WARNING GRAPHIC: Lesley Wright, 70, was left bleeding on the road when a seagull flew down and attacked her viciously – forcing the woman to rush to hospital with a head injury
A 70-year-old woman was rushed to hospital with a head wound after being attacked by a seagull. Lesley Wright was walking to a neighbour’s house in Moray, Scotland, when a gull swooped in from behind and hit her on the back of the head.
She said: “I felt an almighty whack on the back of my head. I didn’t know it was a seagull at the time – not until I heard it squawking after it had done it. Next thing I knew my head was bleeding.”
Lesley had been on the way to lash technician Selina Ho’s house, and the woman thankfully came out with water, a chair and some towels to mop up the blood. They then headed to Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin, Lesley told the Daily Record.
She said: “We sat there until the bleeding stopped, and then Selina looked at it and said I’d better go to hospital to get it seen to, especially with it being a seagull. She drove us to the accident and emergency department, where they glued it together. It was quite a small cut, but with a head wound, they bleed a lot.”
Lesley was left with a bald patch and a scar, and said that she is now wary around gulls. “If I’m out, and I see seagulls or a chick around, I tend to start looking up in the air to make sure none are coming near me. I’m very wary around seagulls now.”
She continued: “I’ve seen quite a few incidents where they’ve been eating sandwiches out of people’s hands on the high street, and my husband says they always go for the dog at the top of the street. I do wonder why they’re a protected species – they’re not nice to look at, and all you can hear at three or four o’clock in the morning is them squawking.”
Gulls, their chicks and their nests are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which means it is illegal to intentionally kill, take, or injure gulls. It is also against the law to take or destroy their eggs, or damage their nests while they’re in use or being built.
While you may be used to seeing gulls near the coast, many also live inland and roost in flocks. Herring gulls, great black-backed gulls, and lesser black-backed gulls in particular choose to nest on roofs, as they find fewer predators and more food in urban areas.
The birds have a reputation for stealing food and will take advantage of whatever they can find in their environment. The RSPCA said that their diets are mostly made up of fish, molluscs, invertebrates, and discarded human food.