The other day a man was feeding seagulls on the seafront here. As you would expect a large number gathered around him, but what was odd this time was the sheer volume of seagulls with brown plumage..ie young ones. I have never before seen so many of the younger ones, masses and masses of them. Ive noticed these brown plumage ones flying about in large quantities too all over my vantage point here on the seafront towers.
So I was quite surprised to hear an item on BBC Radio 4 this morning about the very same thing, while they were reviewing the papers..it seems there is a feature in one newspaper about the sudden meteoric rise in the number of seagulls. Someone suggested there may be a million pairs now, whereas I believe the official line is something like 30,000. There are calls for a cull.
I myself have no problem with seagulls (pigeons yes, seagulls no), as I clearly would be living in the wrong place if I did, but some people do and are upset by the damage and havoc they cause. There was even talk on the radio of increased attacks on people. They are quite territorial and the sheer volume of numbers now means they are ever more desperate for food. If they continue to increase at this rate then whats to be done?