There was a time when Rhyl used the image of a seagull for promotional purposes, and there was even a roller skating team named Rhyl Seagulls. Townspeople, visitors and birds seemed to co-exist happily enough.In recent years there has been much snarling and whinging about so-called aggressive behaviour by seagulls, and even barbaric calls for their slaughter. An alternative approach has been suggested by the Coastal Hawks Project whose idea is to scare gulls away from town centre by parading birds of prey. Just the presence of a hawk is enough to put gulls in fear of their lives – so they fly away.
This bullying and threatening tactic is preferable to killing the gulls or sabotaging eggs. It has novelty appeal and should find public support.
I congratulate the organisers for showing initiative and imagination but would fall short of giving the project personal support.
My view remains that the difficulties are caused by people eating in the streets and failing to dispose of food waste sensibly. Birds are not a problem, human beings are.
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THU 19th MAR 2015 UPDATE: Sad to note here that Councillor Michael 'Mike' Espley, an originator of the Coastal Hawks Project, a contributor of a couple of old Rhyl photos to this blog, and an ex-landlord of mine, died suddenly on Wednesday 26th February 2014 aged 56.
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