Shooting seagulls

Got a bit of a problem developing with some noisy and quite aggressive seagulls on mine and a neighbours’ chimney stacks. Affirmative action is called for. Will a BB gun do it or do I need an air rifle ?

BB gun won’t do it

an air rifle may – depends

preferably needs to be head shot with an air rifle. probably will be illegal to use if it’s close to roads.

BB gun won’t do it

Unless of course the BB is loaded in a 12 gauge cartridge 🙂

I can get pretty close to them by climbing the tree in the garden but then I’ll be shooting out towards the street. Need to shoot from the street really so any wayward ammo lands safely.

you need one of these:

If a pellet leaves the boundary of your property (highly likely if popping gulls off a chimney) you are breaking the law.

You would need to head shoot them with a full powered (11ft/lbs +) air rifle. Not all gulls may be shot – I think it is just herring gulls. Check the BASC website for a list of what it is legal to shoot.

Many Gulls were added to the protected list in 2010.

At work we used to shoot a couple of the Herring gulls each year and it stopped them nesting.

It is now illegal and we had 80 of the vermin by the end of summer.

They are herring gulls.

Not sure what to do with the corpses though 😕

!!?? I used to shoot them all the time when i lived up in scotchland, maybe the rules are different there. Shouldn’t be too hard, catch them just before they take off. The spread wings make them an easy target for wounding, then you can finish them off with a boot or but of the gun.

edit: Corpses? the feathers are quite collectable for some folks, particularly amongst the Native American community

Not sure what to odo with the corpses though

Make kippers 😮

Sorry, scrub all that. I meant eagles

watch that film The Birds, might be best to leave them alone.

Not sure what to do with the corpses though

Sell them to KFC?

Bicarb sandwiches…

won’t they block the barrel up ?

Bird spikes on your chimney & roof top, pass the problem onto someone else 😉

Good trolling 🙂

I too have VERY noisy crows on the chimney and gutters. 4am alarm call anyone?

It’s illegal to shoot wild birds in this country* – unless you have a license. The licenses are normally only granted if public health is at risk or birds are causing serious damage to crops.

*Obviously I’m not talking about game birds here…

An air rifle will be touch and go at close range with a good head shot.

I’ve seen seagull survive many a 12 bore shot unless they take a head shot or a wing shot. A shot to the breast just gets absorbed by the feathers.

If you shoot one, put it in your garden. Seagulls are pretty interested in dead gulls and tend to pop down for a look. Makes it easier to shoot the next one. Once you’ve shot a couple of them though, they tend to get wise and steer well clear!

This book contains all the information you need to know about deterring seagulls;

Second the Bicarb sarnie idea.

Head shots are needed, but as others have said, has to be a good shot, with a quality sprung or air charged rifle.

Sodium Hydroxide sarnies to for a more dramatic cull. But are very hard to make.

Incinerate the bodies. Gull tastes rank.

It’s illegal to shoot wild birds in this country* – unless you have a license. The licenses are normally only granted if public health is at risk or birds are causing serious damage to crops.

There is a general dispensation that permits the shooting of pest species, applicable to all authorised persons (landowner or their agent) – you don’t need a specific personal licence.

2011 licences published here:

http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/regulation/wildlife/licences/draftgenerallicences.aspx#a

For Herring Gull, you’ll need to apply for a specific licence, as its not included on the general licence – though you can take their eggs or destroy their nest under the general conditions.

Zulu – only where there is a risk to public health and where non-lethal control methods have previously failed. A few seaguls being annoying on the chimney doesn’t constitute a threat to public health – so the general licenses don’t apply.

If you have a hook, some fishing line, bread and a rock, I know of a slightly less PC way of getting rid of said gulls which doesn’t involve any sort of gun (but needs a strong stomach).

Not quite the rules Helios, its whether the alternative methods have been judged to be ineffective or impractical, there is no rule that non lethal methods have to have actually been tried and failed – full conditions are all in the published licences, which is why I linked to them.

paint marker with pepper balls?
wont hurt them, but will certaily scare them off!
dunno if they are that easy to get hold of though :s

You’re right – my paraphrasing from memory lost a little in translation – however trying to claim that non-lethal methods would have been impractical/ineffective without having actually tried them is a pretty huge leap.

And that doesn’t change the fact that the birds are unlikely to be a threat to public health – so the general license wouldn’t apply anyway…

And that doesn’t change the fact that the birds are unlikely to be a threat to public health

The OP said they were aggressive – that’s a treat to public health

Only if you’ve watched too much Hitchcock

There’s been an upsurge in gull numbers near me. Two concerns are the mess and the effect they have on the native garden birds.

Only if you’ve watched too much Hitchcock

We [work] have many sites up & down the country where herring gulls will dive bomb our engineers – shitting on them as they do so

Is this Hollywood?

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4091368.When_seagulls_attack___/

OP

Hire the ginger one, as a lady of the land of the six finger she is fully adept in the art of ‘anti-seagull warfare’. She lists her dream job as ‘Seagull prevention officer’ for St Ives Council and is the only person I’ve ever seen kick a Seagull to get her Pasty back…

😯

Black widow catapult FTW. You can get them on ebay. Or 2 small fish tied together on 20ft fishing line if your feeling sadistic.