European Gull Screeching Championship

As foreigners living in Spain, many of us can still be surprised at some of the bizarre traditions that occur, but most of Europe can match Spain.

The town of De Panne in Belgium, hosted the European Seagull Screeching Championships on Sunday April 21 and there was definitely a Pan-European turn out.

Foreign winners

The championship is very much a Belgian organised affair with categories for adults, children and groups (know as colonies which is the collective name for seagulls) but the winner in the adult section came from Portugal and the winner in the children’s section came from the UK and it was only in the colony section that Belgium took the top three places.

According to the organisers, “gulls are the sound of the sea, the acrobats in the air, giving you the time of your life and a sea gull screeching brings back good memories”, that is of course if you have never had your ice cream or burger stolen on the promenade, been buzzed by Stuka-like dive bombers with razor sharp beaks or been the recipient of one of their special air born deposits.

Serious competition?

Supposedly, those taking part at the event, take the competition very seriously, studying the sounds that the gulls make and trying to imitate then precisely, although the fact that the competition took place in a packed out bar where the beer was flowing and a comedian was booked to follow the event, might indicate a certain tongue in cheek attitude when they describe the event.