They go further than that, if you walk near their nests around this time of year. A mate of mine was taken to A&E with a chunk taken out of his ear, I also had some genuinely scary experiences a few years ago where I had to abort jogs because I was getting dive bombed by seagulls. They can be absolutely vicious.
But what I really hate about these Gulls is the incessant noise; they screech and squawk from 4 in the morning until it gets dark again.
Our back garden at the moment is a no go area. The bungalow next door has 2 seagull chicks on its roof and we have 3 adults constantly attacking us. Being bungalow land the seagull's attack flight starts at a very low level and they are at head height with ease. Agree with Dougdeep that the noise is 24/7.
I am very suspicious of the claim that their numbers are declining. I believe this claim is based on counts of gulls in their traditional areas but not urban areas. As for us destroying their habitat and feeding areas, according to our local inshore fishermen the seas have plenty of fish inshore and as far as I know our South Coast cliffs are still as nature intended so why have the gulls moved in? I suspect it has more to do with the ease of getting food in our towns. Just like rats the gulls go where they can eat easily and as far as I'm concerned Herring Gulls should be in the same category as rats. They are a menace and a health hazard.
Irrespective of whether you believe the census data or not (and I'm not going to go after an argument - if you're interested in following up the data, the link is there) or whether there are lots of fish (in fact, Herring Gulls eat more crustaceans than fish, so not sure how strong an indicator that is), the fact is if they have moved inland because of easy access, it's still OUR doing that has caused it. Rather than moan about the gulls, how about moaning about the waste we create? If some large creature was potentially threatening your kids, what would you do? Yes, gulls are noisy, they do leave a mess, but I for one think they are still magnificent birds who are smart enough to take advantage of our wasteful and profligate society.
3 large creatures are threatening us and folk who are on our street. Ok they are not likely to kill us but having had one dig a hole in my bald pate they are not exactly friendly. As I said in my OP they have come on shore to eat our garbage and have now become more than a nuisance. We have seagulled proof our roof but others do not bother. Some even feed them. We have created the mess but do we just let the situation to get out of hand even more than now?
Give these guys a call they usually give free advice http://www.pestcallonline.co.uk/
Thanks but as I said we have seagull proofed our roof but next door have not.
Did once hear about a method of "pacification" that involved inserting an Alka Seltzer tablet in to a food offering for the Gull and then hiding under an umbrella.