Seagulls in the middle of the UK

Ok so I was on a walk yesterday in the country village of Holmfirth which is 9 miles out from the town Huddersfield.

To my amazement the fields were full of seagulls, purchased on power lines, flying about overhead and making one hell of a lot of noise.

I have never seen a seagull in my village before or even this far away from the coast. To give people who are not from the UK an idea of were Huddersfield is I have included this map. The A is were Huddersfield is located its nearest coast is on the west coast which is roughly 55 miles away and the east coast is 75 miles away.



The only explanation I can think of for that many seagulls being so far away from the coast is the incoming storm which is covered in this thread Advanced Warning of Double Major Storms For UK Next Week - In Depth Analysis (Be Prepared)

The first storm is suppose to hit us tomorrow the met office have got severe weather warnings in place for the entire week but sever weather warnings are not a huge deal we get them fairly regularly but seeing all these seagulls so far from the cost makes me think we are really going to be in for it by the end of the week.

Stay safe people!

reply to post by RandalFlagg


Seagull is actually a misnomer of a name as these are land birds - they scavenge around the coast but are actually not sea birds.

What i am trying to say is that although not maybe usual, it is not rare to see gulls that far inland.

Hope that helps!

Yeah, you're right, gulls do head inland when they know a big storm is coming, can you blame em?
75 miles is a walk to the local shops for seagulls though, they will easily travel hundreds of miles in a single day if they have to, but they usually stick close to the best food sources and nesting sites.

reply to post by RandalFlagg


dont get your panties in a bunch, there are seagulls in the middle of the US also..

reply to post by Flavian
I see loads in S London all the time. The infill sites turn white at times.

reply to post by Flavian


Dont get me wrong I am no bird expert I don't know the habits or migration patterns of seagulls, or if they even do migrate.

But there must have been at least a hundred of them and I know what I saw was not normal, never seen anything like it before in Holmfirth, it really was like being at the seaside just without the sea.

I'm bang in the middle of the UK and there's loads of seagulls.

They're scavengers and if there's a rubbish site around there will be hundreds.

There are seagulls inland there must be a tsunami coming, runnnnnn.


Get a grip its a few seagulls.

They are not a sea bird.

Its perfectly normal to see large flocks of these birds inland.

Seen them inland every year at different times.

reply to post by RandalFlagg
Not seen them either, i used to live up the road in holmbridge now nearer town. There are plenty of sheep( welsh people love them) but no waste tips and just a few take aways, nothing really to attract scavengers. Yes they may come inland a lot but its not been known around these parts.

Don't get too excited, they live in Stoke all year round.

reply to post by bigsmidsy

I saw these between the Cliff and Wooldale, no rubbish dumps or anything nearby which would attract them like previous posters have stated.

It was quite the sight, but even more interesting was all the noise they were making, thats how I identified them as seagulls.

Peace

Originally posted by RandalFlagg
Ok so I was on a walk yesterday in the country village of Holmfirth which is 9 miles out from the town Huddersfield.

To my amazement the fields were full of seagulls, purchased on power lines, flying about overhead and making one hell of a lot of noise.

I have never seen a seagull in my village before or even this far away from the coast. To give people who are not from the UK an idea of were Huddersfield is I have included this map. The A is were Huddersfield is located its nearest coast is on the west coast which is roughly 55 miles away and the east coast is 75 miles away.

The only explanation I can think of for that many seagulls being so far away from the coast is the incoming storm which is covered in this thread Advanced Warning of Double Major Storms For UK Next Week - In Depth Analysis (Be Prepared)

The first storm is suppose to hit us tomorrow the met office have got severe weather warnings in place for the entire week but sever weather warnings are not a huge deal we get them fairly regularly but seeing all these seagulls so far from the cost makes me think we are really going to be in for it by the end of the week.

Stay safe people!

edit on 12-12-2011 by RandalFlagg because: (no reason given)

Its not that unusual, really. This article is dated in '09, but I guess they are still there (Oklahoma, USA):
tulsagentleman.blogspot.com...

Plenty of seagulls in my city.

Nearest coastline is approx 1,100 km away.

To give you an idea...that is England length wise...twice! (England approx 300mile, 1100km=687.5 miles).

They are birds, they follow food.

reply to post by RandalFlagg


Perfectly normal. We got them in Leeds and in Buckingham both pretty much central.

Yes however there does tend to be more when there is a storm abrewing on the coast.

I live in the middle of Canada, hundreds of miles from any coast and I see seagulls all over the place

No story here

Seaguls are in many places. Usually around dumps.

Originally posted by RandalFlagg

To my amazement the fields were full of seagulls, purchased on power lines, flying about overhead and making one hell of a lot of noise.

I actually live in Oxford, which is about as central and away from the coast as it gets in the UK, and I have heard SeaGulls a number of times, they are most likely just flying overland to get to the coast........after all birds are pretty smart..........they aren't likely to hug the coastline when they can get somewhere quicker by travelling over land.

So seagulls do fly overland storm or no storm.

I see seagulls in the Mojave desert of Calif.

Then you have the gulls at mono lake Calif a long way from the ocean.

85% of California Gulls in California travel to Mono Lake each spring to mate. Mono Lake is "home to the second largest California Gull rookery in North America,"
greenanswers.com...

Wow...

How'd I get to England?

J/K...

Seagulls are smarter than your average bird...even if they are rats with wings. They'll find food, no matter where it is, and can indeed sense changes in the weather that many other critters can not, including man. They may very well have come inland a bit to escape a coming weather event. It's not unheard of.

I surely do get around...