Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
an alternative to culling would be a heavy on the spot fine [[£60 +] to any one caught feeding seagulls/pidgeons,this could be policed by the town copper/psco's that walk around the town.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
one of my favourite birds is the collared dove, one seen here having breakfast this morning in next doors garden.
normally they turn up in pairs, i hope this one does not visit my garden though.
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
A very interesting, informed, post by Phil. Refreshing contrast to those whose only answer to everything is to kill every living creature in sight. Seagulls are part and parcel of a seaside town and those who resent their presence should go and live in Milton Keynes or wherever and find some small land creatures to satisfy their need to kill everything with fur or feathers.
Judging from Charles Dicken's description of Dover: "The air among the houses was of so strong a piscatory flavour that one might have supposed sick fish went up to be dipped in it, as sick people went down to be dipped in the sea," one imagines that the gull population of Dover was much higher in years gone by but I doubt that the Dovorians of the day felt any pressing need to slaughter them.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i haven't seen any suggestion that we should kill the seagulls, in fact most are aware that feeding them in an urban area is not actually helping their long term survival.
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
Howard, try posts #7 and #10 for starters.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
ed
post 4 was just brian and his robust sense of humour.
post 7 was factual in that i have witnessed a falconry demonstration up at the castle in which the gulls took a quick gander then made their excuses and left.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Birds of prey will usually displace birds such as gulls and pigeons rather than killing them, although I must admit we saw a peregrine falcon take a pigeon in our back garden a couple of years ago. If they frightened away the gulls and pigeons there would still be enough rats and mice to keep them going. Jeremy Stattersfield once told me that the main cause of death among the local gull population is botulism from eating rotten rubbish. Surely a quick kill from a natural predator is preferable to a lingering death from botulinous poisoning?
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i do apologise i meant to type 7 and 10.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
in the interests of balance here is one behaving perfectly well aboard a ferry in calais the other week.
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
Oh well, if we are going to be balanced then I shall have to tell a little story about my unnerving experience a few weeks ago.
I was standing out on deck on my ferry when there was a loud detonation above my head and I was showered with what felt like bits of metal. I climbed the ladder to the next deck and looked around, thinking maybe somebody was messing around. Nobody there.
Came back down and looked around on the deck where I had been standing. There were lots of little bits of blue and white shell lying about.
A seagull must have dropped a shellfish from a great height to smash it on the deck and get to the morsel inside. It had hit the railing on the deck above me and covered me in shrapnel. If it had fallen a couple of feet closer and I had looked up, it would have had my eye out.
See, I can do balance too (sometimes).
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
what a terrible shock, to be on the safe side let's cull the lot starting with those songbirds that wake us up at unearthly hours.
I agree with that bird song at 4.30 am do they never sleep? lol
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
A Harris hawk would sort their nonsense out, although this looks like a bunny rabbit having its last squeak.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Nature, red in tooth and claw. Just as God intended. It's called the food chain and we are at the top of it.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,895
Unless you meet a wild lion.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
do they sleep
not anywhere i try to get some kip lol
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
Oh god Keith, I just quickly misread that as "i try to get some ukip lol". If you'd done that I'd demand immediate closure of this thread.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
I've just been informed that a pair of sparrowhawks has taken up residence in a garden in Maison Dieu Rd backing onto the river where it flows through Pencester Gardens. They are not going short of food.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
