They are the airborne menace despised by so many for nicking chips, screeching their beaks off, swooping on beach-goers and even shoplifting.
With such a raft of anti-social behaviour attached to the species, it is unsurprising seagulls are often viewed as the thugs of the seaside by many Brits.
Nowhere is this more true than in Brighton, so renowned for its gulls that it named the football team after them.
But while many in the UK’s second hippest city find the seabirds a nuisance, one man has dedicated the last fifteen years to rescuing, rehabilitating and returning gulls who nearly fall off the perch – and even invites them home.
Gull-lover Justin King spends hundreds of pounds each month on his quest – including maintaining an aviary in his back garden.
Despite some locals referring to the dive-bombing birds as ‘flying vermin’ Justin says they are guilty of an unfair reputation.
Speaking in his kitchen as he fed Co-op ham slices to a poorly fledgling gull which may not make it, the former gardener told locals to stop moaning.
Justin King has been rescuing seagulls in Brighton for 13 years and often goes on home visits. Pictured, Justin rescuing a herring gull on a call out
Justin lets the gulls fly around his home and has built an aviary in his back garden to nurse the birds back to health (pictured)
Justin says seagulls have an unfair reputation and more must be done to protect them in the UK. Pictured, gulls in Justin’s aviary
He told MailOnline: ‘Why live in a seaside town? If you don’t like them, move! A lot of people probably have done. A lot of people just like to complain.’
Justin adds: ‘The average British person will see them as loud, noisy, pooing everywhere, dive bombing, but they’re really not that actually. Just leave them alone. They’re so loyal.’
The 55-year-old first got involved in rescuing birds around 13 years ago when he was paid regular visits by gulls and began feeding them.
Speaking at his home in Saltdean, a short drive east of Brighton, he explained: ‘On the day I moved in here, there was one standing on the fence.
‘I don’t know what that was all about, a sign? I befriended them over the years and I just love to know them.’
After getting involved at a seabird rescue centre in Hailsham he started up his own sanctuary at home.
He now boasts a 6×8 foot custom built aviary, a greenhouse converted into a gull care room and birds, including pigeons, can be found dotted around his home.
He said: ‘At the moment, all across the city and all across the country, they are falling off rooftops, wandering around, trying to learn how to fly.
Justin spends hundreds of pounds a month on rescuing the gulls. Pictured, holding a baby herring gull that had fallen from a roof
Justin has hit out at locals who hate the gulls and said if they don’t like it they should move. Pictured, Justin on a call out.
‘In terms of rescue, there is hardly anybody helping.
‘Other wildlife centres are so limited, there’s just way too much wildlife coming in.
‘You have to have a detachment about it and know when you’ve done your best. I have had miracles with these birds before.’
Justin’s home-cum-sanctuary has taken its toll financially, physically and mentally.
Running costs can hit £100-£200 a fortnight which buys the birds mealworm, whitebait, tinned tuna and medication which Justin can administer.
He gets money from donations and an Amazon Wish List but the cost of living has seen donations collapse and it has become harder to get by.
To make matters worse, Justin is due in court next week over a speeding ticket which threatens to bring the entire rescue operation crashing down.
He said: ‘Why have I got these points? I’ve been rushing out to get casualties. I was going 33 in a 30 racing to a seagull rescue.
‘I’ll either get a fine or a ban. If I get a ban, they can’t be rescued. It will finish everything, that will be it, it will be curtains.’
Pictured, Justin is called to a house where a baby herring gull has been taken in
Justin has single-handedly saved 100 birds this year. Pictured, he helps a baby herring gull
Fledgling season runs from late July to early August and sees a raft of incidents as young birds fall off their roof nests while trying to take to the sky for the first time. Pictured, Justin helps a bird back to a roof top
But Justin would like to see the public take a more active role in supporting seagulls and support his cause on GoFundMe. Pictured, he puts a bird in a carry case to take home
Justin, who has single-handedly saved 100 birds this year, adds: ‘During the season I have climbed through Velux windows to cut birds out of netting, I’ve gone up scaffolding, you name it, I’ve done it.’
MailOnline went on a call out with the gull-whisperer and on this occasion the bird Justin is returning has spent the last day in a puppy pen on the floor of Claire Fergusson-OToole’s kitchen with another young gull, after she found it struggling in the street.
