Greedy seagulls go to school

NOT content with colonising Calpe’s Peñon de Ifach, seagulls are taking over a school playground too.

As well as rummaging through rubbish bins for food and making a nuisance of themselves on restaurant terraces near the port, they have now taken a fancy to the Nou Paternina school.

The flock of seagulls starts circling just before break ends, perching on nearby roofs and walls although the boldest begin swooping down for leftovers from the children’s elevenses before they return to class.

The majority are yellow-legged gulls that are beginning to displace the Audoin’s gulls that are native to the Mediterranean, birdwatchers have said.  Nor is this species restricted to Calpe as they are also proliferating in other Marina Alta towns and are particularly noticeable in the area around Denia castle.