Your article suggests that gulls know where and when meals are being served in schools (Urban gulls target school break times for food, says report, 10 November). Our rural gulls here in south Devon are even wiser. Every year, they know that once the clocks go back farmers will be ploughing, thereby unearthing lots of worms and snails. They rapidly congregate once ploughing begins.
Could it be that the lone gulls regularly seen patrolling the landscape are in fact scouts who tell their mates when the ploughing starts? Or when school breaks begin and the kids come out?
Phil Ward
Holbeton, Devon
• When I taught five-year-olds in the reception class, at the end of playtime I often kept the children behind when the playground was empty. We stood quietly and watched the pigeons and seagulls swoop down.
I usually asked the children: “How do they know when to come? They haven’t got watches.” Once a boy answered: “Yes, they have. I have seen a pigeon with one on its leg.” What observation! It is one of my favourite tales from my teaching days.
Angela Capocci
Southampton
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