Begun, the seagull war has

roa312

roa312

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Look at what they've done to our canopy! It was clean just a few days ago.
For some reason, they've decided to have their crab feasts here - shells are everywhere.

Let me know if you have any ideas to keep them away. We don't much fancy that plastic owl some people buy!

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During fishing season here in Türkiye, from September to April, I see squadrons of sea gulls following the trawlers, and during the summer they follow the smaller boats which are allowed to fish all year around. Most days there are hundreds of them on the local isolated beach where I go to swim. However, I never see them in the marina and I can't ever remember having to clean gull shit off my boat. The seashore in the town is lined with cafes but I never see gulls scavenging around.

I wonder why the different behaviour?
 
Irish Rover said:
During fishing season here in Türkiye, from September to April, I see squadrons of sea gulls following the trawlers, and during the summer they follow the smaller boats which are allowed to fish all year around. Most days there are hundreds of them on the local isolated beach where I go to swim. However, I never see them in the marina and I can't ever remember having to clean gull shit off my boat. The seashore in the town is lined with cafes but I never see gulls scavenging around.

I wonder why the different behaviour?
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It’s not clear from these pictures, but the boat is berthed at the very end of a long pier. On weekdays, there are hardly any people, and the pier can be full of ducks just sitting around and relaxing. I wonder if it’s the isolation the birds like - but we’ve been at this berth for many years and have never had this particular problem with seagulls before.
 
roa312 said:
It’s not clear from these pictures, but the boat is berthed at the very end of a long pier. On weekdays, there are hardly any people, and the pier can be full of ducks just sitting around and relaxing. I wonder if it’s the isolation the birds like - but we’ve been at this berth for many years and have never had this particular problem with seagulls before.
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When I go to Dublin I see gulls perched on roofs and garden walls. In the seaside areas they are just short of attacking people for sandwiches and chips. Their shit is everywhere. We don't see any of that behaviour here. My house is about 300 metres from the sea and if the gulls fly that far inland and are noisy, you can bet the mortgage it will rain within a couple of hours.
 
We used to berth in Duquesa, which was virtually seagull free (although heron s... is something else).
10 km away in Estepona, boats were covered in the stuff. Owners were known to move marina for that reason alone.
 
I use plastic snakes they seem to work, fo you get any water lying on the canvas as they like fresh water
 
Irish Rover said:
During fishing season here in Türkiye, from September to April, I see squadrons of sea gulls following the trawlers, and during the summer they follow the smaller boats which are allowed to fish all year around. Most days there are hundreds of them on the local isolated beach where I go to swim. However, I never see them in the marina and I can't ever remember having to clean gull shit off my boat. The seashore in the town is lined with cafes but I never see gulls scavenging around.

I wonder why the different behaviour?
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if you have open landfills like we do (albeit far away from the sea) they prefer that for feeding. We have v.few seagulls, got some sh1t occasionally and annoyingly on the solar panels in the f/b hardtop. We do have lots of crows though for some reason...
 
We have a few seagulls that frequent the inland waters here, mainly the black headed gull.

When we were in Hasselt last weekend I did see bird scarers on some boats, they were models of crows rather than owls or other raptors, different and crows are pretty territorial and will chase off much larger birds.

Edit: The other main bird that we seen in the harbour, other than the ubiquitous mallard, was cormorants and they would wait on the pontoons resting ad sh!tting it dissolved to a sandy like substance and was gone in a day, but every morning it was dodge the sh!t while walking ashore.
At our home haven it is mallards and geese that are there, while there are a lot of fish in the canal, mainly carp of some size, we don't see many fish eating birds if at all.
 
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Seastoke said:
I use plastic snakes they seem to work, fo you get any water lying on the canvas as they like fresh water
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Do you have the snake tied up permanently then, or is it sufficient to have it sit there for just a week or so - do they lose interest then?
 
Alicatt said:
We have a few seagulls that frequent the inland waters here, mainly the black headed gull.

When we were in Hasselt last weekend I did see bird scarers on some boats, they were models of crows rather than owls or other raptors, different and crows are pretty territorial and will chase off much larger birds.

Edit: The other main bird that we seen in the harbour, other than the ubiquitous mallard, was cormorants and they would wait on the pontoons resting ad sh!tting it dissolved to a sandy like substance and was gone in a day, but every morning it was dodge the sh!t while walking ashore.
At our home haven it is mallards and geese that are there, while there are a lot of fish in the canal, mainly carp of some size, we don't see many fish eating birds if at all.
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I think I have seen quite a few of those as well. Various plastic owls, crows or birds of prey. They are not the prettiest though, so I was hoping we would be able to find a better solution! :)
 
roa312 said:
Do you have the snake tied up permanently then, or is it sufficient to have it sit there for just a week or so - do they lose interest then?
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I leave it when we leave the boat , they don’t come when you on board , some put netting on the canvas , they are scared of being tangled up.
 
Used to be a boat behind us that had an owl on top of the radar arch, it amused us no end to see a pair of seagulls sat one either side of it. A couple of years ago there was one beside us with some snakes on the foredeck, the seagulls used to try and eat them.
 
billskip said:
I didn't know plastic snakes liked fresh water.
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well for your information , snakes need fresh water , even SEA snakes need fresh water to drink , they cannot drink salt water. A bit like me I drink beer because I am allergic to water.
 
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