Seagulls issue

travis-powers

stuart45 said:

Feeding them Alka Seltzers is a myth and doesn't work.

Can you please elaborate on the Alka Seltzers?
I really feel for you op I worked a Summer at a sea side town some of the Gulls were quite big and aggressive 

stuart45

travis-powers said:

stuart45 said:

Feeding them Alka Seltzers is a myth and doesn't work.

Can you please elaborate on the Alka Seltzers?
I really feel for you op I worked a Summer at a sea side town some of the Gulls were quite big and aggressive 

I used to live in Brighton, which apparently is No1 for seagull attacks, and also the nickname of the football team.
There was an urban myth thete if you threw them an Alka Seltzer they'd swallow it hole, and as they flew away they'd explode as the tablet fixed up inside them.
A mate of mine used to keep owls and other birds of prey, but reckoned his Harris Hawk was the best for knocking them off.

GDB2222

I don’t get this. The council can’t shoot them, because they are protected. But the council can employ a guy with a hawk to kill them, and that’s okay? 

I’m pretty sure that if you asked the gulls they’d rather be shot than clawed to death. 

stuart45

When councils use a bird of prey it's normally just to frighten them off. Usually they're ones that have never been used for hunting.

Annemos

We live in the Midlands, as far as you can get from the Coast. 

Last two or three days, many gulls have been circling, screaming and swooping, due to the flying ant season. 

What I really dislike about this season, is that the smaller ants seem to crowd around any flying-ant bodies, that have ended up on my concrete slabs and they even start towing the body away. And where this happens, I get many grease/fat marks on the slabs, that are quite hard to get rid of. 

IT'S DISGUSTING!

subjecttocontract

When you venture out always go tooled up with either a good solid folded brolly or a golf club......problem solved.

TELLIT01

Gulls can be an absolute menace.  We used to have a massive problem with them where I live because they were attracted to the local tip which was only about a mile from the centre of the town (as the bird flies).  Many nested on the rooftops and attacked people when they got out of cars.  The council spent a number of years doing something to the eggs to stop them hatching, which had some effect.  The biggest change was when a massive incinerator was built and the tip ceased to be used.

When I was younger we were told a variation of the Alka Seltzer 'solution'.  The claim was that bread soaked in Brasso would have the same effect.  I never had the opportunity to test the theory.

twopenny

I feel for the Herring gulls. They are only doing what comes naturally. Food to feed their families.

And we insist on walking around eating or throwing stuff to them one minute and hate them the next.

We've taken away a lot of their natural food by our massive fishing fleets and are no longer fed from the catch as used to be.

We've provided new and ideal safe nesting sites with food in easy reach. They are very good parents and both feed the chick.

Got to say if you lean over your food or stand with your back to something they can't swoop in.

We have some that will sit and wait patiently like a puppy at a reasonable distance and hope for a tid bit providing you are guarding it properly and give them 'the eye'

They are clever birds and you can train them  

 Oh and they aren't actually sea gulls. Just Gulls.

GDB2222

subjecttocontract said:

When you venture out always go tooled up with either a good solid folded brolly or a golf club......problem solved.

May the force be with you.