A wildlife rescue centre in north Cumbria is taking in record numbers of gulls from across the county, including orphaned chicks.

Staff at Knoxwood near Wigton say that many of the birds are victims of traffic accidents while others have been deliberately targeted and shot by people with an irrational hatred of gulls.

“We've got around 30 chicks, and at least 100 adults,” said Emma Scott, who runs the Knoxwood Wildlife Trust with her father George and a small army of volunteers.

“We get a lot in which have either been shot, or ones which have been in road accidents, and left injured in the road. We've also had ones which we suspect may have been poisoned.

“By the end of the year, we expect that we will have taken in around 100 baby seagulls. The majority are herring gulls, but we're also getting lesser black backed gulls and common gulls, which are not that common.”

Herring gulls are currently on the international “red list” of endangered species, with the birds having seen a marked decline in their breeding ranges over the last 25 years.

Lesser black backed gulls are also in trouble.

The species is on the UK's Amber List as the country is home to 40% of the European population and more than half of these are found at fewer than ten sites.

Emma said: “We're now getting more gulls than we've ever had but there is also a lot more ill-feeling towards them, with people complaining about the noise and the droppings they leave behind.

“The reason they come to towns and cities is often to do with the obvious food sources – such as takeaways, and rubbish in binbags.

"People should try to remember that these birds have a nesting season that only lasts for around six weeks. They're intelligent birds and they shouldn't be persecuted.”

Knoxwood has also seen evidence of people who don't have the skill of an expert marksman taking pot shots at birds, leaving them horribly injured. The current crop of injured birds includes a dozen gull chicks from Barrow.

Emma's father George, who founded Knoxwood, suspects that the parent birds may have been illegally culled.