I have a question about the bird flu now ravaging Scottish seabird colonies – when is it going to start taking out the urban gulls?
The loss of the likes of gannets is a tragedy, but a decimation of the flying rats that plague Aberdeen and towns across the north-east would be a blessed relief.
The former have the good grace to stick to their natural habitat where they should be able to flourish and thrive, along with all the wonderful birds of our coastline – shearwaters, cormorants, skuas and the like. It is a real worry that disease is ravaging them, and heartbreaking to see images of gannet and skua bodies washing up on shores.
But, the only worry and heartbreak about the herring gulls is that they are overrunning our communities, creating noise, nuisance and posing a very real, swooping danger as they protect their chicks – the next generation getting ready to make our lives a misery.
From the heady heights of Marischal Towers, you can at times look out the windows and see the skies above Aberdeen dark with clouds of screaming, shrieking gulls, like a pall of avian menace over the city.
At street level, their handiwork is clear, with bin bags torn open and rubbish and food waste strewn across the pavements.
Not to mention their filthy toilet habits. Buildings and streets are covered with guano.
One of the dirty blighters even splatted me with poo as I was making my way into work. Following folklore, I immediately bought a EuroMillions lottery ticket for that night. I didn’t win. If gulls aren’t keeping up their end of that bargain, then it is time for them to go.
Enough is enough
Seriously, we need to start asking why these birds are a protected species. Sure, if they are diminishing in numbers and at risk of extinction then we should ensure their survival – just like the gannets, skuas, puffins and other birds that bring so much to our natural world and ecosystem.
But, urban gulls simply don’t fall into that category… not when they are seriously affecting the quality of life of the human population of the north-east in what appears to be a bad case of overpopulation that needs to be controlled.
It is time to control gull numbers
Why should we spend our days being woken up at 4am by squawking gulls, have to dodge a rainfall of poo and watch our streets turned into open rubbish pits of waste food, not being able to eat outdoors for fear of being swooped on and attacked?
Enough is enough, and it is time to control gull numbers.
That should be, of course, done humanely and with no suffering involved for the birds. But it needs to be done to end the suffering of people.
And, if human agency won’t step in, then I shall not shed many tears if bird flu does.
Scott Begbie is entertainment editor for The Press & Journal and Evening Express
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