Hawk flies in to tackle scavenging gull problem at school

Pupils and teachers complain of birds swooping on their lunch

A bird of prey has been drafted in to tackle a seagull invasion at a Tayside secondary school.

Spiney the Harris Hawk was introduced at Perth Grammar to strike fear into the hearts of scavenging seabirds after complaints from staff and pupils.

The raptor was used as part of a £7,000 pest control plan to patrol playing fields and car parks after reports that gulls had been dive-bombing pupils and stealing their lunch.

The nine-month-old male hawk is part of a range of measures aimed at bringing the school’s longstanding gull problem under control. Specialists have been looking at ways of disrupting their nests and making the environment as unwelcoming for the birds as possible.

A Perth and Kinross Council spokesman said: “The council arranged for hawking activity to take place at Perth Grammar School as a pest control measure to deter seagulls which had been nesting on site and causing a nuisance to pupils, staff and visitors.

“The total cost for all the hawking services was £6,000, with an additional cost of £1,000 for seagull programmed nest disruption.”

He added: “This stage of pest control action has now concluded, however we will continue with other measures to discourage gulls from the school premises, such as disruption to nesting and making sure the school environment and pupils do not encourage the gulls to return.”

Spiney was joined briefly by another hawk, Jean, during his patrols.

Pupils have been given the chance to handle the birds of prey and learn about their hunting skills.

Hawks were successfully used to scare off gulls in Arbroath in 2012 after residents complained they were building nests on their rooftops.

Two years ago, Aberdeenshire Council introduced a falconer to chase off menacing gulls in Peterhead town centre on the north-east coast.

The plan worked well for the first few days, but by the end of the week-long trial the gulls had returned and appeared to be intimidating the hawk by swooping and diving above it.

However, it was more successful than the time when two robotic birds of prey were installed at Fraserburgh. The mechanical “Robops” were placed on rooftops in the fishing port in 2003.

Aberdeenshire Council pulled the plug on the project after the gulls got used to the flapping fibreglass falcon and were seen sitting beside it.

The hawk is being introduced to scare off the pesky gulls.