Inverness gulls are ‘waking care home residents and dive-bombing kids’

Scotland’s nature body, NatureScot, provided £20,000 to support the development of plans for Inverness and Nairn.

Officials said the gull management plan would recognise the challenges posed by gulls and the birds’ protected status.

The report listed problems including:

• Reports of care home residents experiencing disturbed sleep due to early morning gull calls, particularly during the breeding season

• Primary schools stopping children from eating outdoors due to aggressive gull behaviour, and secondary school pupils being swooped on outside food shops

• Complaints from people about their neighbours feeding gulls and attracting large numbers of birds

The plan includes awareness campaigns to discourage people from feeding gulls and new public bins that are harder for the birds to pull rubbish from.

Other ideas include using kites, flags and audio deterrents to put gulls off from nesting on rooftops.