Is Dublin city in a seasonal onslaught of seagull noise pollution?

FloatingVoter

Shoplifting seagull on crack....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKpYi9BrqX8

Benedict

Kalman wrote: »

In Ireland all seagulls and their active nests are protected by National and European Wildlife Legislation/Directives.

Please also note, that once birds start nesting on your roof, this area in fact becomes protected, which means that the problem cannot be addressed until the birds and their chicks have vacated the nest.

I can understand it being illegal to be unnecessarily cruel to any animal (even seagulls) - but if seagulls are nesting on a person's roof, can the owner not send them packing?

It's coming to a stage that even catching a mouse will be against the law.

Make no mistake, our citizens are suffering from these flying vermin. Damage to property, spreading super-bugs and causing sleep-deprivation.

The way things are going, in a few years time Dublin will be like a bird-sanctuary - our cats and dogs will all have been eaten by seagulls - and some of our children too if we're not careful.

It's like a biblical plague - but nobody has the guts to bite the bullet because it's "politically incorrect".

What are we like at all?

odyssey06

Surely there has to be something that eats seagulls???

zbluebirdz

odyssey06 wrote: »

Surely there has to be something that eats seagulls???

Hawks, falcons, foxes, weasels, sharks ...

Kalman

odyssey06 wrote: »

Surely there has to be something that eats seagulls???

Cats!

Kalman

Benedict wrote: »

I can understand it being illegal to be unnecessarily cruel to any animal (even seagulls) - but if seagulls are nesting on a person's roof, can the owner not send them packing?

It's coming to a stage that even catching a mouse will be against the law.

Make no mistake, our citizens are suffering from these flying vermin. Damage to property, spreading super-bugs and causing sleep-deprivation.

The way things are going, in a few years time Dublin will be like a bird-sanctuary - our cats and dogs will all have been eaten by seagulls - and some of our children too if we're not careful.

It's like a biblical plague - but nobody has the guts to bite the bullet because it's "politically incorrect".

What are we like at all?

I find dogs a problem, I'm constantly having to take evasive action to avoid stepping into their droppings. It's disgusting, and it's everywhere. :mad:

This is an interesting link from the Independent.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/man-will-avoid-jail-for-disturbing-a-seagulls-nest-and-eggs-if-he-gives-money-to-childrens-hospital-28955340.html

FloatingVoter

Kalman wrote: »

Cats!

If by "cat" you mean the large lads in the zoo then you might be right.

Benedict

Why? Why are they a protected species? Our cities are drowning in seagull droppings? Our children and smaller pets are being terrorised by them? We are at risk from "superbugs" which they may be transmitting? They are damaging our property and preventing us from having a proper sleep? They are multiplying at a rate of knots!

So what does Paddy do?

He makes it illegal to interfere with them!

He makes them a "protected species"!

And wait for it! There are people who actually leave out food for them.

Maybe in the next budget the minister will allocate funds for vets bills in case a seagull hurts itself while building a next on someone's roof. Or get a raw throat from screaming and waking everyone up at 4am.

Maybe a special fund for a "seagull hospital" - or yeah! A "Help the Seagulls" charity! With collection boxes in the shape of a seagull's beak!

Wonderful!

Kalman

Benedict wrote: »

Why? Why are they a protected species? Our cities are drowning in seagull droppings? Our children and smaller pets are being terrorised by them? We are at risk from "superbugs" which they may be transmitting? They are damaging our property and preventing us from having a proper sleep? They are multiplying at a rate of knots!

So what does Paddy do?

He makes it illegal to interfere with them!

He makes them a "protected species"!

And wait for it! There are people who actually leave out food for them.

Maybe in the next budget the minister will allocate funds for vets bills in case a seagull hurts itself while building a next on someone's roof. Or get a raw throat from screaming and waking everyone up at 4am.

Maybe a special fund for a "seagull hospital" - or yeah! A "Help the Seagulls" charity! With collection boxes in the shape of a seagull's beak!

Wonderful!

We hear so many negative stories regarding gulls. [but not all]

It is not all that bad, oh,it's often, whilst on holiday, I'm woken by the gulls sitting on the window ledge tapping the glass with their beaks>>just like an alarm clock--it's wonderful!

This is a delightful story about a seagull.

Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero back in World War II. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down.

Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft. Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific.

They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were. They needed a miracle.

That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose.

Time dragged. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft. Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull!

Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck.

He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal – a very slight meal for eight men – of it.

Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait……and the cycle continued.

With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued. (after 24 days at sea…) Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first lifesaving seagull.

And he never stopped saying, ‘Thank you.’ That’s why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude

" It happens every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembles a giant orange and is starting to dip into the blue ocean.

Old Ed comes strolling along the beach to his favourite pier. Clutched in his bony hand is a bucket of shrimp.
Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself.

The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now. Everybody’s gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts….and his bucket of shrimp.

Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.

Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly.
Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’

Interested Observer

Our children are being terrorised by them??

Honest to god :rolleyes:

power pants

i love sea gulls, I love their noise. Reminds me of home

I cant see one killing a baby or adult anytime soon

FloatingVoter

If they could maybe deliver on the promise of attacking and killing children I would be prepared to put up with gulls. We could have a seagull amnesty to coincide with the long summer holidays. It'd shut the little buggers up and all that running from gulls would solve their obesity problems.

Benedict

I'm not aware of any seagulls actually killing anyone - but I most certainly am aware of instances of huge seagulls swooping on youngsters with a view to relieving them of foodstuffs and succeeding!

But look here now! Nobody can deny that seagulls are a damn nuisance. They're breeding like rabbits - tormenting the life out of people and even endangering health.

So why are they a protected species? Who MADE them a protected species?

It's not like they're threatened with extinction or anything?

FloatingVoter

...They're breeding with rabbits!!!!!......I'll get Wes Craven on the line and we'll get a flick out of this before doing anything productive about it.

odyssey06

"It was coming *right* at me!"
No jury in the land would convict...

Plus this defence is literally true when you try to cross the footbridge out of Fairview Park over the Tolka after someone has put out bread... It's like something from that Hitchcock film... Flock or something it was called... this is the future that faces us all unless we act now.

ibarelycare

This thread is surreal...

MartyMcFly84

It's like something from that Hitchcock film... Flock or something it was called...

The Birds

Benedict

Surreal eh? Read the article below from the Irish News earlier this year.


Irish News


Gullgate: 'Sweet-stealing seagulls’ at Department of Health to have wings clipped by pest control
Mark O'Regan Twitter




Fianna Fail Senator Ned O’Sullivan feels "vindicated".
Open Gallery 1
Fianna Fail Senator Ned O’Sullivan feels "vindicated".

DIVE-BOMBING seagulls who “attack children and steal their lollipops” will have their wings clipped by a professional pest control company.
1 Secret Never Exposed


And it’s all because the swooping birds are causing particular problems for a government department.

The authorities have now advertised for a specialist company which will hopefully rid them of a colony of seagulls circling the Department of Health.

And the wording is fairly blunt.

It states the need for “a professional pest control company to provide a suitable deterrent system, or process, to eliminate the presence of birds and seagulls, from the roof areas of the Department of Health headquarters at Hawkins House Dublin 2.”

The disruption caused by the birds was highlighted last summer by Fianna Fail Senator Ned O’Sullivan.

Read More: 'Seagull came at me like a velociraptor and snatched hamburger from my hand' - Man tells Liveline

He called for the Environment Minister Alan Kelly to take remedial action.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr O’Sullivan said he felt “vindicated” by the decision.

When he raised the issue in the Seanad, he warned that the birds had “lost the run of themselves completely” in Dublin and were keeping people awake at night.

He maintained that their “raucous” behaviour had become a major annoyance in parts of the capital.

“I saw they were getting so cheeky that they were attacking young children, and dispossessing them of their lollipops, and stuff like that.

“It might be funny to many people, but it’s a serious issue in Dublin.” Peter Wolstenholme from BirdWatch Ireland said the seagull species of bird in Ireland has “grown dramatically in recent years”.

“If they’re taking food from children it’s because they’ve learned to eat out of the hand of a human.

“It’s not unusual behaviour – they’re very ingenious birds

if they know there’s food around.

“The smartest birds in the world are parrots. Seagulls aren’t particularly brainy, but they’ll always find a way to get at food,” he added.

MartyMcFly84

I wonder if a reintroduction of falcons or hawks, would reduce the numbers or at least scare them away from certain areas.

