It's not just the food that lures feathered friends
A gull expert from the west claims that clearing up Bath's litter will not necessarily get rid of the city's unwelcome gulls.
University of Bristol research assistant Peter Rock, who carries out regular gull counts in the west, says Bath offers the birds more than just easy pickings when it comes to feeding, which has made the city an ideal breeding ground.
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He said: "It's so often the case people blame the black bin bags as being the cause of the population of gulls but that's not the case.
"Bristol has black wheelie bins throughout the city but they have more than double the population of Bath."
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According to Mr Rock, Bath had 1,100 breeding pairs of urban gulls this year but this number has since dropped as the birds migrate to Portugal and Majorca until the new year, when they will return to breed.
He said: "It's wrong to assume because there are black plastic bags that is why we have gulls.
"The roofs and other urban accommodation offer security and a certain degree of comfort. There aren't any predators and towns are four to six degrees warmer and that advantage allows them to breed sometimes as much as three weeks earlier than their wild cousins."
Mr Rock said more research into urban gulls was needed to better understand the species.
He said: "We have no information on the ecology of urban gulls.
"Urban gulls are very successful. Numbers are growing very quickly and new colonies are being formed. We need to be thinking very carefully how to manage this situation.
"The research will fill the information vacuum.
"We believe the gulls themselves can show us how to manage them then we can put an end to all this pointless guesswork that has filled the past 20 years."
In Bath, the council admits there is no one proven way of dealing with the gulls, although an experimental egg replacement programme has seen some limited success, reducing the city's bird population by two per cent in the past year.
Egg oiling has also been used in Gloucester, while in Bristol, eggs are replaced with dummy ones to stop the birds laying more.
Comments
by Saltfordboy
Monday, September 17 2012, 12:30PM
“Stop tourists feeding gulls and pigeons which are a bigger pest!”
by rogerh3
Sunday, September 16 2012, 10:35PM
“To an extent, perhaps, but I can't see you'll ever get rid of all sources of food within a gull's commuting distance of Bath. If anything it demonstrates the need for some properly-funded research.”
by Juneplayer
Sunday, September 16 2012, 8:30PM
“rogerh3: but are they not going for all the food left overs/scraps etc that have NOT been put in correct bins in the first place and so have ended up in these large out-of-town waste sites Roger?”
by rogerh3
Sunday, September 16 2012, 1:10PM
“Remove their food source & no matter how comfortable the habitat they will have to go elsewhere. That took forty five seconds to think up."
Except there's no evidence to support your 45-second theory. Visit any large out-of-town waste site and you'll find hundreds of gulls scavenging, having flown there from places like Bath. None of them nests out there, though, because unlike an urban area it doesn't provide the type of habitat in which they prefer to live and breed.
.”
by wheelie_bin
Sunday, September 16 2012, 7:30AM
“No June, you still haven't got it. Until Mr Rock gets his half million this is an unproven theory. I know what you're thinking - that maybe Mr Rock might have come up with something considering he's been studying them for 30 years, but I'm sure this extra money will make all the difference. I mean he has been trying to get his hands on it for quite a while now, and still hasn't succeeded in spite of Don's pleading in parliament.
My own theory is that running them over might reduce their numbers, which I came up with one morning having seen a recently deceased example on the Lower Bristol Road - but I too am an amateur and I suspect Mr Rock hasn't looked at this option yet.”
by Juneplayer
Saturday, September 15 2012, 8:18PM
“Common sense tells us that if access to food is not there then the gulls won't be either!”
by wheelie_bin
Saturday, September 15 2012, 5:44PM
“Research isn't cheap. Those amateurs that think removing their food source might reduce the gull population clearly have missed that point that until this is proven by expensive, sorry I mean EXTENSIVE, research the theory has no value. I know just the man to do this and I know just the MP to swing it.”
by Ilovespaniels
Saturday, September 15 2012, 2:26PM
“It's been reported and commented on many times on this site.
I think £500,000 was needed for this research wasn't it ?”
by DaveF_Walcot
Saturday, September 15 2012, 1:26PM
“"We need to be thinking very carefully how to manage this situation"
And Mr. Rock has been thinking about it for over thirty years. After that amount of time you'd have thought he'd have some conclusions to fill the "information vacuum".
Remove their food source & no matter how comfortable the habitat they will have to go elsewhere. That took forty five seconds to think up.”