Why Resident Gulls Deserve a Second Look

Almost every British seaside town has a flock of gulls that has stopped behaving like a purely wild seabird. Herring gulls, lesser black-backed gulls and the occasional great black-backed gull have nested on rooftops, chimneys and warehouse ledges since the early twentieth century, swapping cliff faces for slate, lead and chimney pots. Some of these urban colonies are now among the largest in the country, and the birds on your local promenade are often the same individuals returning to the same roof year after year.

Herring gulls are on the UK Red List of conservation concern, and their numbers have fallen sharply since the 1970s. A walk that treats them as wildlife rather than as pests is both more interesting and more responsible.

Learning to Read the Flock Before You Walk Through It

Five minutes of watching will tell you a great deal. Herring gulls have pink legs, a mid-grey back and a yellow bill with a red spot near the tip. Lesser black-backed gulls are similar but with yellow legs and a much darker slate-grey back — they are usually the birds nesting on the steeper roofs. Great black-backed gulls, noticeably heavier with a dark back and a deep bill, tend to work the harbour wall rather than the town centre. In northern and western towns you may also see kittiwakes, smaller and gentler, with black legs and a soft "kitti-wake" call.

Posture matters as much as plumage. A gull standing tall with its head up is alert and deciding what to do. One crouched low, wings slightly dropped and calling steadily, is almost certainly guarding a chick or a nest ledge, and that is the bird to give a wide berth. If the whole roof line lifts into the air and starts circling, something has alarmed them — usually a person, a dog or a dropped bag of chips.

Planning a Route That Works for Birds and Residents

Good gull-town walks follow the water and the open harbour, then loop back through a street or two of shops rather than deep into residential terraces. Roof-nesting gulls defend a surprisingly small territory, and a narrow lane of Victorian houses with nests on every other chimney can feel oppressive in June.

• Start early. Between 6am and 9am the town is quiet, the birds are feeding offshore or on the mudflats, and you will have the promenade largely to yourself.
• Walk the seaward side of the promenade and the outer edge of the harbour, leaving the middle of the pavement clear for people carrying shopping.
• Avoid standing directly under nesting roofs. Not only is it unpleasant, but a bird flushed from a ledge will sometimes abandon a chick.
• Choose a route with a café or two at the end, so you can eat indoors rather than in the middle of the flock.
• If you have a dog, keep it close on the harbour wall and on a lead wherever nests are visible overhead.

Eating, Litter and the Chip Problem

Almost every gull incident in a seaside town begins with food in the open. Gulls are quick learners and will queue, watch and snatch. Eat inside where you can, or use a takeaway box and keep it closed between bites. Never feed gulls deliberately — bread is poor nutrition for them, it draws rats and it teaches the flock to associate people with food. Dispose of everything in a lidded bin, and if that bin is full, carry your rubbish to the next one along rather than leaving it beside the first.

If you want to photograph gulls, stand still, keep your hands empty and use a longer lens rather than walking towards them. The best portraits come from birds that have chosen to come close to you.

Nesting Season: March to July

This is when resident flocks are at their most visible and their most defensive. Adults will swoop at anyone they judge a threat, and they aim accurately. Wear a hat, walk in a group if you can, and take a different route rather than testing a bird's nerve. Chicks leave the nest before they can fly and often end up on pavements and in gardens, where well-meaning people pick them up. Don't. Their parents are usually close by and will feed them on the ground for several days, and a chick taken to a rescue centre is far less likely to survive than one left where it is.

By August the noise fades, the young birds disperse and the town returns to a gentler rhythm — but the same families will be back on the same roofs next spring, and a walk planned around them is all the better for it.