OLD GULLS LEARN NEW TRICK

Submitted by Editor on Thu, 01/07/2010 - 12:37

The culprits disobligingly took off as soon as Spurtle's roving eye on the sky whipped out his camera this morning, but there's no mistaking the evidence. Eleven railing-mounted bin bags on the short western section of Fettes Row had been torn open by gulls, the contents strewn across the pavement.

The development will come as a blow to New Town residents who believed using railings would be a simple, free alternative to containerisation as a means of deterring pests. Clearly it is not.

What is more, if seagulls are anything like as bright as milk-bottle-opening blue tits, we can expect this new refinement on raiding to spread rapidly. The (ungreen) practice of adding a drop of bleach to the bag's content does not appear to work either – the birds don't notice it until they're already inside.

It really does seem that the time for wheelie-bins has come (see Issue 184).

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