Seagulls

[JoeJoe]

Over the last year or so a large flock of Seagulls has invaded our neighbourhood. We are on a small hill, so they tend to land on some of the highest buildings? roofs (ours included), and make a hell of a noise, before they fly around for a few minutes, making even more noise, land, and start again.

This goes on for a couple of hours early in the morning and before dusk.

In addition to the noise I was also forced to wash my car 3 times in the last 2 weeks (my average is around once a year?). All the small birds that we used to enjoy watching in our garden have also disappeared.

Any suggestion for a humane way to send them somewhere else before I apply for an air gun license?

Many thanks in advance,

PS: I don?t know anyone who keeps birds of prey either. PPS: we are 50+ miles from the sea and there is no landfill etc nearby BTW

[T i m]

Assuming anyone around you shares your views then what about one of the electronic noise scarers? I'm not sure a shark sound will help but maybe that of a hawk of some sort would?

You could test the principal with this (or other) recording and an amplified speaker of some sort if your phone isn't loud enough.

Then you just need to repeat it at a suitable interval at the lowest volume that works till they don't come back?

Cheers, T i m

[Davey]

Just be aware that they are protected by law.

Search: seagull protection

You have my sympathy.

[Chris Hogg]

Then be thankful you don't live by the sea, where seagulls are everywhere 24/7/365. The nest on people's roofs, becoming very aggressive when they have young, and their swooping attacks on unwary holidaymakers who are eating pasties or ice-creams in the open, is well known

. But they don't seem to bother other birds; we have plenty of rooks, jackdaws, magpies as well as the smaller birds, the latter suffering more from feral and domestic cats than seagulls.

Seagulls are great scavengers, and move inland to feed on domestic rubbish on council tips and landfill sites. You haven't had one open in your area recently, have you?

Some seaside towns have tried employing a falconer to fly his birds around the area from time to time to try and drive the seagulls away, but I don't know how successful they are, and it's not really a practical solution for you.

Our neighbour, a farmer, is at the moment flying hawk-shaped kites over some of his fields to deter birds in general. I suspect he's principally concerned with pigeons, but if falcons are capable of deterring seagulls, then I don't see why the kites shouldn't also work.

which includes this web site Lots of ideas there.

But all species of seagull are protected; it's illegal to kill them.

[Tim+]

Interesting that there is provision to kill them in certain circumstances, including the protection of other wild birds.

"The UK administrations can issue licences, permitting nests to be destroyed or even birds to be killed if there is no non-lethal solution, and if it is done to prevent serious damage to agriculture, the spread of disease, to preserve public health and safety and air safety, or to conserve other wild birds."

Tim

[T i m]

Interesting (I didn't know they were protected but then have never thought of interfering with one personally). ;-)

Looking at the laws I think it's (In England) illegal to: 'intentionally or recklessly injure or kill any gull or damage or destroy an active nest or its contents' but that's not what a scarer would do.

However, it also goes on to say: 'The UK administrations can issue licences, permitting nests to be destroyed or even birds to be killed if there is no non-lethal solution, and if it is done to prevent serious damage to agriculture, the spread of disease, to preserve public health and safety and air safety, or to conserve other wild birds'.

But then like many animals there are gulls (nice) and gulls (yobbos) and I think most people would be happy to send the latter elsewhere (preferably to a far away island). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[greyridersalso]

tors/gulls/thelaw.aspx

We live a two minute walk from the sea and are plagued with the wretched th ings mess, noise and general nuisance. Recently, a series of extremely loud , percussive noises mysteriously occurred at random intervals over a few da ys. Nobody has laid claim to being the perpetrator but....pretty much all t he gulls have gone! Look up outdoor fireworks. Enjoy.

[TimW]

It might be something the Council should deal with for you.

TW

[Chris Hogg]

Possibly a gas gun bird scarer. Used around here by our farmer neighbour.

[Nightjar]

There was a case, some years ago, when a chap on a boat took a shot at one on a TV programme and was later prosecuted for it on the basis of the footage.

Colin Bignell

[Adrian Caspersz]

A few months ago there was one military chap doing the news stories complaining that a Raspberry-Pi was threatening his brothers out of their highly trained jobs. Now seagulls can't all be that smart.

Map out "air space" above your car and program a r-pi controlled drone to protect it.

As in war, expect casualties ...

[Nightjar]

Which suggests that they have found an abundant source of food that was perhaps not there before.

To them, the houses are cliff tops.

...

That is most probably a coincidence. I live close enough to the sea for seagulls to be part of the landscape and there are plenty of small birds around as well.

Small bird populations are affected my many factors, including the weather during their breeding season, which affects the availability of food. Also, if there are abundant natural food sources, they are more likely to be feeding off those than coming into domestic gardens to use bird feeders.

As others have pointed out, seagulls are a protected species, so, if you shoot them you may well end up in Court. In any case, all you are likely to do with an air rifle is to injure them. Besides, if they are abundant as you say, you are not going to make much impression on the population by shooting the odd bird.

To get them to move on, you need to find and deny them their source of food, if you can. Nothing else is likely to be effective in the long term, although anti-bird spikes can help stop them from landing on your roof.

I have seen bird of prey kites flying at few places along the coast, but with no obvious effect on the seagulls. Herring gulls are much too big for birds of prey to be a threat and I'm not sure that a common or black headed gull would be that worried either.

I don't know whether a bird scarer is effective against seagulls, but would a loud explosion every few minutes be any less of a nuisance than the gulls themselves?

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Chris Hogg escribió:

What I can't get over is the sheer size of them now. They're much, much bigger than I remember from my youth.

[Chris Hogg]

There are several species. The commonest is the herring gull, quite large, but whether they're really bigger than you remember, I doubt.

But much larger and also quite common is the greater black-backed gull

[Nightjar]

Perhaps different species? The common gull and the herring gull look similar, but the latter is much larger.

[damduck-egg]

There are also the much cheaper bird scarer ropes which burn slowly and let off a bang about the same as a shotgun report at intervals. About £35 compared to an outlay of £300 + though of course single use only. The OP doesn't state if they live at an isolated dwelling or in a terreced house so he/she can google Bird scarer rope and decide if they fulfill the conditions for purchase from reputable suppliers or obtain one from a supplier who doesn't care.

G.Harman

G.Harman

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not shot many birds with an air rifle then?

[damduck-egg]

My dad used to throw them a sticky sherbet lemon ,the bugger hopefully cracked it thinking it was a whelk or something and start foaming at the beak. I don't think it detered them for long though.

G.Harman

[Jethro_uk]

They quite often fly over near me (Brum) and I am quite taken aback by the wingspan.

I would be wary of getting too close - they look big enough to land a nasty blow.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Urban legend has it that baking powder wrapped in bread would cause them to blow up.