Ribs & Seagulls

A CRACKED RIB:

On Saturday 18th of October 2003 I cracked a rib and bruised several others on my right hand side.

I was doing boxing sparring and by the end was really knackered as I was the only one who had turned up with the instructor and I was getting 2 minute rounds instead of one. The instructor is great and there is certainly no blame attached to him whatsoever.

At the end my legs were gone and one final hit knocked me down but I actually fell into some weights that sit round the room we spar in. For the rest of the day a rather bloody nose was my only concern but as the week progressed my rib began to hurt considerably - I had to wait 6 days to see the Doctor where he confirmed the crack and bruising.

Over the weeks I still can't sleep on my right side and the pain has moved around the rib-cage several times. Whenever I come off the painkillers it comes back again. The Doctor said it would be a month before the pain went and little could be done apart from painkillers.

I've been able to carry on doing Taekwondo, maybe at 75% and certainly not doing any sparring - the thought of getting a whack in the ribs is unbearable!

I found this link for any of you with rib problems - I know it relates to exactly how mine are reacting at the moment.

How people cope with a BROKEN rib is beyond me. It's a more nasty, annoying injury than I ever gave it credit for and unfortunately there appears that nothing can be done bar rest.

**W/C 27th OCTOBER**

Pain is immense. It hurts just to touch and is even worse with a sneeze or a cough.

**W/C 3rd NOVEMBER**

Being on holiday helps. Had a couple of swims and hot spa's which has helped no end. Still occasionally hurts with sneeze and I get very defensive if anyone gets close to my right side. I couldn't imagine taking a hit on that side at the moment.

*W/C 10th NOVEMBER**

Couldn't sleep on my right side on the long plane journey home. The overall pain seems to have eased but and jolt or prod is a reminder that it hasn't gone away.

**W/C 24th NOVEMBER**

General pain has gone but I still can't lie or sleep on my right hand side - I'm hardly taking any pain kilers at all now but pain does tend to come back now and again.

**W/C 1st DECEMBER**

Still can't lie or sleep on right and ribs started to hurt during a Taekwondo warm-up. The general pain is still pretty much gone but a sharp pain sometimes reminds me that the whole thing hasn't completely healed yet.

**W/C 8th DECEMBER**

Pain is now just about gone. It seems to have taken ages.

**W/C 15th DECEMBER**

It seems to be healed totally now. It's taken virtually 2 months to clear - TWO months of painkillers and no contact on the painful area.

Everybody will have a different recovery time - I kept very active but never did too much - it sometimes hurt more after inactive periods of time than when I was active.

Seagulls Are On The Attack!

Sunday morning off for a walk down to the shop, the last thing I expected was to be ducking seagulls like Mike Atherton used to duck Allan Donald bouncers.

Seagulls have been around our area for years but just tend to follow you for a bit as you walk around - they make a lot of noise but that's always been about it.

On Sunday though one decided to cirlce and then swoop straight for my head - so I ducked (no pun intened). Yesterday I saw a guy from the road opposite got swooped on from behind as the Gull dive-bombed him.

Apparantly it's the time when the chicks hatch and they got over-protective. Over the last two days I've read up a bit on this because I want to know what is going on. It's pretty interesting stuff and doesn't bode well 10 years on from now - I think I'll buy a Cricket Helmet this weekend.

There are 5 stages to watch for....

Stage one - starts with the bird standing upright and emitting loud calls at anyone approaching what it regards as its territory

Stage two - the seagull flies low overhead, still calling

Stage three - if a person continues to approach the bird's territory, the gull will launch into a swoop and bombard the intruder with the content of its bowels or its crop

Stage four - Determination to ignore the above warnings will result in an outright attack in which the gull will climb, lift its wings into a v-shape and dive straight down from behind.

Stage five - at a speed of 40mph it will strike with its feet, dragging them across the back of the target's head. Attacks are likely to be most vigorous where there are several nests close together. Colonies of gulls gain increasing confidence from a feeling of safety in numbers

The following report was from The Times newspaper in October last year.

Seagulls And You!

It’s got a 5ft wingspan, a sharp beak …..and the best defence is a stick with a hat on it!!! Read on because it does affect you!

THEY measure up to 5ft across, weigh more than 2lb and attack from above and behind at up to 40mph. They are also likely to be well-established in every town in Britain within the next 10 to 15 years, re-enacting scenes reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds as they terrorize urban communities.

Britain's first national conference on the menace posed by encroaching seagulls will be held in November 2003 at Gl*ucester - the inland city where, coincidentally, a car park attendant was attacked by gulls so frequently that he published a book about his experience.

