Flocks of raucous seagulls return to Woolston at night

Residents say that the birds are incredibly noisy in the evenings and into the night - with the birds making noise well into the early hours of the morning.

This is not the first time that noisy seagulls have blighted the area, either.

With Woolston being situated so close to the River Mersey, and the Woolston Eyes being a popular nature reserve, residents are used to seeing seagulls around the area - though not usually as noisy as they are now.

With the Woolston Eyes being so close, seagulls have been common in the area for many years (Image: Newsquest)

In 2020 it was reported by the Warrington Guardian that residents were in despair at the sheer volume emitted from flocks of seagulls, though since then the issue had quietened down somewhat.

Now, however, the noisy birds have returned to the area, with residents claiming that the birds can be heard in the small hours of the morning, even later than 1am.

Speaking to the Warrington Guardian, one resident said: "When I've been going to bed later at night I can still hear them causing a racket.

"If I wake up in the night, I can normally hear them making noise, and when I get up early in the morning I can hear them again.

"It's just incessant, and I have no idea what can be done - it's becoming less of an irritation and more of a real problem."

A small number of lesser black-backed gulls nested on the roofs of industrial units off Woolston Grange around eight years ago, which was not a massive problem.

But since then, the numbers have grown to become such a nuisance that residents living in properties in and surrounding Epping Drive cannot go to bed with windows open because of the noise.

In 2020, Keith Gallie - a Woolston resident - said: "We can’t sleep with windows open because of the racket they make.

“The numbers have grown to what now is a nuisance, and whenever any other birds fly into their territory, they all rise up and make one hell of a racket.

“It seems worse than it would be at the coast. They squawk almost all day and sometimes throughout the night.

“The gulls defecate on cars, which as you can imagine is not good for the paintwork, and I know for a fact that they fly to Woolston Eyes and prey upon the chicks of nesting waders and other birds.

“Now that their breeding season is over, it would be a good time to start planning what to do to deter them from breeding there next season.”