Culling Seagulls Is A Silly Idea!

A lover of seagulls I am not! These birds appear to be filled with a demonic intelligence hellbent on making human life on the coast a misery. Having watched (from a safe, cowardly distance) seagulls attacking grown men who strayed too close to their nests, I can tell you they are not to be trifled with.

Gulls 1 Humans 0

But, of course, that is simply how it appears to us. Seagulls don't WANT to live near us. They just do so because we are so stupid and provide them with no reason not to seek the easy opportunities we give them for food. What would you rather do? Catch food out to sea or simply wait for some idiot to throw out their leftovers?

So when I see a news story like this it gets me a little annoyed. "Cull the seagulls" cry the townsfolk in a similar fashion, I expect, to how the townsfolk of Salem screamed "Kill the witch!" all those years ago.

Seabirds have shops owners in Shepway and Thanet in a flap because of their unusually aggressive behaviour. Some are snatching food out of visitors’ hands and from al-fresco diners’ plates, while others tear open bin bags, leaving streets strewn with litter.

Unusual? Unusual as compared to this former behaviour perhaps but not unusual to anyone who lives in the area. They've been doing this for years!! Crazy idea here: DON'T LEAVE BIN BAGS ON THE STREET!!

Giovanni Ioannou, of Le Cafe Ganmac, in Folkestone’s Sandgate Road, said this week that birds hang around his cafe “like thugs”.

He added: “If you don’t get out and clear the tables quickly, they hop up and eat as much as they can. I don’t like it at all. A gull got inside once, through the back door. It was as if the bird had planned it. They knock plates and cups off our tables and smash them. Too many people are feeding them. You see them getting scraps and they’re becoming tame. Something needs to be done.”

Really? So if you leave dirty tables, seagulls will come and eat at the remains of some messy persons meal?? What a surprise! Don't leave dirty tables and the seagulls will go elsewhere! They wouldn't come into town if people were keeping food safely out of their reach, and then those silly folks who feed them would not get a chance to do so.

The problem is also seen along the coast in Thanet. Gerry O’Donnell runs the Tollgate Kiosk in Ramsgate. He said: “A few days ago I made toast for my wife, set the plate down and turned my back. Seconds later, a bird bombed out of the sky and grabbed the toast. It’s frightening. One customer told me a bird snatched a full ice cream out of her daughter’s hand, leaving her in tears.”

A bird who steals toast and ice cream. Terrifying indeed. I'd be more scared of buzzards myself.

If we change our disgusting habits, of leaving our rubbish out in the street in bin bags (didn't Shepway issue bins for this very reason about 10 years ago??) and leaving food where they can easily grab it, then the seagulls will go elsewhere for food. A cull will not solve the problem unless you wish to eradicate the entire species, for if we don't change they shall simply come back again. A cull would simply mean less competition for the gulls that remained. It's the silliest idea I've heard in a while and I'm ashamed it comes from my home county.

P.S. The gull population is probably too large, thanks to our leftovers, so by removing that food source we would, in effect, cull the seagulls too (so everybody is happy except perhaps the seagulls)

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

The Love Of My Life

Whilst Jim might rightly be described as such there is a second; the animal kingdom. No not in that way you dirty minded person! But imagining my life without interactions with animals is difficult.

So it recent things I've picked up on at work really disturb me. Kelly, an Australian, was talking about her recent riding trip to Wales when one of my colleagues mentioned she'd never been on a farm. I was taken aback. Never been on a farm? It had never crossed my mind that someone would not have visited a farm.

Now you might think that coming from Kent I'm some sort of abnormal country boy. But trust me I'm not. I was brought up in Snodland and Folkestone, which are fairly average towns as it goes. Although I admit that I had a best friend who lived on a farm, the reason I was shocked was that a trip to a farm was one of the first school outings my school every did. It was treated as one of the "basics". You learn to add. You learn to write. You visit a farm and learn that animals smell. It's all delightful.

So I was shocked by that but discovered she wasn't alone, and some even suggested that the idea of "touching" animals repelled them. I thought that sounded like something you'd want treated like a fear of balloons or an annoying twitch.

I know, I'm being incredibly judgmental and wrongly projecting my world views on to others. But I sorta feel sorry for these people.

So I said I wasn't a country bumpkin but I have spent a lot of time in contact with animals. First the domesticated ones; the pets of my life:

11 cats (Misty, Garfield, Marmalade, Bonnie & Clyde, Crystal, Millie, Angel, Herlock, Scooby, Tinkerbell)
4 dogs (Max, Shane, Geisha, Molly)
1 American bullfrog called Pocket Money (sadly banned in this country)
Uncountable amount of fish both goldfish, pond fish and tropical.
Stick insects
6 or 7 rabbits (Shudder... BOB!)
A guinea pig
2 goats
2 tortoises (Thomas I and Thomas II both of whom were found wild and returned (i.e. they wandered off) to the wild in and around Snodland)
5 hamsters (Honey & Spice, Chekov and a couple more)

Then the wild ones. We used to take Shane and Geisha for walks in down The Pit in Snodland every day and it was one of the most amazing places for wildlife I've ever been to. Adders, smooth snakes, grass snakes, slow worms, sand lizards, common lizards, newts a plenty and frogs of every colour (some of rather worrying colours). Nothing quite like seeing a pike staring up out of the water at you from underneath an overhanging tree. You'd think twice about getting into the water after that, trust me! Seeing the dark shapes of unusually big fish (carp but could of been whales the way they looked!) from up on the edges of the pit looking down. Poaching goose eggs (yummy when scrambled!). Hunting rabbits. Fishing on the Medway. Hunting lugworms in Dymchurch so we could go fish off the sea wall at high tide. Even just walking to work from Lympne and seeing foxes, rabbits, pheasants and... sheep. Horse riding. Horse jumping.

And then the exotic:

Being mere centimetres from the face of a rather pissed off silverback at Port Lympne, riding an elephant in Thailand, watching porpoises swim along side Bill's yacht in Spain as we went for a cruise or stroking a tiger in Kanchanaburi.

What would my life really be like without those experiences? Amazingly dull. Terrifyingly dull. And whilst I don't think everyone SHOULD have those experiences I really wish they did.

I'm sure they can say I'm missing out on things they do that they love. But at least I'd probably not be repelled by it.

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

Creature Feature

My favourite creature in the whole of the current natural world is the Great White Shark. Indeed I love it more than frogs, tigers and even old world monkeys. I have been obsessed with them since I was very young, and I remember my most favourite possession as a child was my giant shark book.

That picture above is the best picture I've ever seen of one of these beautiful creatures. It takes my breath away with it's beauty. I used to have it as my desktop at work until they decided everyone should have a "corporate" background (yawn... let's turn everyone into drones...). Gorgeous. I am desperate to see one in the wild, that would be truly amazing.