seagull feeding WIBU to post a note through the door?

[BlackDogBlues]

Or possibly Would I Be Unwise? Lived here a year, don't know neighbours very well due to lockdown.

The people at the back of us appear to leave out food for the birds midmorning every day.

I noticed it when we first moved - maybe 2 dozen seagulls milling round over our garden to get the food. They can be quite aggressive, particularly in breeding season.

I went back to work so haven't noticed, but am now working from home again and they are still doing it.

The Council can't do anything. Environmental Health can but only if there's persistent mess or droppings.

I've nodded hello and exchanged a few words with them and know from another neighbour that there is some kind of leylandi hedge wars going on between pigeon feeding neighbour and the people who back on to them. Leylandi owners who won't cut hedge and pigeon feeders are different people.

We moved to get away from terraced house with noisy neighbours...I don't want to start a war. But equally I want to be able to sit in my garden without seagulls eyeing up my sandwiches/biscuit.

I would not say anything but get one of those plug in sound emitters that scare them off. Even if you only switch it on when you are planning to sit outside.
Feeding seagulls is ridiculous behaviour, I sympathise.

My work have a Seagulls Pro which seems to do the job, they had been nesting on the roof every year and then attacking clients arriving for meetings

Not cheap but potentially cheaper than declaring a neighbour dispute when selling !

They are feeding the birds, as far as I'm aware there's nothing illegal about that, obviously the local seagull population has realised. I'm at the coast but the seagulls don't bother with our bird table however the crows are pretty aggressive to the little birds

I haven't got my specs on and missed the word 'to' from that post.... Gives a whole new angle to your thread!!

We've got a pigeon problem with the house opposite having bird feeders hanging on their trees.

They sit on our roof watching the food source. Gutters constantly need clearing, leaks coming through, been going on for 5 years.

We've had the council out and they were astonished at the 60 or so pigeons flying back and forth into our roof.
They went and spoke to the lady with the bird feeders but couldn't enforce anything.
I was told to keep a diary 🙄

I've tried pest control, I want spikes or netting but they won't do it on residential houses.

I asked my neighbours to stop throwing bread for the birds. It always laddies it my garden, there was bird shit everywhere and then the mice came!
I asked them politely and they stopped.

My neighbour does it & whilst it’s annoying I don’t feel like I can complain about it. Just one of those things...

It is annoying. We live in a seaside town and there's a byelaw to stop birde feeding along the promenade and just inland. We are just outside that limit. They are planning to extend the limit to cover the whole town but apparently they've been planning that for years!

They are a proper nuisance here.

Talk to them. let them know the council is planning to extend the limit, and if there are 'tree wars' it's a lovely thing for the people who won't curt their tree to use against them. Contact the council about extending the limit, and your local councillors especially if there is an election in May.

A note through the door is cowardice and quite honestly would probably be ignored.

If you are talking of an anonymous letter (dressed up as a 'note') don't do it.

And a letter identifying yourself, though more honest, isn't really a good idea. Just my opinion.

You would have to speak to them. Any complaints you make to an official body will expect you to have spoken to them first, it would make your case so much stronger, then I suppose a diary of the nuisance , and photos.

It might seem batshit to you, but I don't think your neighbour is really doing anything wrong.

Wouldn't the seagulls be eyeing up your sandwich regardless of your neighbour? (given how much of a nuisance to the town you've described).
I agree about the seagull scarer, but I don't think a note or confronting your neighbour would do any good.

You could always wear a bike helmet with googly eyes and cable ties sticking up like they do in Australia to protect against magpies. Unhelpful

Yeah, fuck the seagulls, eh? Only a different species with as much right to inhabit the world as humans.

Don't live on the coast and complain about seagulls... You chose to live there... Whether your neighbours feed them or not you'd still have some hanging about

@FellowFlipFlop

Don't live on the coast and complain about seagulls... You chose to live there... Whether your neighbours feed them or not you'd still have some hanging about

Yeah this simply isn't true. I live on the coast but other than the occasional one flying by seagulls don't visit the garden. They are however very good at stealing chips if you eat them on the seafront!

No advice op but sympathy nonetheless

But equally I want to be able to sit in my garden without seagulls eyeing up my sandwiches/biscuit.

That really doesn't sound like a massive hardship.

I would tell your neighbours you've seen rats in their garden, with a sympathetic face and then suggest that feeding the birds attracts rats (it does). It would be awful if the cold weather made them try and get inside....

I just had to Google seagull repellants and there are a lot of solutions out there. This for example isn't massively expensive. stop-seagulls.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9s2oisWl7gIVAbbtCh3nQg7wEAAYASAAEgJZ8vD_BwE

Just buy an airgun and use the gulls for target practice. They aren’t stupid, they will soon decide to go elsewhere.

Buy them a roofed bird table, too small for a seagull.
We had a magpie/pigeon problem till we got one, the small birds can access it all day long, big birds cannot.

It's also on a shiny metal pole, the squirrels cannot grip

I have sympathy for you OP as my neighbour does this too. I wouldn't mind bird feeders to help support songbirds, but chucking out big lumps of bread aren't going to help anything other than rats and gulls. We have huge herring gulls and they wheel around over our houses when bread is out, crapping all over but seeming to especially aim for my windows. I can't reach to clean it off so have to wait up to month before my window cleaners come around again. It's really annoying!

I should speak to my neighbour about it, we are good friends, but I don't know how to phrase it so it doesn't come across as arsey. I know she's entitled to throw food out if she wants to, so it's tricky.

@jessym

Just buy an airgun and use the gulls for target practice. They aren’t stupid, they will soon decide to go elsewhere.

gulls aren't stupid but you obviously are, police might have something to say aboutan air gun being fired in a typical sized garden. is illegal to hunt, trap, injure or disturb their nests.