So, strolling along the seafront amongst the crowds in the sunshine, it occurred to me that one common feature of the British seaside that can otherwise spoil the experience, was thankfully only playing its normal background role. I am thinking here of the gulls, whose calls and wheeling flight do so much to evoke the coastal location.
For the last decade, I have visited St Ives in Cornwall on at least one day a year and I am well-acquainted with the behaviour of the resident gulls there. (The photo of the dubious subjects was taken there a few years ago.) Those in the know are aware that the unsuspecting visitor enjoying their ice cream or pasty en plein air are fair game for the predatory sea birds, and I have witnessed a number of victims being robbed at bill-point! (Indeed, I have had a couple of close calls myself.) These birds are so notorious that there was even a recent BBC TV documentary about their (bad) habits.
It was refreshing then not to have to be watching my back while enjoying a few chips on the beach at Swanage. I don't think that this was a coincidence, and at least some credit needs to go to Swanage Town Council -- or is it Dorset County Council? Signs have been posted asking people not to feed the gulls. And I was most impressed to see that the waste bins along the seafront were even being emptied on a Sunday: bravo! It seems as though this could be helping.
However, I did then see something that made me mutter with disappointment. What I assumed to be a mother and son, were feeding the remains of their fish and chips to an appreciative collection of juvenile gulls on the beach. I walked by incredulously. To their credit, a couple of young girls walking in front of me were moved to action, and approached the gull-feeding woman with some friendly advice. (They knew that gulls were a real problem in Brighton.) I was afterwards told that the advice was (predictably) not gladly received and the reaction was along the lines of "I'm not retarded." Just a bit thick then, madam...
