Herring Gulls in Flight

Anyone who has visited the British or Irish coast has probably encountered these large seabirds. Gulls have a habit of stealing food from tourists and ripping bin bags into pieces.

As I write this, two Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) sit on the roofline opposite me. They are huge and grow larger when well fed on a diet of chips and ice cream stolen from tourists.

It was my daughter's 10th Birthday Party at the weekend, and after we sat on the beach with fish and chips. Like sharks circling their prey, it didn't take long before the gulls looked for their meal.

Despite their reputation as flying rodents, Herring Gulls are on the Red List of endangered species. This distressing accolade is due to the global decline in numbers affecting the population's diversity.

Being endangered doesn't mean we should feed them, though; they can feed themselves and their chicks on fish caught out at sea. Birds need a balanced diet, and, like humans, ice cream and chips aren't a balanced diet.

Our waste is also a problem; although less common now, the plastic rings that hold drinks cans together can easily entangle the bird, slowly strangling them or limiting their movement. As a child, I remember cutting this single-use plastic up to avoid impacting sea birds (not just gulls).

As humans, we can do a lot to protect these vulnerable species, not encouraging them to feed from our waste by taking our rubbish home from the beach, and using wildlife-proof bins helps.

Despite the risk of getting your food stolen by these birds, they are beautiful and graceful creatures in the air. I suspect they are quite intelligent as they seem to play in the thermal currents around cliffs; they certainly get inventive trying to get into rubbish bins around here.

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