On social networks, they are ironic about the statement of Vice Governor Igor Albin that cormorants are pecking at the roof of the stadium on Krestovsky. The story of the birds pecking at the stadium has already been the subject of several poems, a couple of lines on Wikipedia, and many jokes.
The stadium on Krestovsky Island managed to become a favorite object for ridicule of Russians long before the end of construction. At first, the sports facility was ironically called "our long-term construction" and was called "a monument to corruption", then, when the stadium, despite everything, was completed and handed over, the townspeople had new reasons for jokes - the cost, the non-rolling roll-out field and the leaking roof.
Almost after every leak, I had to explain why it happened again, although the last (and the year before) they promised to fix everything. New reasons for another problem were explained by the vice-governor in an interview with the newspaper "Sport Day After Day". So, it turned out that now "cormorants with a powerful beak" are pecking at the roof of the stadium. The durable coating, they say, can withstand loads up to 400 kg, but surrenders to this powerful beak, so the stadium now needs a full-fledged bird protection project - like at airports, no less. Later, on his Facebook page, the official asked not to take everything too seriously and be kinder, also noting that he was glad if he made someone laugh.
Petersburgers really did not take the story with cormorants too seriously - Igor Albin's statement became another reason for bullying, but not everyone turned out to be kinder. Some townspeople were merciless in their attempts to be ironic over the roof of the stadium, pecked with birds. First of all, for the stadium, which the people managed to nickname, including the "Raw-arena", they invented new names, in which they did not do without mentioning cormorants.
Which is more correct to say: "cut a cormorant" or "cut a cormorant"?
Matilda Poklonskaya (@gloryfcsm) August 22, 2017
They managed to wonder on the Web how there are so many cormorants in the city in general to harm the stadium: many remembered that they had not seen a single such bird in St. Petersburg at all. Ornithologists also talk about the same - they say, it happens that some stray cormorant will visit the city during the migration period, but such cases are rare.
In short, once ornithologists saw a cormorant in 1905 in St. Petersburg. This beast hid and is now desperately devouring the stadium.
Sergey D (@sd0107) August 21, 2017
We have a cormorant in St. Petersburg, the most common bird! They riddled the whole of Petropavlovka, there are no pigeons, only cormorants and these, like them, irises!
Olga Mikhailova (@oliapos81) August 21, 2017
The theme of the roof pecked with birds was devoted to many poetic works - previously such an honor was awarded only with her famous saying about icicles that are supposed to shoot down with a laser.
“A full bird protection project is needed.”
What's the problem?
After the first home matches of Zenit, both the fans and even Roberto Mancini complained about the stadium roof leaking during the rain. On Monday, the Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg, Igor Albin, in an interview with Sport Day by Day, spoke about problems with the reflective film on the roof of the Zenith Arena.
It can withstand an amazing load - up to 400 kilograms per square meter. It would seem, what difficulties can there be? It turned out that the bird protection was not working properly. There is such famous bird- cormorant, which with its powerful beak destroys the integrity of the film.
- Cormorants pierce the film with their beak?
- Certainly. In this case, a full-fledged bird protection project is needed, by analogy with airports.
One day, the Krestovsky cormorant will completely break through the roof of the stadium and steal Pogorelov's Spinner https://t.co/T9cv3KWCGD
Alexander Dorski (@dorskiy) August 21, 2017
What kind of bird?
Cormorants live in both cold and hot climates. They inhabit seaside territories, coasts of lakes and rivers, and some birds can even inhabit swamps. Thus, cormorants are found throughout the globe. On the territory of Russia there are 6 species of these birds (large, Japanese, crested, Bering, red-faced and small), among which the most numerous is the great cormorant. It is also common in Eurasia. Crested and small cormorants, which are included in the Red Book of Russia, can be called rare species.
What is a cormorant's beak?
Cormorants have a long beak, pointed at the end and similar in shape to a fishhook. The beak is distinguished by the ability to open unusually wide, which allows cormorants to swallow a fairly large fish.
Expert comment
The Village publication decided to check the words of Albin with the ornithologist Rustam Sagitov and the methodologist of the scientific department of the Leningrad Zoo Tatyana Mednik. Here is what they said about cormorants in St. Petersburg:
“Theoretically, there may be cormorants in St. Petersburg, because over the past few decades their numbers in the Baltic, and in particular in the Gulf of Finland, have greatly increased. But they nest on the islands of the central part of the Gulf of Finland, and they can hardly fly into the city en masse - only single individuals.
