By David Owen
July 25 – Things have been going well on the field of play for Scottish club Aberdeen of late, a second place finish in the Scottish Premiership last season entitling them to a slot in the qualifying phase of the 2015-16 Europa League.
Off the field, however, the club from Scotland’s oil town on the north-east coast is still beset by a problem involving some of the local residents. Things have got so bad that on Friday it released a lengthy statement on the issue. The residents in question are herring gulls.
In reply to fans’ enquiries regarding what it termed “the on-going issues with seagulls at matches”, the club said:
“Aberdeen FC has adopted a strong policy regarding the city-wide problem with seagulls. The club has employed for the past few seasons now a fully-licenced company who specialise in eradicating and controlling these birds. This company have been taking care of the nests and eggs three times a week to keep the birds controlled.
“Currently Aberdeen FC has no nesting in and around the actual stadium buildings, however we cannot control this out with our boundary and birds are nesting in and around the flats around the stadium.
“We continue to have a hawk flying during the week at Pittodrie and also an hour before doors open on match days. In addition to this, last year we installed an automatic audible warning system which distributes various distress calls from different birds to act as a deterrent. For obvious reasons we cannot fly birds of prey during games.
“Seagulls are very intelligent birds and will always gather where a large crowd of people are and where food is consumed so we would urge all fans to take care and use the bins provided for unwanted food which will assist in controlling the seagulls…
“Aberdeen FC will continue to do all we can to combat this issue and ensure the match-day experience is a positive one for Dons supporters.”
It is nearly four years now since the Daily Record reported that a Harris hawk called Amy had been drafted in to try and deter the gulls. “They swoop down on the supporters trying to snatch the pies,” Amy’s handler Tam Brown was quoted as saying, explaining how he flew her before kick-off from the goalposts and into the stands.
Aberdeen was said at that time to have 3,500 breeding pairs of herring gulls. It is tempting to wonder what the late great film-maker Sir Alfred Hitchcock might have done with this story.
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