CROW HAZING GETS UNDER WAY

(Editor's Note: See a Times slideshow on hazing crows at the end of story.)

Roger A. Farney was relieved when he heard the banging sounds of fireworks outside his Rexford Place home as wildlife biologists began a three-night hazing program Monday to rid the city of its crow population.

"Absolutely, I like the idea." Mr. Farney said, noting that he called the city just last week to complain about the number of crows roosting in trees near his home and leaving droppings all over the neighborhood. He said it's gotten so bad that he and his wife put tarps on their cars nightly to protect them from the white and brown splat marks left behind by the pesky birds.

Three teams of two biologists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Potsdam office converged on the city about 4 p.m., first waiting at the J.B. Wise downtown parking lot for the estimated 10,000 to 15,000 crows to come into the city to roost for the night.

The biologists were joined by four Watertown police officers, City Planner Michael A. Lumbis and two city public works employees in efforts to scare the crows in hopes of dispersing the flock. For nearly an hour, the group stood in the cold — sometimes retreating to their vehicles — for the crows to show up near the Black River for the night.

When it got to be dusk, the group decided to go looking for the uncooperative crows after they failed to arrive at their roosting spot, looking behind the tall trees near Massey's Furniture Barn off Arsenal Street. Then they headed toward the streets around the Massey Street city fire department station, where they found a couple of thousand of crows congregating in tall trees.

Mark Carrara, the wildlife biologist district supervisor, and his colleagues were unable to count the stubborn birds as they had hoped because they had hung out in an area that was "spread out." He was able to determine that it was a single, large flock.

Donning brightly colored vests, the biologists shot pyrotechnics — fireworks that make screeching sounds — into the nearly black sky to scare the crows from their perches. They also used such other harassment methods as lasers and amplified recordings of crow distress calls.

They went out patrolling city streets in smaller groups to harass the birds, so "they wouldn't settle down" for the evening.

About 6:30 p.m., Mr. Carrara still wouldn't rule out using the lethal method of high-powered air pellet guns to kill as many as 25 crows as an experiment to determine whether deadly force would disperse the crows. It depended on the success of the other methods, he said.

But, contacted shortly before 10 p.m., he said the plan was to continue using the nonlethal means, possibly throughout the night. The teams also are going out Tuesday and Wednesday on hazing missions.

Mr. Carrara said he didn't know why the crows aren't staying along the river these days. Scientists also don't know why the birds began roosting about 15 years ago in many communities across the country, including the Finger Lakes city of Auburn, which has a roost of 60,000 to 65,000 crows.

Over the years, the USDA also has helped Albany, Utica, Geneva and Troy to try to disperse crows, he said.

While looking at his computer at his Clinton Street home Monday night, Louis W. Dunnigan said he was glad to hear the loud bangs of the pyrotechnics go off outside. He's tired, like so many others, of the crow droppings and other nuisances they cause, he said.

He suggested using predatory birds, such as hawks and falcons, to attack the flocks, or putting strobe lights on people's houses.

"You know, they're just horrible," he said.