THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 30, 1995 TAG: 9508300527
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 156 lines
``Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. Red sky at night, sailors delight.'' Hampton Roads watermen know plenty of such nautical lore.
Some of them believe the old admonition not to rename a boat; doing that is sure to bring the new owner bad luck. It may not be necessarily so, but who wants to test fate?
Another theory says that painting white sea gulls on piers will keep the real birds from landing on, and pooping on, government property.
This last bit of sea lore may not be true either, but it has somehow worked its way into the environmental practices on the 3rd Port at Fort Eustis Army Post.
What began as policy has turned to skepticism and then to tradition over the past 10 years. But as long as there's half a chance the flat white seagulls help keep the Army's pier clean, someone will continue to paint the birds.
``About 10 years ago, we had a harbor master here, CW4 `Homsie' Mitchell, who heard that painting white birds on the pier would keep sea gulls from landing and pooping and dropping shellfish on the piers,'' said the 7th Transportation Group's harbor master, Chief Warrant Officer Marc Fortunato, who was a waterman at the Newport News base a decade ago.
``So, he got about a hundred of us out there on our hands and knees, painting those birds on the pier. The paint wasn't hardly dry when the sea gulls came back and started their business all over again,'' said Fortunato, laughing. ``I'd say it really doesn't work all that well.''
Fortunato, who has been in the Army 22 years, says that shells on the pier have been the biggest nuisance. Sea gulls like to scoop oysters and clams from the James River, where army ships are docked, then ``bomb the pier to crack them open.''
In the past, cars and equipment have been damaged, and the pier was littered with sharp shells and sea gull droppings.
But, since the shellfish population in the James has tapered off in recent years, so has the sea gulls' bombing. A street sweeper cleans up what mess there is on the pier once a month, Fortunato said, and a couple of times a year Army watermen wash it down with fire hoses.
He said he doesn't know who keeps repainting the sea gulls on the pier. They just periodically appear refreshed.
``It's been a lot of fun, keeping the tradition going, but I really think it's just one of those superstitions, you know?'' Fortunato said.
One bit of experimenting that does seem to work for shooing away critters at another area military installation is fields of food planted on Oceana Naval Air Station.
Three years ago, when he became the natural resources manager at the Virginia Beach base, Brian Hostetter tried to come up with a way to keep a herd of 300 to 400 hungry white-tail deer from wandering onto air strips in search of food.
The solution was to plant 17 one-acre plots around the periphery of the runways in crops that appeal to deer, such as clover, rye and sorghum. There are also mineral blocks, and water to wash it all down.
``Oceana's mission is flying, and you can't fly if you have deer and other wildlife making strikes on the runways,'' Hostetter said.
Deer, raccoon, opossum, rabbit, muskrat and bird populations are somewhat controlled at both Oceana and Fentress Airfield, which Hostetter also manages, by enticing the critters to food plots and cutting field grass to certain specifications.
Hostetter has found that, if the grass in cleared areas around the runways is cut at 7 to 11 inches, birds and small wildlife won't make those fields their home.
However, none of these ploys worked Jan. 21. That day Hostetter and a crew from his office were called to Oceana's main jet runway to outwit some red foxes.
``I'll never forget that date,'' he said. ``We went out there and found six or seven foxes running around like crazy all over the flight line. I think it was mating season; they were running wild! No planes could take off or land.
``The more we chased them, the more they ran. I felt like `Daktari' that day,'' Hostetter said with a chuckle.
It took about three days to rid the runways of foxes, he said, by trapping them or sending them scampering into Oceana's 750 acres of agriculturally leased land.
``Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. Red sky at night, sailors delight.'' Hampton Roads watermen know plenty of such nautical lore.
Some of them believe the old admonition not to rename a boat; doing that is sure to bring the new owner bad luck. It may not be necessarily so, but who wants to test fate?
Another theory says that painting white sea gulls on piers will keep the real birds from landing on, and soiling, government property.
This last bit of sea lore may not be true either, but it has somehow worked its way into the environmental practices on the 3rd Port at Fort Eustis Army Post.
What began as policy has turned to skepticism and then to tradition over the past 10 years. But as long as there's half a chance the flat white seagulls help keep the Army's pier clean, someone will continue to paint the birds.
``About 10 years ago, we had a harbor master here, CW4 `Homsie' Mitchell, who heard that painting white birds on the pier would keep sea gulls from landing and pooping and dropping shellfish on the piers,'' said the 7th Transportation Group's harbor master, Chief Warrant Officer Marc Fortunato, who was a waterman at the Newport News base a decade ago.
``So, he got about a hundred of us out there on our hands and knees, painting those birds on the pier. The paint wasn't hardly dry when the sea gulls came back and started their business all over again,'' said Fortunato, laughing. ``I'd say it really doesn't work all that well.''
Fortunato, who has been in the Army 22 years, says that shells on the pier have been the biggest nuisance. Sea gulls like to scoop oysters and clams from the James River, where Army ships are docked, then ``bomb the pier to crack them open.''
In the past, cars and equipment have been damaged, and the pier was littered with sharp shells and sea gull droppings.
But, since the shellfish population in the James has tapered off in recent years, so has the sea gulls' bombing. A street sweeper cleans up what mess there is on the pier once a month, Fortunato said, and a couple of times a year Army watermen wash it down with fire hoses.
He said he doesn't know who keeps repainting the sea gulls on the pier. They just periodically appear refreshed.
``It's been a lot of fun, keeping the tradition going, but I really think it's just one of those superstitions, you know?'' Fortunato said.
One bit of experimenting that does seem to work for shooing away critters at another area military installation is fields of food planted on Oceana Naval Air Station.
Three years ago, when he became the natural resources manager at the Virginia Beach base, Brian Hostetter tried to come up with a way to keep a herd of 300 to 400 hungry white-tail deer from wandering onto air strips in search of food.
The solution was to plant 17 one-acre plots around the periphery of the runways in crops that appeal to deer, such as clover, rye and sorghum. There are also mineral blocks, and water to wash it all down.
``Oceana's mission is flying, and you can't fly if you have deer and other wildlife making strikes on the runways,'' Hostetter said.
Deer, raccoon, opossum, rabbit, muskrat and bird populations are somewhat controlled at both Oceana and Fentress Airfield, which Hostetter also manages, by enticing the critters to food plots and cutting field grass to certain specifications.
Hostetter has found that, if the grass in cleared areas around the runways is cut at 7 to 11 inches, birds and small wildlife won't make those fields their home.
However, none of these ploys worked Jan. 21. That day Hostetter and a crew from his office were called to Oceana's main jet runway to outwit some red foxes.
``I'll never forget that date,'' he said. ``We went out there and found six or seven foxes running around like crazy all over the flight line. I think it was mating season; they were running wild! No planes could take off or land.
``The more we chased them, the more they ran. I felt like `Daktari' that day,'' Hostetter said with a chuckle.
It took about three days to rid the runways of foxes, he said, by trapping them or sending them scampering into Oceana's 750 acres of agriculturally leased land. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/Staff
Fort Eustis watermen have painted sea gulls on a pier for the last
10 years, hoping to keep the real thing away.
by CNB