But the corvids (in particular, the gray crow), gray and silver gulls use the roofs of buildings with great pleasure. For example, our herring gull nested on the roof of the spit of Vasilyevsky Island near the university.
Harm from birds can be associated with caustic faecal matter. Because the end product of protein metabolism in them is not urea, as in mammals, but uric acid. And if there are a lot of birds on any structure, this may not have a very good effect. However, cases of significant damage to buildings and structures in St. Petersburg are unknown to me.
Just like that, birds will not peck at some surface, why would they? If only they bring their food there - pecking, they can accidentally touch the coating a little. So don't blame the birds. I think it's something else," Sagitov said.
“Cormorants in our area, if they are found, then on islets or floodplains. For the city, this is a rare and fickle bird. It does not nest with us, and even more so does not occupy the roof of the stadium.
We don’t have birds at all that can destroy the roof of the stadium - neither a crow, nor a seagull, nor even a dumb cormorant (this bird is very low level intelligence) will not do so. Here, unlike Australia, there are no parrots - only they have a beak that can gnaw. All our birds use their beaks to get food.
I think he meant herring gull, not cormorant. The stadium was built near a large water surface - the dominant attracts birds for spending the night. They rest there, clean themselves and then fly further to feeding places. But even in gulls, the beak is not adapted to sit and have nothing to do to dismantle the roof. They don't need it, it's inedible.
In this case, the vice-governor simply showed his ignorance and transferred the problems with the roof to the unfortunate birds. We have the Zoological Institute, where world-famous ornithologists work - let him talk to them.
The only harm from birds in the city: they crap, and the metal begins to corrode. Not so long ago, I went to Yaroslavl and noticed that sharp pins were installed on the crosses in local cathedrals. They explained to me that this is protection from birds.
At our zoo, they somehow repaired the roof - they redid it three times, but it keeps leaking and leaking. We ask: "Why?" They say: "The roof is good, it just rained." It's probably the same with the stadium," Mednik said.
If the seagull has become a symbol of the Moscow Art Theatre, then from now on the cormorant can become the emblem of the legendary Zenit Arena, the most unique stadium in the world, in whose glory the Brazilian Maracana, the English Wembley and the Spanish Santiago Bernabeu fade.
The field of our stadium has not yet hosted the great games, but it has already risen record prices that have exceeded the budgets of many less developed countries.
The first message about the construction of a new arena on the site of the stadium. Kirov (whose murder gave rise to the patriotic movement for clean hands) appeared more than 12 years ago. Its approximate estimate was quite humane, it was about $ 150 million, and the capacity was planned to be rather modest - 50,000 spectators. The stadium was promised to open in 2 years.
Then the project, contractors, customers, exchange rates and the ornithological situation in the city began to change. For these, quite objective reasons (the poet wrote - “but the north is bad for me” - and for sports, apparently, too), a new long-term construction record was set in Russia. And estimates.
The stadium received its first spectators only this year, having eaten 47.1 billion rubles from the city treasury. But even this cosmic sum turned out to be not finite: the roof of the handsome stadium began ... to leak, and today it urgently needs repairs, which, of course, will “wash” several million more from the city treasury. Or billions?
The vice-governor of St. Petersburg, Igor Albin, skillfully explained it this way: “The roof can withstand an amazing load - up to 400 kilograms per square meter. It would seem, what difficulties can there be? It turned out that the bird protection was not working properly. There is such a famous bird - a cormorant, which destroys the integrity of the film with its powerful beak.
In other words, the building was protected from a hurricane, hail and even a raid by enemy aircraft, but it could not resist the cormorants that hatched in the nest of revolution and genuine democracy. (Yes, and how our great country could resist these predatory beaks?).
Ornithologists, of course, were perplexed. How is it, - they were surprised, - that cormorants nest on the islands of the central part of the Gulf of Finland, and only single individuals can fly into the city? And they do not have a steel beak to break through a heavy-duty roof.
But ornithologists (our scientists are very naive!) cannot understand in any way that this is not about the roof of the stadium, but about the budget, a hole in which any more or less experienced St. Petersburg official can drill with his beak. Or did you mean "roof" in a completely different sense? After all, our administrators for the most part came from bodies and groups where this word is given a completely different meaning?
