kawwauser
Well-known member
im a night shift taxi driver and have witnessed the herring gulls taking advantage of the night clubbers and pub dwellers having to fend off the local gulls on a nightly basis outside the takeaways,the gulls know where all the takeaways are,they also nest on the rooftops nearby these establishments,now the whole country is in lockdown the takeaways in the town are closed (no custom)and some are relying on deliveries,i wonder how this is going to affect the gulls ?,I remember watching on a nature program that the female wont mate with a male unless it proves it is a good provider
. It’s purely anecdotal but I can’t remember ever seeing an adult Herring Gull feed human food to their chicks on a ‘nest’ - nor, afaicr, any adult bird for that matter - they will definitely be sourcing natural food for their young regardless of the take aways. As for the adults, they are opportunistic scavengers (which is why human food is often the easiest option) but as far as I am aware, most birds tend to have more than one food source - Herring Gulls are equally equipped to find mollusc and crabs etc from the estuary and fish from further out to sea, just as they are in raiding the trash.
