Seagulls Return to AT&T With the Team

Seagull droppings are just one of the problems for fans and the team.

The San Francisco Giants return home to AT&T Park Monday night licking some wounds from a rough weekend in Cincinnati.

The players and their fans couldn't be happier to be back in the confines of McCovey Cove.

The only creatures happier to have the team back are the ones with wings. Seagulls have had to fend for themselves for the past seven days and they are hungry for the leftovers from Giants' fans.

The flocks of Western gulls which congregate around the ballpark as games end are growing in size, aggressiveness -- and punctuality. Fans will tell you that the gulls that once arrived only as the game was ending are showing up earlier and earlier.

The team is considering paying for a falconer to come to the park and scare away the seagulls. Falcons are already used at the waste management company Recology's dump in southwestern San Francisco. The cost would reportedly be around $100,000, but the team is considering paying it because of the annoyance, nuisance and down right cleanliness factor from the birds and their droppings.

Falcons are raptors, i.e. birds of prey which hunt living animals including other birds, whereas gulls are mostly scavengers feasting on trash, roadkill and other dead prey. The team may also investigate a way to attract a pair of peregrine falcons to nest at the ballpark, the Web site reported.

The birds steal food, pester patrons and even deposit poop in unwanted locations (such as everywhere).

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