Migratory Nuisances

The gulls swoop in as the crowds leave.

We have previously commented about the sea gulls scavenging for leftovers at the end of Giants games. The birds are increasing in number and are arriving earlier in the evening [bold added]:

A national television audience witnessed a massive swarm in March during the World Baseball Classic semifinal between the Netherlands and the Dominican Republic, and similar invasions have occurred throughout the year. Hundreds of gulls sometimes land on the field during play. They also defecate on fans and create cleanup headaches for staff.

The Giants are at a loss for effective, reasonably priced solutions:

Federal law prohibits shooting the birds, and hiring a falconer to scare them away would cost $8,000 a game, said Jorge Costa, the Giants' manager of operations. The Giants are also concerned a falcon could gruesomely kill a sea gull in front of families and a television audience, Costa said.

Well, why not? The kiddies should learn that the circle of life isn't like a petting zoo. TV ratings might even go up if a hawk or falcon gives an un-cute seagull its comeuppance; after all, crowds gathered at ancient stadia to witness a little blood and guts.

Need more justification for aggressive action against sea gulls?

In an alarming trend that has scientists scrambling for answers, the bay's population of California Gulls -- squawking, flapping white-and-gray birds that most people associate with the beach -- has exploded from 24 birds in 1980 to more than 53,000 today. In the last two years alone, their numbers soared 41 percent, making the Bay Area home to the second-largest population of California Gulls in the world, behind only Utah's Great Salt Lake.

Nobody knows how to stop the population boom. And the problems are mounting: The gulls are increasingly colliding with airplanes, even causing several aborted takeoffs and landings at Bay Area airports. They're swarming landfills, divebombing schools and neighborhoods and gobbling up shorebirds that public agencies have worked for years to bring back from near extinction.

Current government policy promotes gull population expansion, not contraction:

Some people might think of gulls as flying rats. But along with condors, trumpeter swans and other beloved birds, they are protected under one of America's oldest environmental laws: the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. That's because gulls live in the winter on the Pacific Coast and migrate inland every spring to lay eggs. The law makes it illegal to kill any California Gull or destroy its eggs without a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

I know what you're thinking, dear reader, but it's too bad that sea gulls don't taste good. © 2013 Stephen Yuen