Invasion of gulls turns town 30 miles from coast into ‘Hitchcock horror film’

Gulls have invaded a town 30 miles from the coast in scenes likened to Alfred Hitchcock's film, The Birds.[1] They have flocked to Hyndburn in Lancashire after a disused quarry was converted to a landfill site. Residents claim the presence of the birds is devaluing house prices and said they are fearful to let their children go outside.

One likened the situation to the 1963 horror film The Birds where residents of Bodega Bay, California, are subjected to a series of violent avian attacks.

Gary Hough, 62, said: "There must have been 3,000 seagulls above my house on Wednesday this week. I've never seen anything like it. "The gulls are here about 7am and head towards the tip and they come in dribs and drabs but start to congregate.

"Then from 8am onwards, that's when the majority of them come and it's just constant until around 9.30pm." He and Cheryl Gouldstone, 59, his partner, have lived in their GBP200,000 semi-detached house for eight years, but they fear the plague of birds, which arrived in October last year, might devalue properties in the area. They have also complained about bird droppings on houses, cars and gardens.

Ms Gouldstone said: "It's like an Alfred Hitchcock film. There's visual pollution, noise pollution and people can't believe this is going on. "You can't sit in the garden as it's covered in bird poo.

They're dropping food in the gardens. "I drive home on the motorway and I know when I'm home because I see a swarm of seagulls [2]above the road." Mr Hough has set up a Facebook page where residents can discuss their concerns and has organised a public meeting with Suez, the landfill operator, and councillors in August.

Greengates Builders Merchants backs on to the Whinney Hill landfill site in Accrington and boss Steve Pickup said that staff can no longer take lunch breaks outside because of the number of birds.

The 60-year-old said: "There's thousands of them. It's horrendous. Our staff can't even go out at lunchtime and enjoy the nice weather.

"It's a health hazard as much as anything,[3] there's that much bird muck and the smell from the tip is quite pungent as well. "They fly above with whatever food they find and it gets dropped on our yard. We had a driver once find a fish head on the back of his wagon.

"It's such an astonishing site for a lot of our customers, they can't believe what they're seeing and how many there are. "A lot of our stock is covered in bird muck and we can clean most of it off, but some stuff we do have to throw away."

Suez has implemented mitigation measures, such as setting off loud noises to scare away the birds. Richard Phillips, landfill operations manager at Suez, said the firm was "actively working to deter" the gulls and "minimise their impact on the local area".

He added: "We are currently deploying every measure within our plan to mitigate the number of seagulls in the area, which has increased following the migration of birds inland during the Covid pandemic.

"And we are working with the Environment Agency as well as independent specialist contractors to explore what further steps we may be able to take to address local concerns."

References

1. ^ Alfred Hitchcock's film, The Birds. (www.telegraph.co.uk)
2. ^ swarm of seagulls (www.telegraph.co.uk)
3. ^ It's a health hazard as much as anything, (www.telegraph.co.uk)