Seaugulls and Pigeons

[Paul61]

OK I can understand there is a lot of "natural" food that Pigeons may prefer in the woods but I see a lot of gulls in the fields where there used to be pigeons.

Will Gulls push the woodies off a field?

How much crop damage do Gulls do?

How much damage is caused by the gull droppings as I read somewhere they are potential "super bug" carriers?

What is the status now of gulls on the general licence?

[Dave-G]

Can of worms this one mate.

 

As much as many people in coastal areas hate them there are more who see no harm from them. In fact I read somewhere that their droppings help fertilise fields. Add the difficulty of being absolutely certain you got the right breed.

 

A "seagull" is very easily spotted in most fields and it would be quite hard to justify shooting it to any anti's that happen to see it and challenge you unless you can prove it causing damage and on the general licence.

BASC website will have a quarry list.

[big simmo999]

If you have seagulls feeding on your land - the pigeons will go else where

[proTOM1]

If you have seagulls feeding on your land - the pigeons will go else where

 

 

What Well not round me plenty on the land and still plenty of pigeons about

[yickdaz]

OK I can understand there is a lot of "natural" food that Pigeons may prefer in the woods but I see a lot of gulls in the fields where there used to be pigeons.

Will Gulls push the woodies off a field?

How much crop damage do Gulls do?

How much damage is caused by the gull droppings as I read somewhere they are potential "super bug" carriers?

What is the status now of gulls on the general licence?

never heard of gulls pushing pigeons off a field;but to answer your other question on the status of shooting gulls;herring;lesser and black backed gulls have been taken off the list;but if you can prove they are a nuisance or threat to health then you can shoot them..load off rubbish in my opinion we used to always smack a herring gull or 2 down when out pigeon shooting if they came over us in the hide.

[big simmo999]

What Well not round me plenty on the land and still plenty of pigeons about

Well you must be lucky down there mate - my buddy set up on a field with seagulls on, i set up in the next field (about 500 yards apart) by dinner he hadn't fired a shot, i had 20 by then. In the end he moved and managed to get a few. Since then weve noticed if seagulls are already down the pigeon avoid them

[GP1]

Well you must be lucky down there mate - my buddy set up on a field with seagulls on, i set up in the next field (about 500 yards apart) by dinner he hadn't fired a shot, i had 20 by then. In the end he moved and managed to get a few. Since then weve noticed if seagulls are already down the pigeon avoid them

I would say your mate needs some more field craft as you need to find the flight lines not just pigeons or in his case seagulls on a field as usually one shot and they're gone, as to seagull pushing pigeons out "Never seen it happen"

[Cosd]

Well you must be lucky down there mate - my buddy set up on a field with seagulls on, i set up in the next field (about 500 yards apart) by dinner he hadn't fired a shot, i had 20 by then. In the end he moved and managed to get a few. Since then weve noticed if seagulls are already down the pigeon avoid them

 

 

This can happen on two adjoining fields with the same crop and no gulls about. I don't doubt what you said did occur, but I'm not convinced it was the gulls that kept them off that particular field.

 

We've had instances where we have set up two hides at opposite ends of the same field and one hide does well and the birds won't go near the other.....

[anser2]

My way we often see gulls and pigeons on the same fields , not often togeather , but thats probably because they want different food from the field , the gulls are after worms and the pigeons plant matter.b

Anyway once you have had a shot or two at pigeons the gulls will soon clear off.

As for the droppings no problem and probaly benifical on the whole with the exception of salad crops . We may not like them , but gulls are the arable farmers friends.

Edited November 13, 2010 by anser2

[Paul61]

Thanks everyone for the posting, sorry for the delay I was expecting an email or something if people replied (just assumed that) but after posting the initial thread and getting the above responses and reading them today I feel better informed even though there are some conflicting views.

 

Cheers.

[yankeedoodlepigeon]

L,B,B Gulls still on general afaik.

[ayrshiretaxidermy]

never heard of gulls pushing pigeons off a field;but to answer your other question on the status of shooting gulls;herring;lesser and black backed gulls have been taken off the list;but if you can prove they are a nuisance or threat to health then you can shoot them..load off rubbish in my opinion we used to always smack a herring gull or 2 down when out pigeon shooting if they came over us in the hide.

 

What "list" are you talking about? If you mean a GL, then all the gulls you mention are still on in Scotland, depending which GL you are using. You need to remember that there is more than 1 GL.

 

Pigeons feed quite happily on fields amongst gulls.