FIJI
06-13-2007, 02:53 PM
Scroll down a tad for the story....going back to the stadium at
2:30 today.....
Tigers outfielder Craig Monroe shares leftfield with seagulls during Tuesday night's game at Comerica Park. The birds seek moths that are attracted to the park's lights.
PHOTOS
Click thumbnails to zoom
(JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/Detroit Free Press)
Tigers outfielder Craig Monroe shares leftfield with seagulls during Tuesday night's game at Comerica Park. The birds seek moths that are attracted to the park's lights.
RELATED STORIES
JUSTIN-CREDIBLE
MLB Scoreboard
Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Milwaukee 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Detroit « 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 X 4 7 0
Preview | Matchup | Lineup | Log | Wrap | Box
W:J.Verlander(7-2) L:J.Suppan(7-7)
HR: MIL- None DET- B.Inge (11)
JOHN LOWE
Seagull issue at Comerica Park for the birds ... and dogs
June 13, 2007
Cisco and Cody were hard at work in the Comerica Park outfield Tuesday afternoon -- chasing away a couple dozen seagulls.
Cisco and Cody are black English Labradors, bird dogs belonging to Terry Laymon of Grosse Pointe Woods. Laymon is the state treasurer and executive coordinator of Ducks Unlimited Inc., an organization dedicated to the conservation of wetlands and waterfowl.
Heather Nabozny, head groundskeeper at Comerica Park, summed up Cisco and Cody's mission.
"We're seeing if we can irritate the birds so they don't want to return," Nabozny said.
Cisco and Cody arrived at Comerica about five hours before Tuesday night's game. When the first pitch was thrown at 7:05, there were a few seagulls in foul territory near the infield and about 20 in the outfield. A handful more circled the field.
That core group of 20 basically stayed for most of the game, and they didn't get in any player's way.
Seagulls must not like noise. When the crowd roared its loudest, the birds took off. But they returned a moment later, as if they had just ducked out to get a beer.
This was a drop of several dozen seagulls from the Tigers' previous home game, Sunday afternoon against the Mets. Maybe it helped that there weren't games at Comerica the past two nights, so the lights weren't on to attract the moths the seagulls came to eat. Maybe many moths died in the past few days.
And maybe Cisco and Cody scared some seagulls away.
The seagulls first became noticeable at Saturday's game, then launched an all-out infestation Sunday. Nabozny estimated there were more than 100 gulls on the field Sunday. She said plenty of them were still hanging around on Monday's open date.
The seagulls had plenty to eat at the ballpark. "I would say there were millions of the moths, because they were everywhere," Nabozny said.
The moths were hatched somewhere in the Metro area and must have been attracted by the park's lights Friday night and Saturday night.
In the past few days, she had put some plastic owls on the field. An owl is a bird of prey, and the hope was the plastic owls would scare away the seagulls. They didn't.
Nabozny talked to her counterpart with the Milwaukee Brewers, who also has faced the seagull problem. He recommended Ducks Unlimited. So Nabozny looked up its local chapter, and that's how she came to work with Laymon, Cisco and Cody.
The seagulls aren't the first creatures to disrupt a game at Comerica Park. In August 2000, early in a game with Seattle, flying ants invaded the park en masse and drove some fans from their seats.
Poor Nabozny. She brings the field through winter and the cold part of spring in terrific shape. Now it's warm and sunny, and it should be the groundskeeper's chance to relax a little bit.
Then the moths and seagulls show up.
Asked where this ranks in difficulties she has faced as a groundskeeper, Nabozny said cheerfully, "Right up there at No. 1."
(will upload pics later when I have more time)
FIJI
2:30 today.....
Tigers outfielder Craig Monroe shares leftfield with seagulls during Tuesday night's game at Comerica Park. The birds seek moths that are attracted to the park's lights.
PHOTOS
Click thumbnails to zoom
(JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/Detroit Free Press)
Tigers outfielder Craig Monroe shares leftfield with seagulls during Tuesday night's game at Comerica Park. The birds seek moths that are attracted to the park's lights.
RELATED STORIES
JUSTIN-CREDIBLE
MLB Scoreboard
Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Milwaukee 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Detroit « 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 X 4 7 0
Preview | Matchup | Lineup | Log | Wrap | Box
W:J.Verlander(7-2) L:J.Suppan(7-7)
HR: MIL- None DET- B.Inge (11)
JOHN LOWE
Seagull issue at Comerica Park for the birds ... and dogs
June 13, 2007
Cisco and Cody were hard at work in the Comerica Park outfield Tuesday afternoon -- chasing away a couple dozen seagulls.
Cisco and Cody are black English Labradors, bird dogs belonging to Terry Laymon of Grosse Pointe Woods. Laymon is the state treasurer and executive coordinator of Ducks Unlimited Inc., an organization dedicated to the conservation of wetlands and waterfowl.
Heather Nabozny, head groundskeeper at Comerica Park, summed up Cisco and Cody's mission.
"We're seeing if we can irritate the birds so they don't want to return," Nabozny said.
Cisco and Cody arrived at Comerica about five hours before Tuesday night's game. When the first pitch was thrown at 7:05, there were a few seagulls in foul territory near the infield and about 20 in the outfield. A handful more circled the field.
That core group of 20 basically stayed for most of the game, and they didn't get in any player's way.
Seagulls must not like noise. When the crowd roared its loudest, the birds took off. But they returned a moment later, as if they had just ducked out to get a beer.
This was a drop of several dozen seagulls from the Tigers' previous home game, Sunday afternoon against the Mets. Maybe it helped that there weren't games at Comerica the past two nights, so the lights weren't on to attract the moths the seagulls came to eat. Maybe many moths died in the past few days.
And maybe Cisco and Cody scared some seagulls away.
The seagulls first became noticeable at Saturday's game, then launched an all-out infestation Sunday. Nabozny estimated there were more than 100 gulls on the field Sunday. She said plenty of them were still hanging around on Monday's open date.
The seagulls had plenty to eat at the ballpark. "I would say there were millions of the moths, because they were everywhere," Nabozny said.
The moths were hatched somewhere in the Metro area and must have been attracted by the park's lights Friday night and Saturday night.
In the past few days, she had put some plastic owls on the field. An owl is a bird of prey, and the hope was the plastic owls would scare away the seagulls. They didn't.
Nabozny talked to her counterpart with the Milwaukee Brewers, who also has faced the seagull problem. He recommended Ducks Unlimited. So Nabozny looked up its local chapter, and that's how she came to work with Laymon, Cisco and Cody.
The seagulls aren't the first creatures to disrupt a game at Comerica Park. In August 2000, early in a game with Seattle, flying ants invaded the park en masse and drove some fans from their seats.
Poor Nabozny. She brings the field through winter and the cold part of spring in terrific shape. Now it's warm and sunny, and it should be the groundskeeper's chance to relax a little bit.
Then the moths and seagulls show up.
Asked where this ranks in difficulties she has faced as a groundskeeper, Nabozny said cheerfully, "Right up there at No. 1."
(will upload pics later when I have more time)
FIJI