New Bedford Sign Alerts Downtown Drivers to Baby Seagulls

New Bedford seems to have a love-hate relationship with seagulls.

We love “Booby/Busty Seagull” (actual name “Seagull Cinderella”) but we pretty much hate the rest of them. They’re annoying, they crap all over the place, and they always seem to congregate in all of the most inconvenient spots.

OK, to be fair, not everyone loved "Booby Seagull."

Yet how could anyone not fall in love with a little baby seagull?

The people that live and work in the area of North 2nd Street in New Bedford certainly have. While roaming around downtown recently, we came upon this sign warning drivers on that stretch of cobblestones between Freestone’s and the Elm Street Garage to keep an eye out for baby gulls in the area.

The sign appears to be something homemade, but we still reached out to the City of New Bedford to find out if it was part of any formal initiative to protect the baby seagulls.

City spokesperson Mike Lawrence said that the Environmental Stewardship office didn’t know about the sign, so it was likely put there by a concerned citizen.

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Seagulls are making headlines this week as golf’s Open Championship at St. Andrew’s in Scotland is being monitored by hawks, an eagle and an owl to help keep the gulls away from spectators and golfers during the event.

The event hired the services of a falconer to bring along the birds of prey to hold the seagulls – pardon the pun – at bay.

“Without us here, the seagulls would literally be dive-bombing people trying to steal their food,” John, the falconer, told CNN Sport.

So it could be worse. At least we haven’t had to call in the falcons and the eagles yet.

Certainly, too, there’s no need to take out our displeasure with seagulls on the little babies. They haven’t learned how to be annoying yet. They only know how to be adorable.

Plus, once those baby seagulls grow up, maybe they’ll be ready to help their gull brethren take on the turkeys that are trying to bully them out of one of their favorite Fairhaven parking lots, as caught on this video.