Fish is easier caught fried

The bay in front of my table is especially rich in seabirds. Between March and October the cliffs that extend for some 6 miles to form its southern boundary host England’s largest onshore seabird colony, with the Bay providing passing rest, shelter and nesting to over half a million seabirds with visiting Gannets, Puffins, Kittiwakes and Guillemots predominate amongst the 200,000 plus birds that return every year to take residence nesting on the myriad of ledges that are a feature of Britain’s most northerly and, at some 400 feet, one of its highest, chalk sea cliffs.

If you have visited any British coastal town you will almost certainly have experience of one of the Aves resident here – one held to hold anti-social tendencies, one that has adapted to living with us as a year round noisy and to many intimidating, problematic, ever present uninvited house guest.

I give you Larus argentatus. The Herring Gull. Britain’s most common “Seagull”.

A year round resident of our shoreline the herring gull is an emblem of coastal life and living, soaring with great economy of effort whilst spying on the activities unfolding below before swooping with an easily wing beat to skim the surf or beach – every child’s totem of the seaside, evocative of sun, salt and happy days by the sea and the white V shape in the sky of many childhood drawings.

Many gulls have forsaken the natural security of cliff sides and hidden places for the ready made platform and security of local roofs; building their substantial nests of twigs and grasses on these handy structures to capitalise on our heating and provide home owners with a free seven day week early morning and evening alarm call service whilst treating our waste bins as food banks and aiding the profitability of local roofers with dislocation of roofing slates and tiles and introduction of seeds and mosses that grow to damage the property they have adopted, whilst also aiding the local window and car cleaning services who gain steady business from their free distribution of droppings.

As an omnivore the herring is not a choosy eater. It enjoys a wide dietary range; just about anything edible is on the menue; carrion, offal, seeds, fruits, young birds, eggs, small mammals, insects and fish all feature in its natural diet and the fact is that as an intelligent animal it has realised that salvaging our refuge, taking what we leave, drop or offer as an easy buffet or simply stealing food from our hands whilst on the wing is an easier feeding option than fishing for dinner, or mugging Puffins and Guillemots for their own catches as they return to their nests or, raiding other birds’ nests for eggs or chicks. They have worked out that fish is easier to find fried than in the sea and this brings these large and otherwise attractive birds into daily conflict with holiday trippers.

The Herring is a large bird, an adult reaching some 24 inches (60cm) in length with a wing span of 60 inches (150cm) and weighing over 3 pounds (1,500 grams) with a flight speed of 30 mph (50Kmh) so it is easy to see why a gull with its eyes on your food is a threat to take seriously. For the unaware and for those with children eating on the open beach or sea front which forms the gull’s usual patrol, a large bird swooping from nowhere to steal, with speed and precision, their food straight from their hand as it journeys from carton to mouth is often a traumatic experience.

So, we have the position that many view the “Seagull” as vermin. A food thief, spoiler of roofs, defacer of cars and all round nuisance that ranks with other mammals and aves that have adapted to capitalise on the easy pickings’ humans offer. Urban foxes, pigeons and red kites are other examples of animals and birds whose interactions with humans have had less than positive outcomes and led to their persecution, in some cases near extinction, under the tag of vermin control.

But the fact is that the gulls have simply adapted to the environment humans have created around them and whilst to the holiday makers eye, “Seagulls” are omnipresent, numerous and often a pest; all species of gull are protected by law and the usual “Seagull” suspect; the Herring Gull, is actually a red listed endangered species; a situation that traces to our own acts of environmental pollution and over-fishing; to the spread of renewable energy installations (off and onshore windmills), to human interventions to remove their eggs and control nesting in towns.

So when you next visit the seaside and curse the circling and swooping gulls as you cover your fish and chips whilst looking out to sea just bear in mind it is us that create the opportunities for them to enjoy the all you can eat free buffet that our food and discarded waste provides and it is us that are slowly but surely destroying the gulls natural habitat and forcing their choice of residence and culinary options.