When rescue goes wrong

This is not a happy story. You can skip to the end to get the short version, but it's a bit gruesome. Seagulls are a pain, but nobody likes a cannibal. 

We had a baby seagull stuck in an area of the school roof today. He couldn't get out, had no water, and his parents didn't visit all day.

So ... after school I heroically donned a coat and cycle helmet (protection from mama seagull) and climbed out onto the roof access. On my way I found another baby seagull (dead). I climbed down, talking reassuringly to baby seagull and to parent seagulls, who were eyeing me with great suspicion from other areas of the roof and flapping alarmingly. It turned out baby seagull wasn't half-dead as we had thought, and made a valiant attempt not to be caught. As I climbed back up the ladder with the bird in one hand, I reassured the parents that we'd put it safely outside for them. I handed the bird in through the window, then went back to retrieve the dead one from the roof drainage channel. 

We decided it would be best to put the baby bird outside the school fencing. That way, if it was still on the ground tomorrow,  it wouldn't be trapped with 200 curious children. After some consideration,  we put it in the staff carpark, near enough that it's parents on the roof would be able to see it and hear it squawking once we'd gone. 

To our horror, as we got back upstairs to check on him through the window, we could see another adult gull pecking the poor little chick to death and begin eating him.

 It was not a happy end to the rescue, and I added his body to the one I found on the roof and popped them both in the bin.