It's squawk o'clock

Living almost as far away from the sea as it's possible to be in the UK, having the screech of seagulls as the soundtrack to my life is a constant source of amusement.

The Jewellery Quarter seagulls have become somewhat infamous; they are notorious for making a right old mess of your car and in the summer months negate all need for an alarm clock. It's some dawn chorus alright.

The gulls even have their own Twitter account and recently wrote a guest post on the Birmingham Favourites blog.

But lately I had observed some unusual behaviour from my noisy neighbours. It started with seeing a lone seagull perched for hours on the roof of the building opposite. No flying, no screeching, just standing, watching the world go by.

This continued for a couple of weeks, until (very) early one morning, we woke up to one almighty din. As I got ready for work I noticed that one seagull kept whizzing past the window and dive bombing anyone that walked past on the other side of the road.

Then after a couple of days it all became clear. Opening the curtains one morning, I caught a glimpse of a fluffy grey blob tentatively tottering about on that very same roof. Here was the reason for all that fuss: one little newborn seagull chick.

Since then, our daily soundtrack of screeches has been complemented by some gentle squawking; but it's lovely to have a little bit wildlife in the middle of the city. Even if it does mean I have to keep washing my car...

It seems it's not just Birmingham that has a big urban gull population - here's some more information from East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service about the gull nesting season.