A seagull just flew at me and snatched my sandwich out of my hand

[Deathbydolla]

as above. Just purchased a sandwich from Costa, thought "weather is great, I'll eat outside" and before I knew it, a huge seagull comes out of nowhere, scratches me and steals my sandwich right out of my hand. CF at its finest.

AIBU to think that this is just plain rude?!

I befriended one in Skye recently. I fed it (a bit more than) half a loaf of fancy cashew nut and cranberry bread, and two 'Taste the difference' Sainsbury cookies (the large American style ones). Needless to say, I was very impressed it could still fly after that.

I have also been side swiped in St Ives by a pasty stealing seagull. The owners of the pastie shops are probably secretly laughing at

pasty/pastie?? whatever

The seagull is the sandwich police reminding you that you can't eat a sandwich at that time in the morning.

I wouldn't mind them very much if they only swiped food. But they're targeting my cat which gives me palpitations, she's the gentlest thing ever and couldn't even catch a moth. @KurriKurri's story gave me the shudders, not surprised she keeps her dog in.

I don't really get it actually unless they're mistaking her for another black cat (they wait outside our house and swoop at her).

If they recognise faces luckily they haven't turned on me yet, I've had many a screeching/handbag thrashing session at them

I think I’ve just seen your post on Facebook!!!

amusedbush

"I was chased by a goose as a small child."

Geese are freaking ill tempered mean birds.

So are peacocks.

TIP TO ALL: Peacocks are pure fucking evil in a beautiful bird form. Don't fall prey to their good looks as their personality is quite different.

I knew someone who owned peacocks, the horror stories I heard about them from my now ex who worked for the owners. (Shudders)He hated them so much after that, that he wouldn't allow any peacock themed decor in the house.

@LeighaJ - As someone who has owned peacocks in the past, I'm surprised you hate them - yes, they're extremely stupid (thus are not intelligent to be 'evil') and they're also very flighty (so it's difficult to shut them in at night etc). But apart from that, I can't see any reason why anyone would hate them?

MyFamilyAndOtherAnimals1 I'm consumed with envy that you actually owned something quite so beautiful

Mind you, I once stayed at a holiday home which owned a pair and (perhaps foolishly) fed them some cereal. I hadn't realised how determined they could be, how much they'd enjoy it nor how early they get up

Every blasted morning, about 4am .. Owww!! OWWWW!! OWWWWWWW!!!!

Ah @Puzzled that made me laugh. They can be noisy buggars I suppose!

Absolute pests. The ones in St Ives are extremely brazen, probably due to all the stupid tourists who feed them, season after season
Same here, the council put signs up everywhere asking people not to feed but they think it's funny and cuute. Not so funny when they land on your table outside a cafeand knock everything everywhere to get at your fish and chips. The beaks are like bloody razers if they catch you while nabbing your food.
Dh and I have noticed they like to sit on the glass awning over the front of Greggs.

Absolute pests. The ones in St Ives are extremely brazen, probably due to all the stupid tourists who feed them, season after season
Same here, the council put signs up everywhere asking people not to feed but they think it's funny and cuute. Not so funny when they land on your table outside a cafeand knock everything everywhere to get at your fish and chips. The beaks are like bloody razers if they catch you while nabbing your food.
Dh and I have noticed they like to sit on the glass awning over the front of Greggs.

Absolute pests. The ones in St Ives are extremely brazen, probably due to all the stupid tourists who feed them, season after season
Same here, the council put signs up everywhere asking people not to feed but they think it's funny and cuute. Not so funny when they land on your table outside a cafeand knock everything everywhere to get at your fish and chips. The beaks are like bloody razers if they catch you while nabbing your food.
Dh and I have noticed they like to sit on the glass awning over the front of Greggs.