They are ruthlessly smart. And who will spare money for the St. Petersburg stadium, which will host the semi-final match of the World Cup! Remember the Olympics in Sochi! And now some cormorants can spoil us all? Yes, the anti-cormorant defense of the country will require colossal investments (as before - swine flu). But we know where we are going. And cormorants too.
The Internet instantly reacted to Albin's version: "Cormorants living in St. Petersburg feed on the roofs of new stadiums and sit in the vice-governor's chair"! Of course, the jokes are provincial (St. Petersburg). Isn't it known that cormorants sit in all our high positions? (Not counting, of course, the most important ones, where larger birds sit). In Moscow, for example, tile protection against cormorants will soon catch up with the budget of the St. Petersburg stadium. Plus, our boulevards are being eaten by reindeer moss, a surprisingly contagious thing, by the way.
According to the Vedomosti newspaper, the cost of landscaping Moscow parks and natural areas recreation in the same 2017 amounted to 50 billion rubles. and exceed the budget of any Russian city with a population of one million, with the exception of St. Petersburg. But there, the Zenit Arena is fed from the treasury... In 2017, 6 billion rubles were spent from the city treasury of the capital alone for the illumination (!) of trees and lawns... But it became brighter in the soul of many officials!
Cormorants are the new wings of the motherland. Birds for Russia are more symbolic than the hammer and sickle, with which, as you know, no matter how much you “cut and forge,” you still get little. But with the images we went a little too far. For example, the seagull, known in the world as the queen of garbage dumps, has become a symbol of purity in our country. The dove, prone to cannibalism, has turned into a bird of peace. A completely non-erotic feathered stork, has gained a status that has made him a symbol of unsafe sex. The proud Siberian Crane is now a VIP person, especially close to the throne. From now on, the proud cormorant also acquired its image, which became the talisman of all the plunderers of capitalist property.
P.S. Food for thought: Munich's magnificent Allianz Arena Olympic Stadium (capacity 75,000) has somehow managed to get by without cormorants. Construction of the arena began in autumn 2002. At the end of 2005, construction work was completed. The cost of building the stadium amounted to about 286 million euros. The total cost was 340 million. These Germans do not know how to build!
Broken roads, leaky Zenith Arena, endless rains - the cormorant is to blame for everything. Fontanka collected photographic evidence.
Vice Governor Igor Albin voiced what many have long suspected - some cormorant is to blame for the troubles of the Zenit Arena. But this is not the only problem that the raging bird brings to St. Petersburg - see our selection.
Cormorant breaks through the roof of the Zenith Arena
It all started with the fact that Albin, in an interview with Sport Day after Day, stated that the cormorant with its “powerful beak” is hammering the long-suffering roof of the arena and therefore, apparently, it is constantly leaking. For the first time, the bird encroached on the arena, worth 40 billion rubles in February 2017 during a test rock festival. In April, problems with the roof arose before the match between Zenit and Ural. And on July 22 during the match "Zenith" - "Rubin".
Cormorant breaks the roads of St. Petersburg to holes
The matter is not limited to one stadium - the cormorant has obviously pecked all the roads of St. Petersburg. Repairs will cost a pretty penny - Smolny even had to ask for 10 billion rubles for this.
Cormorant throws off icicles on passers-by
Icicles, which, like a shooting star in winter, fly from the roofs on the heads of St. Petersburg residents and on their cars, as Fontanka found out, are also the merit of the cormorant. Valentina Ivanovna and Georgy Sergeevich, who seized the initiative, may well shoot back with a laser.
Cormorant fights graffiti in St. Petersburg
In St. Petersburg, a lot of high-quality graffiti was painted over, even Chuck Noris and Ensign Zadov were not spared. There is a real war with street art in the city. Why are you doing this, cormorant?
Cormorant throws garbage in the parks
The insolent bird tirelessly scatters garbage in the parks and on the streets of St. Petersburg. Recently, blogger Varlamov discovered a trace of cormorant activity in the 300th anniversary park.
Cormorant blows off the head of a statue in Akhmatova's house
The statue of a young man on the facade of house number 3 on Bolshaya Pushkarskaya Street lost its head. It seems that there was no cormorant.
Cormorant fights off Mephistopheles
Vasily Shchedrin, a homeless Petersburger, never paid 664,000 rubles in damages for the broken high relief of Mephistopheles. It looks like he didn't.
Cormorant leads crowds of Chinese tourists around St. Petersburg
Annoying Petersburgers, Chinese tourists would not have found their way into northern capital without a cormorant.
