Randy seagulls in squawker torture

BREEDING BIRDS KEEPING US ALL AWAKE

FED-UP Brits are being kept awake by the noise of pesky seagulls breeding during the summer.

Colonies have rocketed and numbers quadrupled since the last gull census in 2000.

One angry resident in Bath said: “I’m woken up around 5am every morning by the screaming of urban gulls outside our bedroom.

“Can’t someone do something about the rampant noise pollution caused by these loudmouthed birds?”

Another resident used a sound level meter which recorded a racket of up to

86db – the the equivalent of busy city traffic or a vacuum cleaner. Hazardous sound levels are anything above 80db, says the Deafness Foundation. The resident added: “I thrust the meter outside when we were woken at

4.30am. It measured 73db. When pointed at our ringing bedroom alarm clock, that only registered 70db.

“It’s no wonder my wife and I, along with thousands of other city dwellers, are forced awake most mornings during the summer by the incessant cawing of breeding gulls.”

The RSPB classes gulls as an endangered species, based on a count of coastal birds in 2000, even though urban populations have since rocketed.

It has led to vigilantes waging war on seagulls by shooting them out of the sky.

Residents in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, fear being caught in crossfire.

Local wildlife rescue centre Pawz For Thought revealed they are treating a new gunned-down gull every day.

And Mum Rachael Milne, 40, who had one land in her yard, said: “There was blood splattered all over my windows. My young children were very distressed.”