stolen from them to the point where instead of risking to eat our picnic on the front we ate it in the car! Some of the gulls are absolutely massive, I saw one steal a full ice cream from a toddler in her pram and I feel like it must have hurt, she was beside herself. They seemed worse than any other time I've been there.

Why do they do this? Do they not have enough food to eat? I know tourists must drop litter and food etc and I often think of seagulls like, eating some chips someone's dropped on the floor but when did it evolve to swooping in for people's sandwiches?! I can't imagine living somewhere seasidey with them there all the time 🙈

(light hearted thread)

No, of course I don't really think humans should be culled! I just tired of people always wanting to cull other species without looking at the far greater damage humans do.

I like the bare-faced cheek of them but man they are a menace!

I'm about as far away from the sea as you can get. However we get a lot of seagulls coming to live on playing fields over the winter.
They fly around the local schools at break time & dive quite low over the children.

When the whistle goes it's like a call to arms & loads descend onto the playground swooping & grabbing whatever they can. They're so aggressive!
Lots of incidents of poo on children's coats too!

Do you usually communicate almost entirely in emojis?

To answer your many wafer related questions:

1 - the seagull was trying to attack so why wouldn't I throw a bit of food to get the annoying fucker away from me?
Could you let me know how this is worse than it taking both the ice cream and the wafer from me? Surely one is better than both ....

2 - I thought it would chase it then leave it as no animal or person in their right mind eats wafers. I was then going to go back and retrieve it for the bin once the seagull got bored and fucked off. I didn't think it would be stupid enough to swallow it whole.

3 - again, thought it might have given it a peck or that the wafer might have snapped when it was picked up

4 - would you have fought the seagull for the regurgitated wafer? Because I didn't want to. It flew out of its mouth and guess what? I'm not faster than a hungry sodding seagull. Also I don't know what diseases they carry and I didn't have gloves or a tissue with me.

PS, using 3 questions marks and exclamation marks doesn't make it any more of a pressing question than using 1.

Saw this picture online yesterday 😂

*moggerhanger · Yesterday 09:03

The herring gull is on the UK Birds of Conservation Concern Red List, due to critically declining numbers. So is the kittiwake...

Where I live, there's a colony on the cliffs, at the bottom of my street. 9 or 10 years ago, some horrible bastard shot more than 30 of them off their nests.

And the Tyne Bridge has Europe's largest inland kittiwake colony and people want them killed, mainly because they shit on their cars.

One flipped open the top of our rucksack on a beach in St Ives and tweaked out an unopened packet of crisps , then ran up the beach with the packet in its beak until it found a safe spot , dropped the packet then methodically pecked it open to get at the crisps. It had clearly done this many times before 😂

I'm doing a survey, 60 miles off the Abrdeenshire coast. Apart from the usual seabirds, we had a female chaffinch yesterday, 3 male swallows and this morning, a robin.

Sadly, one swallow has died.

I think the seagulls were there long before the chip shops, it's their space really.

Meanwhile, in Sunderland.....www.sunderlandecho.com/news/crime/sunderland-man-admits-performing-sex-act-while-kneeling-over-captured-seagull-4118949

Cornish resident here. How to protect your food from a seagull attack:
Don't walk along eating it, this leaves you vulnerable to attack from behind. Clutch it under your arm until you reach a safe spot.
Sit with your back to a wall/cliff/whatever.
If they appear in front of you, stare them down.

I have a cat litter tray that seagulls and other birds bathe in and drink from, one of the gulls taps their beak on the kitchen window or looks up expectantly when the water needs changing. Recently saw a vicious fight between two males (presumably), over roof top territory and the female.

In the 60s and 70s seagulls were never a problem. But then you were very careful to eat all your food and not drop anything as we were on a tight budget. We snacked less, so it was the one ice cream and the one portion of fish and chips. We also carefully remembered to Keep Britain Tidy and put our wrappers in the bin.

This is the problem. Untidy humans who don't care.

I live not far from Llandudno and our gulls are impeccably behaved (comparatively!). They get their food from the sea and by and large keep away from people on the beach.

That makes me think that Llandudno gulls’ behaviour has less to do with food scarcity in the area and more to do with easy food opportunities, i.e. people feeding gulls, leaving trash out etc.

There are signs all over the beach front - feed gulls, feed their aggression. That’s what the problem is. It’s people, not the gulls.

Arseholes.

We live on the South Coast and, since last year, the population of herring gulls has been decreasing rapidly, according to the Wildlife Trust. There's a big problem with avian flu. I haven't seen or heard anywhere near as many gulls as usual. Normally they nest amongst the chimney pots and roofs, but it's eerily quiet this year. It doesn't seem to have been affecting the pigeons though, and there's still loads of them about.

Lived in Llandudno for first 25 years of my life. Never remember any problems with seagulls then.

Ff to now and I have been a victim of ice cream theft. A seagull circled me, just brushed the top of my head, then went around again and took a big chunk out of my ice cream. We've also had chips stolen when eating fish and chips outdoors.
But I have seen people sitting on the benches on the prom deliberately feeding the seagulls so they have presumably learnt that people = food and go one step further and swoop in for the steal!

Living in Aberdeen you soon learn not to have any visible food or indeed eat on the street. Someone did a study and it is 25% of herring gulls that grab food from humans - if you make eye contact they are less likely apparently.

Presthaven holiday park seems to a 2nd home for them in Summer. They nest on the caravans and at 4.30 am(sunrise) they bounce about like a herd of elephants. Scared the crap out of my kids, waking us all up every day at that time. Never been back there since for that reason.

It's our fault! Humans who a) don't tidy up after themselves and b) deliberately feed the seagulls.

This seems to be a particularly British thing. We go to a seaside resort in France, it has restaurants all along the beachfront and the seagulls are never a problem, because people don't throw them food and any mess is quickly cleared away.

We were eating there once and a family were throwing food out to the gulls - they were British! DH told them off in no uncertain terms. The proprietor, who we know quite well, was astonished that anyone would give food to the gulls! French people aren't that stupid.

I have been guilty of feeding them in the past as it's pretty much like you said, a British thing to do.

I don't think I'd appreciate a complete stranger telling me off like a naughty child though.

A few years ago my much loved and missed late DP was assisting a very drunk me back to our guest house in Margate...
Me... "I hate sigeons and peagulls"
DP.. "What did you say?"
Me.."I hate pigeons and.seagulls"
DP.."No you didn't. You said sigeons and peagulls!"
Fast forward to DPs funeral and my lovely ds2 (Deaf and autistic) was giving one of the eulogies.
The service was held in the local baptist.. I had to get ds2 to rewrite it three times as he kept saying "Mumma was drunk!" As the Baptists are mostly teetotal I wanted to be careful!!
After DP died I was lucky enough to get a Wooly Hug blanket from the lovely MN ladies. It had sigeons and peagulls on it.
All of my family and friends now refer to them. As sigeons and peagulls too!!

@BSB30 if you saw someone engaging in stupid, hugely unsociable behaviour - vandalism, not picking up after their dog etc would you consider someone telling them their behaviour is unacceptable to be “telling them off like a naughty child”?

Personally, no I wouldn't say anything to people engaging in the actions you mentioned. I would report it if necessary.

I don't think those examples are comparable to feeding a seagull and I would find it extremely rude if someone said something to me about it. Not that I do it anymore as I don't go on holiday.

I'm not even going to get into the names you just called me but I don't engage with people so vitriolic so I will leave you to it.