Rooftop fight to cut down on attacks from seagulls

THEY are a familiar nuisance for visitors and residents in seaside towns.

But the community of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, is fighting back against seagull pests, which can dive-bomb hapless passers-by.

Though it is illegal under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act to kill the birds and their young, nests and eggs can be removed before they hatch.

So workers in Peterhead, armed with a crane, have removed 360 gull nests and 750 eggs from roof tops.

It follows reports of multiple attacks by seagulls snapping at people’s faces as they try to steal food.

The removal scheme is run jointly by Aberdeenshire Council, Rediscover Peterhead Ltd and Presly Pest Control.

Iain Sutherland, the manager of Rediscover Peterhead said: ‘It’s the most effective way to do it, as the eggs are not long laid before they are removed.

‘I think the public will definitely feel safer with fewer birds around.’

A council spokesman added that the project ‘will help to make the streets of Peterhead safer and more welcoming for everyone visiting the town’.

But seabirds have proved resistant to action in the past.

Two robotic birds of prey were unleashed in Fraserburgh in 2003.

But the gulls got used to the flapping fibreglass falcons – and started sitting next to them.

In 2014, a hawk was drafted in to scare off seagulls in Peterhead – but they were caught on camera ganging up on the predator in the skies above the town.