A seagull which wandered into an Asda store in early June and then couldn’t find the way out has been rescued by volunteers from a bird welfare charity. It was grabbed by one rescuer in the clothes section of the store in Bedminster, Bristol in the early hours of this morning, Friday, June 23, and is now being nursed back to health at a local vets.
The young gull became disorientated once inside the store in Bedminster, Bristol - the doors are not visible from the main store - and survived, just about, by stealing food and avoiding capture for more than a fortnight, despite the best efforts of Asda staff and contractors brought in to try to coax it down.
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The gull became something of a national sensation after Bristol Live first revealed its plight earlier this week, and was even discussed on the Radio 1 breakfast show by Greg James.
A national bird welfare organisation called the Foundation For Feathered Friends got involved, and urged Asda to let them try to capture it. And after a couple of nights of trying while the shop was open, its local volunteers were allowed in after the 10pm closure last night, and successfully accomplished their mission after around two hours.
“Asda finally gave us the green light to go there after closing time yesterday, so we went there last night at midnight,” said local volunteer Amandine Cook. “It took us two hours of chasing but she is now safe.” On Tuesday evening, the team of volunteers almost succeeded in coaxing the nervous bird towards food laid out, where they were waiting with a big net, but the bird was spooked by other shoppers and flew back up into the vast network of rafters high above the aisles.
The group tried that tactic again for around 20 minutes early this morning, but it didn’t work again. “We finally went for plan B, which was to chase her all around the shop banging on the ceiling and the railings etc. This was so she became so exhausted that she would fly to escape from one section to another, and she would go down and then we would have an opportunity to grab her,” she explained.
“She flew down at some point by the clothes section and one of us managed to catch her in a corner with their arms. At this point she was so tired she barely opposed or resisted. Asda staff were lovely, very cooperative and supportive,” she added.
The bird is now being nursed back to health at a local vets, before being released. “She went straight to the vets for a check. “She has minor injuries and she is very underweight, but otherwise they say she will just need a bit of time in rehabilitation to build some strength before being released,” added Amandine.
