The angle of the bird coming off the post almost parallels the posted sign, but I agree with Matt in the distraction of the out of focus bird feet and what probably is a beak. My crop would be just below the feet and keep as much of the sky as possible, perhaps even cloning the feet/beak out instead to keep all the available sky.
Gulls can read: they've just chosen to follow the arrow on the left of the post. Without wishing to be a contrarian, I rather like the disappearing gull: it gives an upward flow to the picture (assuming that the gulls ARE following the arrow up!). It's a nicely caught mix of man and nature
Though I certainly understand why Matt and Doug would prefer the "extra" go away for the sake of a cleaner composition, the most interesting thing about this image to me are the feet -- of both birds.
It took me a while to work out what that was top right. When I realised what it was I then couldn't decide whether they should stay or go! There's a lot of empty space along the left hand side which if lost completely alters the balance of the picture. As it stands, given everything is crammed in along the right, you get a sense of being unbalanced.
