'Psycho dive-bombing' seagulls lured from city centre chippies with cat food

Bird experts hope to lure pesky seagulls away from city centre chippies using cat food.

Ornithologists want to stop the flying menaces from terrorising customers in Carlise, Cumbria, by coaxing them back to designated nature reserves. Dr Roy Armstrong, who is heading up the operation, said gulls had moved into coastal conurbations as they had found 'easy pickings' to feed their young.

And in Carlisle, they are known to be aggressive during nesting season, reportedly 'dive-bombing' residents and leaving areas covered in faeces. But Roy's team will try to lure gulls back to their traditional breeding grounds along the nearby beauty spot of the Solway Estuary, using predator-proof fencing and pet food.

He said of the cat food: "It's to increase chick productivity. If we can deliver extra energy to the chicks, that has a knock-on effect five weeks later when they fledge. One of the biggest attractants for gulls to nest in a certain area is to have successful nesting gulls already there.

Seagull chick in new home

"So we have things like decoys and sound lures, predator-proof fencing, supplementary food for the adults and supplementary food for the chicks to form a nucleus of the colony. And then if we can make the colony really successful, that will then attract in not just first-time breeders but failed breeders from the likes of urban colonies."

Roy believes a crackdown on landowners controlling nests and eggs allowed the birds, which are in decline, to flourish in coastal towns. And the gulls, which can have a wingspan of more than 5ft, then returned to their urban nesting sites - often rooftops and window sills - year after year.

Carlisle has been particularly blighted by the highly 'territorial' birds in recent years, which have covered cars and pavements with their droppings. In 2022, a falcon went missing after flying out of a classroom in the city and being scared off by "aggressive" seagulls. And the city's historic railway station underwent a £14.5m revamp of its roof after years of damage by the winged terrors.

Roy, who co-founded Armstrong McCaul Biological Consultants, said: "At the moment we've got gulls presenting a nuisance where they are not wanted."

Bird experts hope to lure the seagulls away from city centre chip shops

"And at the same time, we've got areas that are not in favourable conservation status because the gulls have all moved to where the pickings are easier. So we've got a 'pull-push' strategy, where we're trying to enhance and make better the areas where they are wanted to nest, such as the salt marsh colonies and wild colonies to persuade them to move there, but also using a bit of a push strategy on the urban colonies."

Roy said his team's day-to-day work involved introducing practical measures which made the traditional habitats more enticing for the gulls. He added: "One of the reasons they move into cities is if they nest on a roof, there are no ground predators that can get to them.

"So we're ruling out the ground predators in the natural colonies by, for example, putting up predator-proof fencing. We also have things like chick shelters that increase the productivity of the natural colony, and we're trying to pump energy into those natural colonies by providing additional food."

Roy, who has now been employed to monitor gull behaviour across the country, said he was also working to reduce their presence around airports. He said: "They can be a nuisance attacking the public, but that pales into insignificance if you have them nesting near an airport, where they are a big risk."