Peckish pests? Summer influx of hungry gulls and tourists causes seaside strife

In a flurry of wings, the predator was off with its prize: a steaming pasty snatched from the hands of a day-tripper from Birmingham. "What do you want me to do about it?" her unsympathetic husband said. "I can't fly."

- Josh Halliday

Such a scene has become an "almost daily" spectacle on Scarborough seafront, according to Amy Watson, a supervisor at the Famous Fishpan, where hungry herring gulls lurk for their quarry.

With the summer holidays in full swing, councils in England's coastal areas are grappling with the annual influx of chip-pinching seagulls - and the corresponding surge of complaints.

There were 220 reports of seagull incidents on the Yorkshire coast, stretching from Whitby to Filey, between 2021 and June this year, according to new figures from North Yorkshire council. Two-thirds of these related to "attacks" and "gull muggings".

For some, the birds are as entwined with the charm of the seaside as ice cream and penny arcades. For others, they are a smelly menace. "Oh God! They're horrible!" said Shirley Durham-Hughes, a volunteer at the North Yorks Art School shop in Scarborough.

Durham-Hughes, 69, lives and works in the town but the gulls are to be tolerated, not treasured. "I like the sound - it's part of living by the coast - but they are a pest. I think they're pretty awful."

It may not be obvious from a walk down Scarborough promenade but herring gulls and kittiwakes - two of the species commonly known as seagulls - are at risk of extinction in Britain.