Residents of Kópavogur have endured many sleepless nights due to a plague of seagulls in the town, caused by meat pellets strewn across a football field.
The local football field in Kópavogur is dusted with fine meat powder in the late spring, as it works as a cheap but effective fertilizer. RÚV reports that this year, meat pellets were strewn over the field instead, to disastrous results.
For five days now, residents of the town have been tormented by a large flock of seagulls on the football field, eating the pellets and bleating out their powerful and distinctive calls en masse. Some residents report that the noise begins around four in the morning and does not stop until two in the morning. As such, many residents have lost sleep, and children are afraid to go anywhere near the field.
“It’s just like in that movie The Birds, I think it’s called. It’s exactly the same,” said Kópavogur resident Rósa María Guðjónsdóttir.
Attempts were made to chase the seagulls off with goose repellent, but to no avail. Ómar Stefánsson, the manager of the football field, admits that the seagulls are on the field due to the use of meat pellets instead of meat powder on the grass, and owns up to the mistake being shared by the field management.
Lawn mowers will be ridden over the field today, in the hopes that the blades will pulverise the pellets and the seagulls will leave. Whether the operation will be successful remains to be seen.
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