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A British Man Is Living Out the Plot of ‘The Birds’

“I was simply not prepared for the serious impact that these creatures have upon me.”

09/25/2023

Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The human fear of birds is a primal one, as Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, Olivia Rodrigo, and now, a long-suffering resident of the British town of Bath, know all too well. The man, identified only as Gavin in a BBC article about the issue, has lodged a formal complaint against the seagulls plaguing his housing development, claiming the birds have made it “impossible to escape sleep deprivation.”

"I was simply not prepared for the serious impact that these creatures have upon me,” the embattled resident revealed last week in a statement to the Bath & North East Somerset Council. Gavin went on to explain that there are “often 10 or 12 adult gulls” on the roof of the building adjacent to his apartment. He added that his “health and wellbeing have suffered from lack of sleep, anxiety, and being unable to concentrate with windows open, even in the stifling heat of summer.”

The gulls have also been exhibiting increasingly aggressive behavior, Gavin claims. "I had a sandwich snatched from my hand, drawing blood; I have been hit on the head by a gull while walking; and I have witnessed a gull take ducklings from the canal."

This is only the latest battle in the ongoing war between the human and avian residents of Bath. Per an ITV report last year, there are nearly a thousand breeding pairs of gulls in the historic city, whose elaborate Georgian architecture provides the perfect perch for the birds to nest. “We’ve created big beaches in the skies for them,” Tony Whitehead, a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds explained to SomersetLive. “They are attracted to urban areas because of really safe nesting places.”

Despite noise complaints and even attacks on humans, it remains difficult to legally kill the birds or destroy their nests, as all species of gull are protected under Britain’s Wildlife and Countryside Act. The city of Bath, however, has obtained special permissions to remove nests and eggs if they could show “that nonlethal methods had failed and that it was necessary for public protection.” Godspeed to Gavin, and prayers for a swift and nonviolent resolution.

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Charu Sinha

Charu Sinha is the audience editor at Heatmap. She was previously a news writer at Vulture, where she covered arts and culture. She has also written for Netflix, iHeartMedia, and NPR.

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The Country’s Largest Power Markets Are Getting More Gas

Three companies are joining forces to add at least a gigawatt of new generation by 2029. The question is whether they can actually do it.

Matthew Zeitlin •

02/26/2025

Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Two of the biggest electricity markets in the country — the 13-state PJM Interconnection, which spans the Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest, and ERCOT, which covers nearly all of Texas — want more natural gas. Both are projecting immense increases in electricity demand thanks to data centers and electrification. And both have had bouts of market weirdness and dysfunction, with ERCOT experiencing spiky prices and even blackouts during extreme weather and PJM making enormous payouts largely to gas and coal operators to lock in their “capacity,” i.e. their ability to provide power when most needed.

Now a trio of companies, including the independent power producer NRG, the turbine manufacturer GE Vernova, and a subsidiary of the construction firm Kiewit Corporation, are teaming up with a plan to bring gas-powered plants to PJM and ERCOT, the companies announced today.

The three companies said that the new joint venture “will work to advance four projects totaling over 5 gigawatts” of natural gas combined cycle plants to the two power markets, with over a gigawatt coming by 2029. The companies said that they could eventually build 10 to 15 gigawatts “and expand to other areas across the U.S.”

So far, PJM and Texas’ call for new gas has been more widely heard than answered. The power producer Calpine said last year that it would look into developing more gas in PJM, but actual investment announcements have been scarce, although at least one gas plant scheduled to close has said it would stay open.

So far, across the country, planned new additions to the grid are still overwhelmingly solar and battery storage, according to the Energy Information Administration, whose data shows some 63 gigawatts of planned capacity scheduled to be added this year, with more than half being solar and over 80% being storage.

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A British Man Is Living Out the Plot of ‘The Birds’

“I was simply not prepared for the serious impact that these creatures have upon me.”

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