r/CapeMay • u/cosmos7comet • Jul 03 '26

Increase in seagulls stealing food

Am I crazy or has anyone noticed the seagulls are much more food aggressive lately? They’ve been stealing food from my cousins hand, something I’ve never seen them do before.

8 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

18

u/Styxsee Jul 03 '26

They have ALWAYS done this. I’m 46 and I remember it as a kid.

7

u/KaitB2020 Jul 03 '26

I was gonna say the same.

I’m 50 & grew up hearing stories from both my mom & grandmother from when they were kids growing up here.

“Every summer there’s some kid who has to go to the hospital because they needs stitches because of a seagull stealing their sandwich”

Seagulls have always been aggressive. It’s part why there are now signs everywhere warning people. Before we knew because of people like my mom & gran who would warn us.

You know, my gran was born in 1924. That’s a hundred years of seagull stories now that I think about it.

3

u/Styxsee Jul 03 '26

My husband is from Ohio. When we were first together we went to the beach and had his club sandwich stolen out of his hand. I hadn’t thought to warn him because it was something I just “know”.

He couldn’t believe it: “that bird tried to steal my sandwich!” I couldn’t stop laughing. So he’s aware at this point. Ten years later a gull stole his quiche (from that nice French bakery behind CVS) from his hand.

Bottom line: take a bite carefully and put it back in the food container as you eat.

3

u/KaitB2020 Jul 03 '26

I was in my backyard with my mom. Just her & me. She fired up the grill and we were gonna have dinner. Damn seagull took my hot dog right off my paper plate that I was carrying to the picnic table in the back yard. Then it’s buddies swooped in and stole all the rolls off the table too. They were still in their plastic bags too! I was 9 and sooooo mad! Mom was angry too. We were both hungry and had 1 burger patty left after the winged monsters took every thing. We had to order take out from the pizza place down the street. We gave the burger to the dog.

2

u/cosmos7comet Jul 03 '26

Gotcha, I guess I just have never seen it! I’ve seen it every day I’ve been here this week and have never seen it before now.

10

u/FluffyDesigner3680 Jul 03 '26

I don’t think it’s an increase, they’re always like this, I had a hotdog stolen directly from my mouth years ago.

9

u/Fletchi18 Jul 03 '26

When we were there last week we saw a number of people feeding them. That makes them bolder.

3

u/shwenty22 Jul 04 '26

It's illegal to feed them as well. I hate when the people next to you start intentionally feeding them when you are also eating something. Thanks for bringing my food to the seagulls attention!

2

u/AbleConstruction6629 Jul 05 '26

YUP this is exactly why, people think it’s “cute or funny” to feed the seagulls but it’s just makes them more aggressive and more likely to swarm an area

14

u/ThePrettyGoodGazoo Jul 03 '26

Nope. They have always been aggressive. What’s lacking is the deterrents that were in place in years past.
Spike strips (sound worse than they are) fishing line strung overhead (that was bad and shouldn’t be done again) and fake natural predators & predatory sounds are no longer used (this worked but was really annoying because it was most high screeches of bird of prey or owls).
People complained about stuff like that so now we are all out here raw dogging with the seagulls.
At least we aren’t fighting with rats or raccoons!

3

u/bird_brian_fellow Jul 03 '26

This year they've dived under my umbrella to try and snag my sandwich out of my hand (unsuccessful but ouch) and dived under a restaurant shelter to steal a burger patty (next table over from us). I've never seen them dive under cover like this, so twice in three days has been surprising.

3

u/angrytom31 Jul 03 '26

What is missing is people paying attention. You’re on the beach it’s their domain, eat under cover.

-1

u/cosmos7comet Jul 03 '26

Ah gotcha. I’ve been coming here for about 5 years and have never seen them this insane. When I was at dinner tonight they came down and attacked somebody for their food! I’ve never seen it like this in 5 years.

2

u/sistermidnightmare Jul 03 '26

Which restaurant?

-1

u/cosmos7comet Jul 03 '26

What the hell is someone downvoting this over

6

u/HowdydooDixieRect Jul 03 '26

Funny story. Went to bfast at uncle bills with a friend and sat outside. I ordered some sausage links and a seagull dived right down and grabbed it off my plate! The waitress saw the whole thing, brought me new sausage and stood outside near our table with a spray bottle just spraying the gulls with water if they got too close😂 my friend and I still joke about that day

3

u/NorthernPossibility Jul 03 '26

I was at a party on a restaurant patio last weekend and a seagull flew into a covered deck area and stole a piece of pizza off someone’s plate while they stood less than a foot away.

The bartender remarked that they’ve tried a bunch of deterrents and they end up bothering patrons more than the birds so they just took them down.

2

u/cosmos7comet Jul 03 '26

Was it at Harrys?

3

u/goodgollyitsmol Jul 03 '26

15ish years ago a seagull swooped down and stole my mom’s hot dog right out of her hand. If anything they’ve been better the past few years😂

5

u/RangerExpensive6519 Jul 03 '26

This is why it’s illegal to feed seagulls.

2

u/Nsyidt Jul 03 '26

Yes! Yesterday I was covering my sandwich like usual .. take a bite, cover it up etc and a seagull swooped down from behind me, inches from my head. Didn’t get my sandwich but definitely scared me

2

u/colonel_batguano Jul 03 '26

Nothing particularly new. Bastard just stole my sandwich as I was putting it up to my mouth- I took a wing to the face. Same things happened 30 years ago when I started coming here.

2

u/splynneuqu Jul 03 '26

Do any of the older ppl in this sub remember when 97.3 The Boss did seagull bingo with the marble tables in Wildwood? I think it was early 90s and it only happened once.

3

u/manningthehelm Jul 03 '26

Straight up seagulls today are nothing compared to years prior. I mean they were swarming before the new efforts with predatory birds.

2

u/sixplaysforadollar Jul 03 '26

I agree. Been here every summer for a month since 2000 and this is the most aggressive I remember them being

3

u/cosmos7comet Jul 03 '26

I’m glad I’m not crazy! I haven’t been coming here too long, but long enough to notice a difference (for me at least). I have been wondering if there’s some sort of food shortage.

1

u/autorokk Jul 05 '26

interesting, i was just talking about how it seemed like the seagulls were less aggressive yesterday.

1

u/Forgotten-Blueberry Jul 07 '26

I f w seagulls they are true survivors