


It’s a rather fowl situation.
A town south of London is facing a bombardment of bird poop brought on by a “growing” influx of winged interlopers that officials just don’t have an answer for.
“You walk around and they are cooing above you. All the babies are squawking, and then they could poo on you,” Ashford business owner Vince Monticelli told South West News Service.
“Our town has been taken over by seagulls and pigeons.”
The Ashford Borough Council has been gliding around the issue after walking back April’s plans to get a hawk that would ward off the unwanted new residents in the Kent nabe.
“We have researched carefully, and following consultation with relevant stakeholders and local businesses, we believe at this time there is an insufficient need for a hawk service to be introduced to the town center,” a government spokesperson said.
The situation is “under review” and could include a four-month trial with the predatory bird, though the idea has reportedly been dropped for now.
Initially, the locale also felt that a hawk being walked around by a professional caretaker also would make for an especially appealing “attraction.”
Monticelli, also, stood firm: “I think they are an issue and the council probably should’ve got the hawk.”
Other locals, like Russell Green, doubled down on the problems pigeons are causing, too.
“I don’t see why they couldn’t get [a hawk] in for a couple of days a month,” he said. “Once pigeons and seagulls know there is a hawk here, they won’t bother coming back.”
Another man who works in the town, Connor Moon, suggested the winged visitors “don’t do us any harm” and blamed the poop-apalooza on bird brains who feed the avians, inadvertently inviting them to come back — with friends.