This has resulted in severe injustice for ground-nesting birds, and also for distressed citizens in gull blighted towns. There was a general licence to cull gulls and some other birds until 2019, when, under pressure from the Chris Packham-backed Wild Justice activists, the regulations changed. Until very recently the problem was not so great. These gulls are not by any stretch of the imagination rare, while curlews and other waders may be facing extinction. But just lately, one of the most lethal killers of lapwing chicks identified by conservationists from the North Pennines to the North Kent Marshes has been the gull, and especially the immigrant Mediterranean gulls in the South East. Their list of predators is formidable – badgers, foxes, carrion crows and misguided right-to-roamers with dogs. They nest out in the open on the ground, often in short grass, and rely heavily on the camouflage of their eggs for safety.

We are a close-knit brotherhood, sharing stories of success and failure of curlews, lapwings, skylarks and other increasingly rare and very beautiful birds. But I do mind a great deal that the gull population has reached damaging levels – because they now pose a huge threat to more vulnerable British birdlife.įarmer-conservationists spend this time of year obsessing about the nests of waders and meadow birds. Gulls, particularly of the lesser black-backed and herring variety, are becoming a big problem.Īs a country bumpkin with gulls soaring placidly above the Solway Firth outside my window, I have no great axe to grind on their anti-social behaviour, except perhaps to make the jibe that there is something about the urban condition that seems to make both humans and gulls behave badly.

Soon the papers will be full of summer stories of toddlers having ice creams snatched and pet dachshunds being savagely attacked.Ĭomplaints to councils have doubled in recent years – usually for noise, guano-spattered pavements and damage to buildings. If you are reading this in an estuarine city or seaside town, or perhaps near a municipal tip, your ears will be pricking up and there may already be steam coming from them.

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