I live about one mile from the sea. In the past couple of years, the gulls have developed a bizarre new way of disturbing me.

Rather than simply screeching as soon as it gets light, they have taken to pecking the glass in my bedroom windows, persistently, loudly and with force.

They only stop if I run at the windows, waving my arms about. Does anyone know what this behaviour is about?

-Louise Charach, address withheld