FloatingVoter

MartyMcFly84 wrote: »

I wonder if a reintroduction of falcons or hawks, would reduce the numbers or at least scare them away from certain areas.

They would actually attack small children. And our beloved cat population would be on the menu. Seagulls are beggars....falcons, hawks, eagles are called birds of prey for a reason.

power pants

Also if people werent so lazy and made an effort with binning their food etc in the first place. Likewise with the bin collectors.

At the end of the day, the seagulls are here due to the slothlike nature of people in general

MartyMcFly84

They would actually attack small children. And our beloved cat population would be on the menu. Seagulls are beggars....falcons, hawks, eagles are called birds of prey for a reason.

I don't think there are cases of birds of prey attacking children. The species that lived in Ireland were never huge birds.

Part of the issue of flying vermin around Dublin is the lack of natural predators and huge abundance of food, leading to massive populations that carry disease and are a nuisance.

FloatingVoter

MartyMcFly84 wrote: »

I don't think there are cases of birds of prey attacking children. The species that lived in Ireland were never huge birds.

Seagulls are more opportunistic and are not birds of prey.

If they were introduced to cull seagulls they'd have to be big enough. And yes, eagles snatching babes in arms from their mothers is an old myth but it would be gospel truth before the first falcon arrived. We've already had cases of eagles getting poisoned down the country because people assumed they'd fly off with sheep (or just sadistic bastards out for kicks).

Seagulls might steal a lollipop from a child causing tantrums and tears. All told they are about as dangerous as ducks and less lethal than swans.

MartyMcFly84

I remember in school people saying Swans could break your legs?

Everyone just took this as truth without questioning how the hell would a Swan break your leg?

FloatingVoter

MartyMcFly84 wrote: »

I remember in school people saying Swans could break your legs?

Everyone just took this as truth without questioning how the hell would a Swan break your leg?

Its a large bird. Probably not strong enough to break limbs but certainly capable of ruining the day of some kids who were messing with it. That old myth was probably put about because they are deceptively cute. Bit like not playing near the cursed well or avoiding the haunted house. Designed to stop kids from doing stupid stuff. *


* of course first thing we did was head for the cursed well and the haunted house.

Benedict

Make no mistake, a large and powerful gull swooping on a young child could do serious damage - perhaps it would be aiming for the lollipop - but their beaks are as lethal as machetes.

And as for food? There are people actually leaving out food for them.

Can you believe that?

FloatingVoter

^ yup, across the street from me leaves out stale bread for the pigeons. The little buggers are already obese from the fine dining to be had from the chipper and the Coombe maternity hospital bins up the road.
The gulls often swoop in and scatter the pigeons.

iLikeWaffles

I remember a time when I'd be out fishing and see flocks of gull's diving into the ocean picking off the sprat the mackerel were obliterating from beneath or following the fishing vessels back into Howth harbour looking for scraps. I think people are missing the bigger issue here the gull population are getting there food inland because they can't find any in our sea. Overfishing and pollution are the problems here people. Before you all call for a culling why don't you take a look at the food chain and think of what can be done to put dinner back into the sea for these creatures.

FloatingVoter

iLikeWaffles wrote: »

I remember a time when I'd be out fishing and see flocks of gull's diving into the ocean picking off the sprat the mackerel were obliterating from beneath or following the fishing vessels back into Howth harbour looking for scraps. I think people are missing the bigger issue here the gull population are getting there food inland because they can't find any in our sea. Overfishing and pollution are the problems here people. Before you all call for a culling why don't you take a look at the food chain and think of what can be done to put dinner back into the sea for these creatures.

That's an excellent point. Gulls didn't suddenly cast off millions of years of evolution to take up a chips and burgers diet. I wonder do large towns on the Atlantic coast have this issue or is it just the Irish Sea.

iLikeWaffles

FloatingVoter wrote: »

That's an excellent point. Gulls didn't suddenly cast off millions of years of evolution to take up a chips and burgers diet. I wonder do large towns on the Atlantic coast have this issue or is it just the Irish Sea.

My bet would be not as much as the east coast. I'm sure if a study was done there would be a direct correlation to seagulls being sighted inland and catch numbers of Irish Sea fishing vessels. But some may ask why is there not an increase in smaller fish if there is less fish to hunt them? Why indeed what the hell is going on with our east coast waters!