Forgetful Cormorant Leaves Bags That Close Subway Stations
Fontanka writes several times a day about the closure of St. Petersburg metro stations. A package or bag left by someone guarantees the arrival of all operational services and headache for passengers. Now we've found the culprit.
Cormorant gives Isaac to the Russian Orthodox Church
Poltavchenko on January 10 announced the transfer of Isaac. rallies, marches, religious processions, everything is decaying when the project has a curator with a powerful beak.
Cormorant drives rain tochi to St. Petersburg
Summer this year was indistinguishable from autumn. And last weekend, looking at the sky, in general, one could imagine the apocalypse. Fontanka found out whom to thank for such weather.
Ilya Kazakov, Mikhail Ognev
The publication "Sports Day After Day" linked the leakage of the roof of the stadium on Krestovsky Island with cormorants. “The roof can withstand an amazing load - up to 400 kilograms per square meter. It would seem, what difficulties can there be? It turned out that the bird protection was not working properly. There is such a well-known bird - a cormorant, which destroys the integrity of the film with its powerful beak,” the official said. And he added that the stadium needs "a bird protection project, by analogy with airports."
Social networks with memes with Beavis and Butt-head, jokes about the "Cormorant Arena", and on Twitter there was an account " Krestovsky cormorant"- Igor Albin immediately subscribed to him.
None of the editorial staff of The Village-Petersburg has ever seen cormorants in the city. But perhaps they really fell in love with the stadium on Krestovsky? We asked ornithologists about this.
This is what an ordinary herring gull looks like - there are many of them in St. Petersburg
Rustam Sagitov
Ornithologist, associate professor at St. Petersburg State University, member of the permanent environmental commission of the Russian geographical society
Theoretically, there may be cormorants in St. Petersburg, because over the past few decades their numbers in the Baltic and in particular in the Gulf of Finland have greatly increased. But they nest on the islands of the central part of the Gulf of Finland, and they can hardly fly into the city en masse - only single individuals. Periodically, single individuals are found in Kronstadt, on the forts of Kotlin Island. In the city, the probability of meeting a cormorant is low.
But the corvids (in particular, the gray crow), gray and silver gulls use the roofs of buildings with great pleasure. For example, our herring gull nested on the roof of the spit of Vasilyevsky Island near the university.
Harm from birds can be associated with caustic faecal matter. Because the end product of protein metabolism in them is not urea, as in mammals, but uric acid. And if there are a lot of birds on any structure, this may not have a very good effect on it. It is known, for example, that birds like to sit on monuments, as a result, they end up in streaks of droppings. However, cases of significant damage to buildings and structures in St. Petersburg are unknown to me.
Just like that, birds will not peck at some surface, why would they? If only they bring their food there - pecking, they can accidentally touch the coating a little. So don't blame the birds. I think it's something else.
And this is how a cormorant looks like - such ones almost never reach the city
Tatiana Mednik
methodologist of the scientific department of the Leningrad Zoo
Cormorants in our area, if they are found, then on islets or floodplains. For the city, this is a rare and fickle bird. It does not nest with us, and even more so does not occupy the roof of the stadium. If you see a cormorant through binoculars, consider yourself lucky.
We do not have any birds that can destroy the roof of the stadium - neither a crow, nor a seagull, nor even a dumb cormorant (this is a bird of a very low level of intelligence) will not do this. Here, unlike Australia, there are no parrots - only they have a beak that can gnaw.
I think he meant herring gull, not cormorant. The stadium was built near a large water surface - the dominant attracts birds for spending the night. They rest there, clean themselves and then fly further to feeding places. But even in gulls, the beak is not adapted to sit and have nothing to do to dismantle the roof. They don't need it, it's inedible.
In this case, the vice-governor simply showed his ignorance and transferred the problems with the roof to the unfortunate birds. We have the Zoological Institute, where world-famous ornithologists work - let him talk to them.
The only harm from birds in the city: they crap, and the metal begins to corrode. Not so long ago, I went to Yaroslavl and noticed that sharp pins were installed on the crosses in local cathedrals. They explained to me that this is protection from birds. So it would be possible to make spikes on some of our structures.
At our zoo, they somehow repaired the roof - they redid it three times, but it keeps leaking and leaking. We ask: "Why?" They say: "The roof is good, it just rained." It's probably the same with the stadium.
