Crow crew to raise stakes
Kill a dozen crows and scare away thousands.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that it could use high-powered pellet rifles to kill a few black-feathered crows in the city of Watertown to set an example to others.
Mark S. Carrara, a supervisory wildlife biologist with USDA Wildlife Services, said at a City Council work session that the USDA crew has been using non-lethal scare tactics, including pyrotechnics, handheld lasers and amplified stress calls, to scare away crows in the past few years. Those methods were effective until the crows figured out that it was all show.
"Crows are smart birds," Mr. Carrara said.
The new plan is to shoot the high-powered pellet rifles along with pyrotechnics to trick the birds into believing that the fireworks are lethal. This would effectively scare the crows away while minimizing the casualties.
The crew tried shooting non-lethal rubber shotgun pellets at the crows but it proved to be ineffective, Mr. Carrara said.
Shooting high-powered pellet rifles at the birds would end up killing about 10 crows each year but would help solve the city's problem, Mr. Carrara said.
"The population of crows are growing in numbers," Mr. Carrara said. "You're talking about 13,000 birds."
City Manager Mary M. Corriveau said the biologist will avoid highly populated areas and make sure the police chief approves the practice prior to the hazing.
The problem is the mess and noise these black-feathered guests make, and several cities in the state are facing a similar problem. Mr. Carrara said Albany, Auburn, Troy and several other cities in New York have hired USDA crews to get rid of crows.
The Watertown City Council decided in November to spend $5,950 to hire USDA biologists to perform the hazing program and train city workers for the task.
Mayor Jeffrey E. Graham said he has received few complaints about the crows this year. He said the only complaint he got was from the Jefferson County Historical Society, where hundreds of crows would gather to roost in the night.
