Seagulll ATTACK!!

Got attacked by a seagull today just leaving Mum’s house

(She’s 82, go round a few times a week make lunch, prepare dinner)

Just as im leaving the driveway, and about to mount bike, i hear loud squawking and look up to see a large gull swooping down on me. It made 3 passes before I dumped the bike and made a dash for the porch.

Bloody thing got pretty close too 😯 all rather scary.

Is there any reason for this ?. I peeked back out and there were 3 of them, on the chimney, and flying about landing on the streetlight outside the drive. After which one decided to fly off and i took the opportunity to get on the bike and warp factor 9 it away.

There is no nest im aware of. No food source either.

Mum phones later, a bit concerned about letting the cat out, but I assured her as the catkins is a big cat weighing about a stone, who kills everything he sees, it wasn’t going to be an issue.

Seagulls are opportunist scavengers, that’s why you get them inland now, despite the namesake… simple as that really.

They must have smelled food on you or have a nest nearby.

It’s nesting season, there will be chicks either just left, or about to leave a nest somewhere not too far away, I often find them defending chicks out on the coastal sand flats which can be a good kilometre away from where any nest will be.

A cheap umbrella is useful.

I’m generally on the ‘co exist’ side of things with wild animals. But I’d be OK with Seagulls being hunted to existing via a mass participation ultra violent bloody apocalypse the stupid flapping squarking angry *******.

‘Attacked by a seagull’. It was just having a game of chicken with you. Seems it won.

seagulls are great fun. Especially those HUGE ones that dwarf even the biggest magpies and scavenge fast food remnants on the street.

and they’re so nimble. My SO was slowly enjoying an ice cream in a cone on Llandudno pier. We’d already scoffed ours using the kind of protective stance perfected at home. My SO let their guard down for a moment. Seagull swooped in from behind, grabbed the cone, landed, and then gulped down this barely-eaten cone and ice cream in one smooth movement.

What’s your real name?

Cliff I’m betting ?

What’s your real name?

Cliff I’m betting ?

He was visiting his mum, not on a Summer Holiday.

Friend of mine got a chunk taken out of her lip at by a sea gull recently whilst eating chips by Brighton pier. I love watching them soar around in the valley in front of my house at sunset but they are annoying when they thump down on the flat roof over my bedroom. Sounds like they are trying to break in!

Is this you?

An old neighbor disturbed a nest once whilst building his extension. For years later he was never allowed out into his garden during spring and summer, the gulls would mob him. His wife was spared, plus us, but they had his number marked.

rightly or wrongly, they don’t like you and they won’t forget it… bring an umbrella next time.

No species name pedants in the house today? They’re Gulls, in the same vein as there being no such thing as a Landrobin or Landblackbird.

Probably a herring Gull.

Got them nesting on my partner’s chimney and they do like a swoop or 6…I seem to be largely ignored – or was until last Saturday and they definitely got closer than normal.
Clearly not that clever though as after 5 years they don’t seem to be aware that she and I don’t bother them or are bothered by them so unsure why they keep swooping.
I’d agree though, there needs to be a cull – gulls, deer, badgers and humans…needs a cull on them all!

Did you have a chip on your shoulder? That might explain it

Sadly gulls are in decline in the wild, they have been driven into urban areas for food and nesting habitat. Herring gulls are already red listed as endangered.

There are a variety of pressures on them, fish stock decline, avian flu and habitat loss.

They absolutely shouldn’t be culled, they need help.

It’s a real problem here (N Wales). They (herring gulls) will physically attack you, rather than just ‘swooping’ to protect their nesting area or young.

Every year there are stories like these:

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/they-village-now-seagulls-leave-24601441

https://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/news/20235111.womans-head-left-bleeding-seagull-attack-rhyl-rscpa-rescues-two-chicks/

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/north-wales-town-under-siege-24503468

I’ve grown to like them since spending most of lunch breaks on the sea front year round. Try to forgive their shitting on your windscreen and/or head/shoulders.Sometimes feed them crusts from my sandwiches and a chip here and there and am quite comfortable with them close by.

However recently learnt that tourist season is a different matter! I had eaten most of a portion of chips on the seafront while explicitly telling the seagulls I wasn’t going to give them anything. Most seemed to have lost interest but one bird hung about and so to reward its persistence I discretely flung a chip low to the ground to my side.

It flapped its wings a couple of metres close to the ground and the next thing I knew all the gulls from the harbour descended on me. Luckily had eaten most of the chips so sacrificing a couple as a diversion while I ran to the bin to dump the box wasn’t a big deal!

Seagulls are opportunist scavengers, that’s why you get them inland now, despite the namesake… simple as that really.

Think they’ve been coming inland for a long time. Following tractors with ploughs springs to mind. Found this image, apparently in the state of Iowa, quite an old pic:

I’m generally on the ‘co exist’ side of things with wild animals. But I’d be OK with Seagulls being hunted to existing via a mass participation ultra violent bloody apocalypse the stupid flapping squarking angry *******.

Good news for you then! This is pretty much happened (except we induced a famine rather than your slightly messier  approach). These ‘swarms’ we have in our citues are just the sad remnant of once great populations surving on scraps.

Culls are stupid. As long as there is food and shelter there will be gulls.

Saw the thread name – was reminded of my eldest losing his 99 flake on a visit to Llandudno many years back

Great to read through the thread and hear that old traditions are continuing. Gulls really are sods at times…

Seagulls hate those high powered green lasers that are available on amazon etc,  just shine it on the ground in front of them and they usually prefer to leave the area.
wife and i wet for a 3hr walk at the beach last year, we didn’t see a single gull.

Seagulls are opportunist scavengers, that’s why you get them inland now, despite the namesake… simple as that really.

The mistake here is calling them seagulls; they’re not, they’re gulls, there’s no ‘sea’ in their name.

Yes, their regular environment is coastal, and some species spend most of their lives out in open ocean, but others are coastal birds, and have been heavily affected by diminishing fish populations, so will head inland, where us humans have provided them with an abundant and readily available food supply, stuff that’s just dropped in the street, rubbish tips, plowed farmland, and people with food in their hands*, along with vast quantities of nesting locations, like urban housing, industrial estates, blocks of flats, etc.

A similar situation with Peregrine Falcons, benefiting from church spires, old industrial buildings, and high-rises, all of which are conveniently like cliff-faces.

*A lesser Black-backed or Herring Gull is a big bird, very aggressive, with a very sharp beak, and a great many people find them really quite frightening, and understandably so – I’m not, I’ll happily smack one hard if it came too close, they’re relatively fragile, being hollow-boned ‘n’all, and will back off if threatened.

It’s also worth pointing out that a herring gull, as well as scavenging dropped food, etc, they’re like buzzards, kites and ravens in that they will eat carrion, and they will also eat small mammals and ducklings, they’re not fussy!

Just as a comparison, a herring gull is 55-67cm long, a raven is 60-68cm long, both big and intimidating birds!