But Gl*ucester is not alone. While seaside towns such as Ayr and Aberdeen and Bournemouth and Brighton on the south coast, have had problems for years, now the birds are moving aggressively inland. Here in Scotland colonies are well established in inland ; towns throughout the central belt, including Fa1kirk, Kilmarnock, Alloa, East Kilbride and Cumbernauld. The last named counted 430 breeding pairs this year. Aberdeen (3,350) Edinburgh (1,000), Glasgow (1,500), Dundee (290) and Inverness: (390) are already colonized by flocks of herring and black- backed gulls, attracted by an easier life in the urban jungle.

Andrew South of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said: "We have made town living an easy alternative to seagulls' cliff-top nesting sites. They can live in chimneys or on flat roofing and feed on our scraps and rubbish.

"The consequences are that they now have their young in urban environments and be- come very protective in the breeding season. They do not set out to attack people out of spite. They view us as a threat to their eggs and their young."

Attacks have become more vicious. In 2001 a dog was pecked to death in Brixham, Devon, and the following year gulls attacked a pensioner, Wilfred Roby, 80, who had, climbed on to his garage roof to dislodge their nest. He died from a heart attack. A hospital security guard in Edinburgh needed emergency treatment after gulls knocked him to the ground

This year Marie Munro, 65, of Weymouth, Dorset, was stalked by a gull outside her home. When she tried to frighten the bird away it began dive- bombing her and then attacked her face, causing her to fail, splitting the bone down the length of her foot and rupturing her tendons. "All I saw was this bundle of feathered fury in my face," Mrs. Munro said: “I put my arms up to protect myself and slipped backwards. Now I am permanently scared”

Experts suggest that the best form of defence against an attacking gull is to carry a stick with a hat on it above your head, or an open umbrella. Gulls will attack the highest point of their target

The depletion of fish stocks is partly blamed for gulls increased urban scavenging. Flocks maraud around landfill rubbish sites, and eat discarded takeaways in the city streets at night. Peter Rock an ornithologist and visiting fellow at Bristol University who has made a study of urban nesting seagulls for the past 25 years, will tell he Gloucester meeting that Urban seagull populations are increasing exponentially".

"They have become a serious problem which will affect more and more of us," he said. “I believe there will be a colony within every town and city in Britain within the next 10 to 20 years."

Seagulls On The Attack II

There really are some amazing stories to read about these "flying rats". One revealed that Seagulls in one area were only attacking certain people while others could walk around without a problem! One woman could happily sit in her back garden but whenever the boyfriend or Dog came out, the seagulls dive-bombed them.

In one story a woman set off her personal attack alarm whilst being swooped on but his only served to make the gull even more mad. Strangely enough when I had my gull encounter last Sunday, a house alarm just down the road had been going off all night from 1.30am until 7.30am. Maybe they were just as p*ssed off as I was?!

The gulls are still flying around here although I haven't had any problems myself - apparantly the nesting time is virtually over so hopefully they'll f*ck off soon.

It's clear that my local council (Tewkesbury) doesn't give a f*ck, but the local papers certainly are interested - people need to be made aware of the problem and educated to stop them nesting in the same places and by using "zero tolerance" when it comes to litter.

I never realised the problem Gl*ucester had until I saw it for myself today - there are simply loads of them, although they were just flying noisily around and certainly not swooping on anyone (I was in disguise!).

Maybe if I wore a Brighton shirt....

Seagull News

More and more stories are making local and National press.

This year more than ever has seen these birds get more agressive but local councils are doing nothing, despite talking a good game as most politicians do. Cheltenham Borough Council has been active in dealing with the problem while it's still small, but Gl*ucester and Tewkesbury are sat on their f*cking arses - they'll be the ones with a price to pay....

Three of our little birdies were dive-bombing a woman getting out of her car yesterday. It's like having the Krays running our manor here - but what do we have to pay in protection money?!

**JULY 21 UPDATE**

Numbers seem to have increased over the past few days. Watched a bloke getting dive-bombed just walking along the main road yesterday. It's beyond a joke - I can accept Urban Gulls squawking and sh*tting everywhere but it's almost like they're attacking randomly and almost for fun. When I'm on my bike they just sit there and do nothing yet I've heard of attacks elsewhere where bikers get bombed big time.

EVERYONE ELSE - STOP FEEDING THE F*CKING THINGS AND IF THEY'RE NESTING ON YOUR HOUSE, ONCE THEY LEAVE DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Tewkesbury Borough Council Update: August 2004

We have recieved a letter from the council which gave us at least some decent information. It appears that there is one nest on an Old People's home on the main road. The male seagull is particularly aggressive and the home has suffered a number of attacks this summer (no sh*t Sherlock - they're right under the nest!)

Interestingly enough, the male has been calling other seagulls nearby to join in hence the growing numbers this year. The coucil have said it is up to the people who own the property to take the necessary steps but will be checking before next season that they have been applied.

**March 7, 2005 Update**

Another letter from TBC (credit to them for that) saying that the house where the nesting took place got a quote for £20,000 to make their roof Seagull-proof! These birds must be having a right laugh!