Vicious Birds.

[Raven]

How are the Seagulls where you live? I personally detest these flying horrors, not content any longer with the cliffs where they should be, they are the scourge of the area nowadays. People who like to take their lunch to the seats at the front are being attacked daily for their food. Tourists are getting a nasty surprise when they pull up with their takeaways. The worst thing they are now doing, is at the school, some of them wait on the school roof and then dive at the kids when they come out at break, they're after any food or sweets they can get a hold of. I saw one wee girl a few months back screaming her head off, she had one grabbing her hair. First thing in the mornings the park is strewn with rubbish they've pulled out of the bins, it's everywhere and they are in the middle of it. I see it every morning when I'm at the pool car park. Horrible birds, I loathe them.
Have you got problems with them in your area?

[Scrumpy]

No Seagulls here.. I can imagine them sitting on a roof waiting for the kids to come out of school.. Like a scene from Hitchcock's  BIRDS...
I have noticed that since the heatwave no birds  in the garden.. I always give them fresh drinking and bathing water..  I think they have headed up the road and into the park where it is cooler..  Just a fat Pigeon visits..

[Jacqueline]

To be honest no, not round here.  I have heard of these problems it's mainly in the busy tourist seaside areas I have heard of stories like yours.  We go to Aberearon a small seaside town quite a lot, buy a bag of chips and sit on the bench by the harbour, you get seagulls sitting looking at you longingly but they are nothing like you describe or attack people.  Perhaps there is a shortage of food for them in your area or maybe Welsh seagulls are more polite!

[Michael Rolls]

not many around here, except when fields are being ploughed. Thankfully, not really a problem.

[Raven]

not many around here, except when fields are being ploughed. Thankfully, not really a problem.

Yes it happens here as well. Dunc only has to go into a field with the tractor and the buggers arrive and surround it. You should hear the language from him at times. doesn't quite cover it.

[klondike]

There will always be huge numbers near any landfill site but those are usually blackheaded gulls in these parts. 

The real buggers for stealing food seem to be the herring gulls and I've not seen them here. There is a lonesome black back which is huge but only an occasional visitor.

[-Oy-]

I've been mugged by the Herring Gulls a few times on family holidays in Cornwall. They're very clever, often working in pairs to distract then plunder!

[Sheila]

One of my daughters lives in a flat in Brighton and is plagued by seagulls.  One of them nested on her balcony and had babies.  They are a protected species and when my daughter tried to get netting put up, she was told that if a seagull became tangled in it, she would be in trouble.

[klondike]

There are ultrasonic bird scarers on sale. How well they work isn't something I know but if I lived on the coast and had gulls on my roof I'd quickly find out.

Apart from game birds and wildfowl where complex rules apply all birds apart from corvids and pigeon are protected and even they can't simply be shot unless other control measures are impractical.

[Raven]

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[Cassandra]

Twenty five years ago I used to have a property right on the sea front. Many idiots used to turn up with rubbish from Mcdonalds and local bakeries. They'd tip this directly onto the beach and these 'Winged Rats' would arrive in droves. My late mother's Yorkie, who I inherited upon her passing hated them and they were organised and vicious in their attacks on her. Eventually the main do-gooder was injuncted and Asbo'd to another resort next door. I love all creatures and would never hurt one or deny it existence, but they are real bullies, horrible and violent.