An official announcement from Penn State:
The Office of Physical Plant (OPP) at Penn State will resume its crow relocation program this evening (Wednesday, Jan. 6). Large groups of crows have been gathering in the vicinity of Ford, Moore, Cedar and Chambers buildings, and near West Halls, Rec Hall, the HUB-Robeson Center and Pond Laboratory. Occupants of these buildings may experience the loudest noises as OPP’s sonic harassment efforts begin.
OPP’s anti-crow team will begin its efforts on the north side of Old Main at 7:30 p.m.; the campus community can expect to hear loud noises in the early evening as University employees launch anti-crow pyrotechnic noisemakers intended to convince the crows move to less problematic locations. Pyrotechnic operations may continue for several weeks until this objective is met.
OPP’s goal is to drive crows to a stand of trees east of the Visitor’s Center on the University Park campus. Small groups of highly trained OPP employees will be conducting the relocation operation and will be wearing distinctive green safety vests. Once the crows have vacated a location, crow effigies will be hung to dissuade the crows from returning. Light towers will be erected in the targeted relocation woods east of the Visitor’s Center to make the area more appealing to the crows.
No crows will be harmed in this operation. The public can expect some disturbance from the noisemaking activities and possible crow infestation if the crows attempt to re-roost in populated areas.
In addition to OPP’s efforts, the College of Agricultural Sciences is employing propane cannons at the dairy barns and at the the Organic Materials Processing and Education Center (OMPEC). These cannons produce loud blasts to scare crows away. The cannons may be used for most of the day, seven days a week, throughout the rest of the winter.
Last year about 3,000 migrating crows landed at Penn State’s University Park campus, creating unsanitary and unpleasant conditions. OPP’s goal is to discourage this mass roosting…
January 6th, 2010 at 10:10PM
Crow effigies? Are crows that… um… sensitive to criticism?
January 7th, 2010 at 8:31AM
Yes.
Effigies for Dispersing Urban Crow Roosts
Michael L. Avery, Eric A. Tillman, and John S. Humphrey
USDA Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Florida Field Station, Gainesville, Florida
Abstract: The use of real and artificial effigies has proven to be an effective alternative to pyrotechnics and other traditional methods for the dispersal of nuisance vulture roosts. During the winters of 2005-2006 and 2006-2007, we applied the same principles of effigy use to a large urban crow roost in the Lancaster, PA area. The initial deployment of effigies occurred in November 2005 in a wooded area where approximately 10,000 birds had already congregated to the detriment of nearby businesses. By December, as the roost grew to approximately 40,000 birds, we successively moved the birds to a series of alternate sites along a wooded creek. In January, the crows split into smaller roosting aggregations and began to disperse. In October 2006, before wintering crows arrived, we installed effigies in wooded areas where the crows had settled the previous year. Although preferred roost habitat in 2005-2006, these areas were used only sparingly by crows throughout the second winter. Instead, crow roosting activity was focused in downtown Lancaster. At wooded sites where 5,000-10,000 birds did settle, we installed additional effigies and the birds responded by leaving. During November-December 2007, we provided technical assistance to a citizen-based crow management effort that successfully incorporated the use of artificial crow effigies with other harassment to move the roost (30,000 to 40,000 birds) to a site acceptable to the community. We conclude that crow effigies (carcasses, taxidermic mounts, or artificial models) are useful components of roost dispersal efforts and can possibly be used in other applications, such as crop damage management.
Key Words: American crow, bird roosts, Corvus brachyrhynchos, Corvus ossifragus, effigy, fish crow, Pennsylvania, roost dispersal, winter roost
Proc. 23rd Vertebr. Pest Conf. (R. M. Timm and M. B. Madon, Eds.)
Published at Univ. of Calif., Davis. 2008. Pp. 84-87.
January 7th, 2010 at 12:32PM
Oh good, more flash-bangs. They tend to occur right about the time I’m walking home from work, 6:30 or so.
I agree that the crows roosting are a problem. The first year they appeared on campus, they set up near the main pedestrian entrance to campus. You really needed an umbrella to use that route after dark, and rubber boots any time of day. But the great lengths OPP is going to to make them move are entertaining. I haven’t seen the effigies; I’ll have to see if I can take a picture.
Here’s a bad photo of the 2008 roost, showing a few of the thousands of crows: http://www.stringpage.com/blog/photos/thebirds1-20080101.jpg
January 7th, 2010 at 4:55PM
Corvid symposium!
Someone witty can take Frost’s first line and mutilate the rest to taste:
The way a crow shook down on me…
As for me I’ll just deposit The Evening Hymn:
To the sound of evening bells
All that lives to rest repairs,
Birds unto their leafy dells,
Beasts unto their forest lairs.
All things wear an home-bound look,
From the weary hind that plods
Through the corn-fields, to the rook
Sailing tow’rd the glimmering woods.
January 7th, 2010 at 6:03PM
A comment on bird effigies: a few years ago, a hawk was trying to get at our pet bunnies in their hutches. While he wouldn’t have been able to open the hutches, rabbits can die of fright, so we didn’t want Mr. Hawk around. We went to Cabela’s, the hunting supply store (www.cabelas.com) and they sold us an effigy of a great horned owl, which is apparently the meanest bird around. Hawks don’t mess with great horned owls (and I think crows certainly would not either), and indeed once we put out the owl, no more hawk or any other raptorial birds around our bunnies, who have since expired naturally.
January 7th, 2010 at 8:38PM
Phiala: Thanks for the on-the-ground description. And please do send photos!
January 7th, 2010 at 10:41PM
This doesn’t really give you the full picture of the crows—it’s pretty amazing when you see them all start to fly around the building to roost.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l36LOMSP_-Y
January 8th, 2010 at 8:04AM
Many thanks, GTWMA.