I find it curious that acknowledging the increased numbers and aggressive nature of urban gulls provokes such smug hilarity if not outright contempt. The increased number of urban gull colonies in Ireland and the UK is readily acknowledged by ornithologists.
It seems at least plausible to me that bad waste management practices and conscious human interactions (deliberate provision of food) have led to a change in size and behaviour of the seagull population, not to mention their feathered counterpart, the urban pigeon.
Anyone who has tried to eat lunch in Heuston Station will be familiar with the pesky pigeons emboldened by easy meals from foolish people who think it’s cute to feed these flying pests. Meanwhile, outside on the Liffey the magnificent cormorants and herons are outnumbered by those awful scavenging gulls.
Paul Kean,
Dublin 8.
Previously: Mean Gulls
Leah Farrell/Rollingnews
Gulls IT, gulls.
Not Seagulls.
Gulls.
*Anyone who has tried to eat lunch in Heuston Station*
Well that’s your first mistake.
Yes there be pigeons, never had a problem with them there though…
I particularly liked this bit which is why we should be holding a referendum on ‘Cull The Gull’… “It seems at least plausible to me”…
Reintroduce certain birds of prey to Ireland.. Oh wait. Farmers.
I’m not sure they have predators.
Like, what bird of prey is big enough to take a Greater Black Back Gull?
There are similar in size to most big eagles you would have found here.
Lesser Spotted Buckshot.
Feckin’ birds again!
“not to mention their feathered counterpart, the urban pigeon”
Don’t Gulls have feathers too?
They’re all just making a living whether Paul Kean thinks they’re magnificent or not.
I can clear this up…
It’s their feathered counterpart, as opposed to their sewer-dwelling counterpart, the urban rat.
-There you go.
a stellar example of someone who would vote “leave”. great work on such high satire, sir. unless, of course, you’re actually serious?!
Wow. Well it’s gonna get so much worse once people start fly tipping their garbage to evade the extra bin charges when they come in.
We say ‘rubbish’ in Ireland, not ‘garbage’. We are not America. Yet.
Pigeons don’t even get out of the way anymore.
bring some snakes in, who will become so numerous and fat on the gulls. then we will need mongeese to eat the snakes, who will multiply and then we will need crocodiles for the mongooses (not sure which is correct), then we will need… I dunno Australians ?
HA!
I use the term ‘garbage’ in Ireland to describe actual garbage/ refuse. I use the term ‘rubbish’ to describe everything, non refuse related, that is of low quality. :)
What a load of nonsense,
…or garbage as I call it.
I use the term ‘Ddefte’ to refer to forks. Not all forks, just forks when they are held in the hand. It is due to a grammatical order I devised myself and have detailed on several old copybooks.
I demand you respect it.
Are you the famous Stuttering John Smythe by any chance?
Shoot the Seagulls!
I have just now seen a huge gull swoop to take a bite out of some lady’s toasted wrap on Henry Street!!!
What was in the wrap?
You wouldn’t get that on Grafton st
You most def would! They’re far more vicious there!
In fairness may find, the ehh, sea gulls were here first.
Not that. such a fact make any difference.
That’s not true.
The clue is in the name ; SEA gulls.
They only came inland after McDonald’s opened up.
This is not true also.
Listen, they were here. pre McDonalds and during the time of the vikings, may get dewey eyed here, now, they were great times before, the Normans arrived and duly chased the sea gulls away.
Mind ye, McDonalds fish, would not exactly be, anyway.
Shrr when they fly over and sh.. on yer garden it be good for it.
And if they sh.. on yer head it is supposed to be good luck.
What be called sh..ing luck.
Now certain Ireland has ehh, had aplenty of that.
I like how you deliberately avoided using the word ‘invasion‘ at least twice there.
You can be good writer some times Mildred.
Ohh for Gods sake if can use the G word here let us not use the or should say invoke the invasion thingey.
As do not of course want to offend our good neighbours in the Uk.
In fact one may postulate that the sea gulls arrived with the normans and like them, stayed and refused to leave.
So there is unlikely to be a gullexit.
Though, we could shock horror hold yer breath have a referendum on that.
Or maybe not.
I put this down to kids not making “gats” anymore. Some electric bands, a coat hanger or a suitable piece of hedging branch and boom!
They are not seagulls anymore they are seagurriers. Seen one walk past me the other day wearing baseball cap back to front and a fag hanging out of it’s mouth.
I am surprised nobody has posted this. Hipsters please note, bin bag dresses were actually a thing back then. I must dig mine out of the attic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIpfWORQWhU
I am surprised nobody has posted this.
– I’m surprised that anybody would want to.
Sorry, I hadn’t watched it before I posted my last comment.
I watched half of it.
I have a question; Why did you defend the bin bag dresses, when they were by far the least embarrassing thing about that video? what about the keyboard skills around the 1:25 mark…or the haircuts…or the lyrics…or the music…or the tin-foil…
I could go on…
Yes, yes, shrr eagles, have a big band named after them.
But, what bird has a play named after it.
Chekov, the seagull.
A culture vulture.
So to speak.
And a book, well a novella, and it’s actually about a seagull, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Don’t get me wrong lads, I love all vermin just as much as you do.
There’s nothing funnier than watching a skanky-looking pigeon doing his little waltz around a fine-looking female specimen of the species, puffing his chest out and making himself look even worse, and STILL getting his hole.
I swear, it’s just like being at Coppers.
Seagulls are no craic though.
They’d be like the bouncers.