I am sharing this piece written by Mary Page as it might shed light on the truth about gulls. As I drove back from Torquay to Exeter this evening I saw at least 8 gulls dead on the road. I stopped and picked one up to put on the grass verge. I am shocked and moved to tears. Do people drive like maniacs or do they deliberately target these innocent creatures? These birds mate for life and it is heartbreaking to think of their mate and young waiting for its return.

Mary’s article from her blog

I might regret this, but here goes. This is MY blog and I shall yet again make a few points even though I tell myself every year that I won’t get involved. There’s a local post berating our local herring gulls and I won’t comment on it there, waste of time and effort because folk have already made up their minds and nothing will change them. Nothing. It brought up some points I’d like to address.
Juvenile gulls are finding their wings right now and fledging. This causes a ruckus all around because the adult population of gulls join in the noise and activity. It sounds worse than it is, it’s simple high spirits. It shall be over soon.
If you have gulls nesting on your roof and you don’t want them, then hard cheese. It’s up to you to do something about it no matter the cost. It’s your property, rented or owned, so its your responsibility. It’s no good asking the council, it’s not the money, the herring gull has been protected since January 2011 and it’s against the wildlife laws to harm them, their habitat, nest, eggs and chicks. In certain cases a licence can be granted, but that’s rare. Whether you believe it or not their numbers are down. We might have a pocket of them around us here but that’s because they’ve been chased off the high street and sea front, and other roads. I did my own survey two summers ago and I learned a lot. You have a good ten months of the year to do something about making your roof inaccessible to gulls, so it’s no good thinking about it and complaining once they’ve arrived.
Gulls do not eat lead! It’s poisonous. They might peck at stuff, probably plaster work, even peck away the lead to get at something tasty like insects. It’s a normal habit of birds looking for food. Ok it’s destructive. If you don’t want them doing that, see above paragraph.
Yes, they’ll protect their young. Wouldn’t you? They live by instinct, not reason. Suffice to say that wild creatures don’t know what spite is and any apoarent nastiness is sheer survival tactics. If you haven’t done anything in the above paragraph, then carry an umbrella with you until the worst is over! And don’t get snippy about it, I say again, gulls don’t reason about ownership and your house is their cliff as far as they’re concerned.
Someone called them thieves. In that case so is all wildlife because they take food from wherever they find it. Gulls, like all other wildlife, are opportunists and take what they can to survive. Simple. And if there’s a lot of OUR food lying around then we are the mucky, untidy scourge of the earth that shouldn’t throw litter willy nilly like we do! Don’t blame the wildlife for snacking, quite rightly, on it, blame thoughtless humans. And don’t whine about black bags being torn open. Simply don’t leave them about outside. Stands to reason whats going to happen. And if they see food anywhere, even in your toddlers hand, yes they will take it if they can. They don’t wish your toddler harm, they hardly notice him, they just see the food.
To recap. We live near the sea. The wildlife is being pushed about by humans. They have to fulfill their natural instincts somewhere, so they move where there are nice new nesting sites surrounded by rich pickings of chucked away food. Deal with it. It’s the old old story that shall rear its head every single year.