Seagulls.... (1 Viewer)

[Sasha Rusyn]

Just wondering whether people love all birds just the same, or whether you have any exceptions...

Personally, I am not a fan of seagulls. I like to see them by the sea - they are part and parcel of the atmosphere there after all But I live far from the coast and yet we have so many. They are very messy and it can be hard to keep them out of your rubbish bins. But worst of all, I find they can be detrimental to other birds. Once I even saw one literally beating a poor pigeon to death in broad daylight in the town centre!

That's a long way of saying - I am not a fan! Maybe others think differently...

 

[delia todd]

Hi Sasha and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators.

The 'problem' really originates with people who will feed them. The school kids here go to the shops to buy chips then dump most of them on the road as they return to school. The gulls are waiting for them! Actually if they didn't clear up our mess, we'd be knee deep in it now. So we should be grateful for the scavengers.

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.

 

[Kits]

Welcome to Birdforum. I hope you enjoy your visits.

 

[Goneandhopefullyforgotten]

Please don't be put off by this or view it as a personal attack because it is not.....but you did ask, and I am in fact a fan of gulls and all the other bits of the biosphere that are not particularly cute and cuddly! Welcome to birdforum.

I love all birds. Gulls are amongst my favourites. Wild animals, gulls included, are just doing what they have evolved to do. Many animals are "detrimental" to other animals. A Great Black-backed Gull "beating" a Puffin to death is no different to a Merlin "beating" a Meadow Pipit to death. Some animals are cuter and cuddlier than others so we elevate them to special status even though the things they do may be no different to the things done by those we perceive to be less cute and cuddly.

The gulls were here long before we were, yet we move into their territory, provide them with easy food and safe nest sites, and then complain that the gulls are the problem. They're not. They would not be detrimental to other animals in a well balanced ecosystem, and they are infinitely preferable to the excess numbers of feral pigeons. The gulls that nest on the roof of my workplace crap all over my car and scratch its paintwork with their feet, but I can live with that. After all, we destroyed their homes by building our own homes and factories on top of them.

We could of course destroy all the bits of the biosphere that we don't like because they are not cute and cuddly and maybe the rest of it would work just fine. Or maybe not.....

 

[paralleluniversenight]

Hello, I am a bit late to this post, but I just wanted to add that I like seagulls. I was annoyed and even a bit saddened recently to read a subreddit thread (this subreddit is for/about my city) where people were complaining about seagulls and talking about wanting to 'massacre' and poison them, mostly because they are being loud and territorial lately. I felt that instead of just reading about seagull behaviour and their breeding season, those people might get an idea of why the birds are behaving that way, but the general consensus was 'the birds are annoying me personally, therefore they have to go'. They were talking about whether the council would do a cull of them. A couple of people added that some species of gull (such as the herring gull) have amber or even red conservation status. Yet some people in their ignorance were arguing that they're overpopulated, an annoyance and should all be killed. People litter, pollute and make excess noise all around me, yet it's the gulls that are apparently the problem.

I agree with Andrea that we've likely contributed to the influx of seagulls in urban areas. They are just trying to survive and have adapted to areas where food source(s) are readily available. And on a side note, the baby seagulls are very cute.