To think if you don't like seagulls don't move to the coast

[WishILivedOnAFarm]

I know i am not BU, I am just venting.

Last summer a family member of DHs's moved to their 'dream house' which is on the coast and under a minute walk to the beach. They can see the sea from almost every room. Wonderful. Gorgeous place. Large detached gardens. Idyllic. We went for their housewarming and the husband was moaning hard about the 'bloody seagulls' which are everywhere and 'fly over the house'. At one point (admittedly he was well into a bottle by then) he went out with a towel and started flapping hysterically at the seagulls flying over. Since then every time we see them or have a conversation with them on the family whatsapp etc he moans almost constantly about the seagulls and how they are doing his head in. He ranted on at our family Christmas dinner etc. We are having lunch there tomorrow and I feel like saying the above- did you not think seagulls would be at the sea? What did you expect? I know they are loud and can be noisy but the fixation on the fact they 'fly over the house' is a bit baffling.

I will confess to being a bit biased on this- I'd love to live where they do. And I don't like this family member much anyway- he's always been a bit of an arrogant 'I know best' sort.

He’s going to have to accept that the only thing he can really control is his own attitude toward them! Unless he wants to hire a hawk, invest in some water guns and make sure his bins are sealed property and tidy

He sounds a prat 😆 we used to run a pub in a little village and it had a church behind it. A lady moved into the house directly opposite us then promptly started complaining about the noise from the pub -everyone was very well behaved it was just laughing and chatting not pub brawls and loud music constantly. Then she went on the rampage about the church bells ringing 🙈

‘Tell your BIL to invest in a decoy hawk or a kite’

our neighbour got a really big impressive decoy hawk, paid someone to get on the roof to install it. The seagulls sit on top of it 😂presumably for a bit of extra height as they yell across the road at the gulls on the opposite roofs 🤣
Our school paid ‘hawk man’ to fly his hawk over the school for a week- that I did seem to work. There was a particularly big, vicious gull swooping g on the kids looking for food.

Visited a friend at Weston, and the Crows were masters of the Beach there..
Wonderful birds..I shared my sandwich with them willingly and they were respectful of space and distance, and they seemed to enjoy being chased by dogs as well.

I have heard in summer when tourists are about that the Herring Gulls take over and they are less mannerly than the lovely Crows.

Hilarious! We are by the sea, the seagulls don’t bother me APART from our next door neighbour puts out food for the foxes 😳 so every morning the seagulls swoop on the bowl and literally clatter it about the garden… I think they are annoying for doing that but blame the neighbour for that issue!!! I find it comforting to hear them overhead!

Oh goodness yes...Where my friend lived, there was an old woman who used to put out food for foxes at 6 pm on the dot.

You would see wheeling seagulls circling above her garden like vultures, but they never entered friend's garden.

Gulls seem to have a very good memory for what time it is.

Gulls gorge and regurgitate...like this hot dog!

Did he move to Brixham? 😂 Maybe he's bragging "those bloody birds spoiling our beautiful house/view
But the seagulls were there first! It's a bit like moving next to an old church and complaining about the bells or clock/sunday parking. Did he not think ahead?
There are things you can put on the roof, guttering etc to discourage them but I think they're quite canny birds - especially if you're outside BBQing - watch your sausages! 😂
I'd secretly feed them whilst I was there just to wind him up - but I'm twisted!

@oakleaffyits when she puts out raw chicken so then the gulls disperse of the bones all over our front gardens 🤢 funnily enough they appear at sunrise when the good probably goes out about 9pm.. they are obviously snoozing then 😀 but they do indeed have good body clocks!!

A couple of incomers who moved not far from friends in N Devon, near the coast, wrote to the local paper complaining about the noise of air-sea rescue practice flights at night. They received so much hate mail, they sold up and moved on!

I live in the West Midlands, about an hour from the sea, and we have seagulls. In the past week the only birds I have seen in my garden are pigeons, magpies and seagulls. Neither us or any of the neighbours have ponds and even the nearest canal is about a mile away but we are getting more and more.
If I moved to the coast I would expect more of them!

I’ve lived by the sea for a decade – it’s standard to grumble about the seagulls, but they’re in charge. My favourite was one flying through the flames of a disposable beach barbecue and making off with a raw sausage. Found a dead one in the garden once and it’s only that close that you realise how fucking enormous they are. Lovely, squawky bastards.

We are about 30 miles from the coast and still get seagulls. They are bloody awful things. We often see dead birds, intact not run over. DH ( who grew up actually on a coast) that the seagulls knock them out of the sky and kill them.

Oh dear. Bless him.

My attitude to thieving seagulls is the same as my attitude to bin-mining urban foxes and bulb-excavating squirrels.

They gotta right to make a living and feed their kids, just like everyone else.

I grew up rurally and on the coast, 4 mins for my foot to be on sand and seagulls are indeed total cunts.

Seagulls aren’t just by the sea, they’re everywhere, including the Essex city I live in that is a half hour drive from the coast! They’re loud, obnoxious and every time they wake me up (basically every single morning) I dream of shooting them dead!

Well, we are back from our extended lunch. The complaints did go on but not as intensely I think and I suggested the decoy hawk thingie and then just left it. [coward alert]

You sometimes can't win with mother nature.

We bought an attic flat in a listed building by the by the sea. Fecking seagulls ate through the lead flashing around a skylight causing leaks and damage that cost over £10,000 to repair.

We also have a house 100 miles inland so no seagulls. However squirrels ate through the plastic soffits and nested in our loft. Repairs and pest extermination cost over £4000.

Our last house was in an outer London suburb that backed onto woods. Deer twice broke through the fence and ate every green leaf and bud in the garden. .

In my Gran's house in rural Ireland a neighbours goat attacked its own reflection in her patio doors and broke the glass.

Also I work in central London right near the Thames and you can always tell if the weather is rough out in the Thames estuary as our building aircon vents on the top floor are a magnet for seagulls noisily warming their toes!

He sounds like an entitled twat. We live near a beach and feel privileged to hear and see the natural inhabitants. At least seagulls don’t leave plastic waste all over the beach.

I like seagulls, I don’t understand people

I live in a town about 5 miles inland from Bristol (a harbour city). We get them too. There's nests on the roofs of the school buildings behind our house. They clear up all the food the kids drop. When ploughing starts they follow the ploughs looking for worms.

Oh I would be so tempted to recall how I'd read something about ways to get gulls to leave a place alone. Maybe bright pink blinds? Maybe a fire pit with sage burning.

Anything you think he might fall for.

I like seagulls. They look evil with their beady eyes and get up to all sorts of human annoying tricks. They all live a long way away from me.

Pigeons on the other hand. I hate pigeons who have the title of most annoying inland bird.

I love seagulls. They behave the way they do because of human behaviour.