Residents fear terror from the air!

In scenes reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’, residents of a Llanelli Street are living in fear from attacking birds!

The residents of Coldstream Street are being threatened and attacked daily by Seagulls, and one such attack saw a boy of 9 receive a lucky escape!

Joel Rhys Richards, was lucky enough not to be more seriously hurt when one seagull attack him and take a large chunk out of his fringe narrowly miss blinding him.

Meryl Richards, Joel’s mum told us:

“I know it is hair, but it could so easily have been his face or eye!!”

“I just want to know who to speak to so that a child does not get seriously hurt!”

“As it seems the only course of action is an umbrella and to duck!”

“The council said they can’t help as they no longer have a pest department and the RSPCA told me to give my son and other children umbrellas!!

“It seems a seagull and its young are more important than the safety of a child!”

Right, you can see the chunk of hair missing from Joel’s fringe.

We sent Carmarthenshire Wildlife Watch’s Darren Harries to investigate. This is what he had to say:

“I went to investigate the seagulls (Herring gulls) and they were there in numbers. They are breeding and nesting in buildings in the town and they are doing well.”

“Residents are always on their guard when the Seagulls are breeding and nesting. They told me that they’ve been mobbed by daily and the Parents are on their guard for fear of what the birds will do next.”

“The seagulls are also next to Pentip school so this could cause a hazard in the future!”

“At the moment, all the kids in the Street are wearing their hoodies for protection!”

“The people of the street are sick of the Seagulls as they are waking them up early in the mornings and messing on them as they walk to work. The young lad along with his friends are all keeping a better eye out as they don’t want to be attacked.”

“All the residents in the Street are understanding about the Seagulls needs e.g. ‘feeding their chicks etc, however, living in fear of them in their own street asks questions like ‘What should be done?'”

Seagull Facts:

• Diet: Omnivore
• Life span: 10-15 years
• Size: 30-75 cm
• Weight: 120 – 1750 g
• Habitat: Coastlines, bays, major lakes and urban areas
• Range: Global
• Scientific name: Laridae
• Seagulls are very clever. They learn, remember and even pass on behaviours, such as stamping their feet in a group to imitate rainfall and trick earthworms to come to the surface.
• Seagulls’ intelligence is clearly demonstrated by a range of different feeding behaviours, such as dropping hard-shelled molluscs onto rocks so that they break open so they can eat them, and following ploughs in fields where they know upturned grubs and other food sources will be plentiful.
• Seagulls are attentive and caring parents. The male and female pair for life and they take turns incubating the eggs, and feeding and protecting the chicks.
• Gulls have a complex and highly developed repertoire for communication which includes a range of vocalisations and body movements.
• Seagulls can drink both fresh and salt water. Most animals are unable to do this, but seagulls have a special pair of glands right above their eyes which is specifically designed to flush the salt from their systems through openings in the bill.

Source: http://www.onekind.org/be_inspired/animals_a_z/seagull/

Seagull picture: Darren Harries