Fledgling season runs from late July to early August and sees a raft of incidents as young birds fall off their roof nests while trying to take to the sky for the first time.
Claire, a social worker who has volunteered with Justin’s South Coast and East Sussex Bird/Gull Volunteer Network for several years, said: ‘At this age, they don’t have the reflex to get up again so if they’re on the road and a car comes, they got knocked over.
‘If a baby falls down a roof, all the parents scream together. People don’t like the sound. This area, you’re by the sea, you don’t buy or rent if you don’t want gulls screaming at 3am.
‘I rescued lots this year. I’ve had gulls from all directions. I went to a restaurant recently and had a baby down my top. A tiny fluffball. It looked out over my top during dinner, everybody loved it.
‘My spiritual side is all about nature, I connect with animals really easily.’
After taking the rescued gull up a step-ladder at a neighbour’s house and placing it on the roof it fell from, it takes flight and an ecstatic Claire throws herself into Justin’s arms in pure joy.
‘If you keep it more than two or three days, the parent won’t necessarily take it back. That’s a successful rescue’, Justin delights, before taking the second fledgling back to his house to recover further.
Seagulls – which include 100 species – their chicks and nests have been protected under UK law since the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Justin often climbs on to rooves to rescue the birds and has even clambered up scaffolding and through windows. Pictured, he helps return a baby gull to a roof
Justin says that seagulls that while most people see seagulls as a nuisance he describes them as ‘so loyal’. Pictured, Justin helps a baby gull on a call out
Justin takes injured gulls home and feeds them mealworm, whitebait, tinned tuna and administers medication. Pictured, a baby gull in Justin’s van
This means it’s illegal to intentionally kill, take or injure gulls, take or destroy their eggs, or damage or destroy any gull nests while they’re in use or being built – unless you’re acting under licence, according to the RSPCA.
The most common species in Britain are the Herring gull, the Lesser black-backed gull and the Great black-backed gulls.
Seagulls are considered a species of conservation concern in the UK because there’s evidence suggesting their populations are in overall decline through various environmental factors.
It’s an issue Justin says should be taken far more seriously but he admits seagulls – in the face of A-lister natives like hedgehogs – are simply not a priority for most animal-loving Brits.
Gull conservation has come to a head in recent years with a major outbreak of Avian flu in 2022 which decimated Britain’s seagull population.
But closer to home, it’s Brighton’s fountains which have seen Justin thrown into a harrowing ordeal.
A brazen seagull divebombs a holidaymaker and steals her ice-cream in Brighton, East Sussex
Arun District Council has urged holidaymakers in Brighton to avoid feeding seagulls to ensure the safety of holidaymakers
Pictured, Seagulls gather on the fountain at Old Steine in Brighton. Justin said he has been called out to rescue the birds from the water many times
Looking to cool off in the hot weather, gulls bathe in the Victoria Fountain, in Brighton’s Old Steine Gardens, but its high pressure leaves their feathers waterlogged and causes them to drown – forcing Justin to take drastic action.
He said: ‘It’s been absolutely awful. I’ve been in there three times a day saving them and pulling them out. I’ve had to take in about ten, I’m exhausted, many haven’t made it.
‘People don’t notice the gulls are struggling. Luckily the council have agreed to turn the fountains off intermittently. They are working with us. People in Brighton have been massively positive about it.’
But despite his and others’ enthusiasm for seagulls, not everyone is so keen and Justin admits he was verbally abused by members of the public while wading into the fountain.
One passer-by, who wished to remain anonymous, told MailOnline: ‘I can’t see myself doing that. I don’t like seagulls. But good on him [Justin], I can’t imagine many others doing what he does.’
Another said: ‘Hate them. They’re flying vermin.’
But Justin would like to see the public take a more active role in supporting seagulls and support his cause on GoFundMe.
He explained: ‘When you come across these people who have got these big houses, and they just expect you to take a bird away, these people need to start supporting all wildlife centres.
‘Forty have closed this year, and some of us might not even be doing this next year.
‘I’m starting to wonder if all of this is worth it. It’s in a bad way because these birds are forever deprioritised.
‘It’s speciesism – it’s prioritising one wildlife before another. This has fallen to volunteers.’
- Justin’s GoFundMe page can be found here.