Told this before on here, my aunt had a hospital stay after a seagull attack! She was stupidly eating a prawn mayo 🍤 sandwich on the beach in Montrose, and a MASSIVE herring gull flew at her. It slashed her head open on the dive, grabbed the sandwich and tore the flesh between thumb and forefinger as it grabbed it! She needed stitches and intravenous antibiotics as she developed a hideously filthy infection as a result. Awful birds!

That's horrible Freddy.

I used to live in a very busy seaside town. Out one day and saw that someone at a nearby cafe had, for some reason, piled a whole load of glasses on one of the outside tables; it was a huge pile and clearly something or someone was going to knock it over.

Suddenly there was an almighty crash. Bloody great seagull had swooped at the glasses smashing them all and sending them flying. Made a horrible mess.

The funny thing was that nobody really turned a hair; just watched as he flew off. Just a seagull doing his/her thing.

Something about all those glasses with the sun glinting off them must have attracted him and I bet he told all his mates about it for months afterwards.

They used to have noisy sex on the glass roof of Gloucester Magistrates court, the magistrates were sometimes very distracted!

As the thread has moved on from just cheeky gulls, I'm going to link to one of my favourite MN classics. It's Friday and I could do with a chortle. penguin on a train

"One once stood on my pathway, wings on hips, and shouted 'fuck off, I live here now' when I tried to get to my front door."

KurriKurri that made me laugh out loud!

Just back from San Francisco, where I sat at one of the provided tables near Pier 39 for eating food from the seafood shacks. I 'd been looking forward to a Crab and Prawn roll for a whole year, having talked myself out of one on the previous visit and regretting it.

Seagull flies down and stalks about near my feet. Wings behind its back, whistling. Eyeing up my roll and making polite little sounds - "Hello!" "I'm here!" "Want a little help with that?" "Looks a bit on the large side for just you. Fancy a roll-share?"

His requests became ever so slowly less polite and more demanding as he edged closer....I took my eye off the game for one second and... WHOOSH! There was a beating of giant albatross wings close to my face, my arm jolted, I shrieked and looked to see my gull with his beak stuck firmly into my roll, helping himself to as big a portion as he could cram in, knowing he'd only get one shot at it.

Everyone around was pointing and laughing. My treacherous DD was laughing - !! "It was the way it came up with its beak dripping with mayonnaise!"

It fair shook me up actually. AND I had to bin the roll.

yes that happened to me once. I was in an all day Welsh class, and ran out at lunchtime to grab a bacon roll (starving) - was just digging in when a bloody seagull flew down and snatched the bacon !

I was traumatized...

One swiped DP's jacket potato last season. They were circling so we were busy protecting the kids and their food. DP stood up to shoo one away, left the JP out for all to see and another seagull took his chance.

Seagulls today, pffft. No bloody manners.

Down with this sort of thing.

What you are referring to OP is an "urban gull", aka rat with wings. Local councils across the country generally refuse to take any useful action to control these pests.

No connection to the beautiful scavenging seagulls that clear our beaches of dead fish.

I actually think that rats get a bad deal in this description as they don't attack people/pets or steal food from your hands.

Actually have to admit it amuses me the way they will stand in front of their chosen victim and eyeball them.

Wings behind their back whistling, really sums it up. Utter bastards.

This happened to me when I was 17. Except it was a chicken bake from greggs (which also made me think the gull was a bit of a cannibal )

However, it managed to knock it from my hand to the floor. At which stage about a hundred pigeons that has been just kind of circling above everyone...divebombed for the pasty. So the seagull knocked my food to the floor, then me and everyone surrounding me were attacked by a hundred or so birds, and a couple of people got shat on which I was deathstared for as if I had dared the gull to knock my food out of my hand for gods sake. It was genuinely one of the scariest things thats ever happened to me ion my life.

You'v got to admire their phenomenal aerobatics though - the way they flap their wings in a sort of circle and remain stationary in the air; the sort of wing stall which can bring them to a halt while actually flying, the amazing swoops and all the rest

I bet Boeing wish they could copy some of that ...