Love them or loathe them, when you hear a Herring Gull you can’t help but think of the seaside. For many people, they are an out and out pest, especially in some of our inland towns and cities where they’ve taken to breeding in significant numbers. Interestingly (to me at least), the claws on the town birds aren’t quite as sharp as those on their coastal cousins and that’s due to the fact that the “townies” spend almost all of their “ground” time on either concrete or stone and it tends to wear their nails right down.

Apropo of nothing much'. I remember reading an excellent book entitled ‘Argen the Gull’ while living in zoo apprentice digs back in the sixties (can’t recall the author though, unless it was Franklin Russell) and can you guess who lent it to me? That’s right Johnny Morris. Wow'. Mega name-drop or what!