I don't know whether anyone read an article in the Sunday times a couple of weeks back about the problem of encroaching urban seagulls?  It explained that the ready availability of food in and around urban centres (landfills especially, plus the general availability of household food waste) is leading them to make cities their homes.  Plus, instead of pairs of gulls rearing, on average, one chick every 14 years 'in the wild', in cities they are able to produce two or three every year, and we might be facing an explosion in numbers.  They will attack humans that get too close to their nesting chicks, and they are nasty bastards with sharp claws and beaks and substantial bodyweight. 

Well, I don't know whether anyone was out on the Common at the weekend, but yesterday I did notice a small flock of maybe two or three dozen flying around the place.  Normally I would have put it down to the gulls flying inland when the coastal weather is bad, but maybe it's the start of something else?!  I don't want to be all Daily Mail about it...  the article is here:  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5424706.ece