Council falcon plan to tackle gull menace fails

Dec 4 2009 by Jackie Grant, Dumfries Standard Friday

DUMFRIES’ seagulls look like they’ve taken the first blood in the council’s battle against the menace.

Officials have admitted that a scheme which saw a bird of prey try and scare away gulls in the town has pretty much failed – after their numbers increased.

Councillors will be told at a planning and environment meeting on Tuesday that the number of nesting gulls went up by 18.5 per cent to 370 this year.

They are being recommended to drop the scheme set up by a Seagull Task Force.

In a report council environment standards officer, Keith MacKenzie, said: “Whilst the report has not been finalised it is understood that the findings conclude that the flying of falcons in the absence of any other measures, lethal and non-lethal, did not significantly reduce the numbers of nesting gulls.”

The falcon was in the town for a 10-week period ending on May 22.

Mr MacKenzie said that a free nest and egg removal service provided by the council was a success. A total of 822 visits were made to premises between May and July resulting in 671 nests and more than 1,500 eggs being removed.

Councillors agreed in January to spend £50,000 to enlist the aid of a falcon for three months during the nesting season.

At the same time, and another £35,000 cost, nests and eggs were to be removed from roofs in the town centre free of charge by the council.

Although the falcons will not be used again next year, £42,000 has been made available from the council’s Environmental Standards Revenue Budget to continue with the nest and egg removal programme.

And an offer from the Scottish Agricultural Scientific Agency in trialling the use of automated water sprayers to deter gulls from nesting is also likely to be accepted by the task force.

Dumfries is said to have one of the worst problems with gulls in Scotland. During the peak season, people have reported food stolen from their hands and some have been “dive-bombed” by the aggressive birds.

However, there was a reduction in the number of people complaining about gulls swooping on them for food this year. In 2008, 25 people complained, compared to only five this year.

The taskforce also considered enforcing a bylaw to stop people feeding the gulls, but it had been noted that less people were seen to be giving them food this summer.