It was an ordinary day. Just finished cleaning up the remains of last evening's meal that was scattered in the gutter and street along the side of our driveway. Seems that the crows somehow managed to tear a hole in the construction grade trash bag and help themselves to the chicken carcass and potato skins. This seems to be the time of the year when the enormous black birds fly into town, as they have been doing since I was a child, to gather with their friends and pick on the neighborhoods of Lancaster. It was reported that between 15,000 to 30,000 birds take up temporary residence here and make considerable noise and dirt. How do they know that Lancaster is a great place to live and decide to return and be obnoxious. Carol and I have a large bird feeder at the rear of our deck and it is always a busy place, but never frequented by the crows. They prefer to land on our deck and stride to the bowl of cat food that we supply for the homeless cats that have been dropped off in our neighborhood by mindless residents of the Red Rose City. I don't even mind that they eat from the bowls, but I get really POed when they peck holes in the trash bags and spread trash over the street. The birds are beautiful creatures. Their wing-span is impressive and their shiny black feathers glow brilliant in the sunlight. They are said to have more intelligence than dogs, pigs, and non-human primates. Some I'm sure are borderline smarter than various humans that I know. I found a video posted to YouTube that shows a crow retrieving a broken nut after he dropped it and allowed a car to crack it for him. I have included it at the end of my story. In Lancaster we have formed a Crow Coalition website to help in the humane, nonlethal and environmentally sound approach to managing the crows. Killing them is illegal so other methods need to be used. Stuffed artificial crows that can be made to look dead will scare the crows off, since they fear the place is not safe for them. The Park City Center shopping mall has permission to set off cannons at specific times to scare them from the center's parking lots and roofs. We can hear the cannon booms from our home, but the crows tend to leave Park City and head to our neighborhood. Crows mate for life and form lifelong relationships with friends, siblings, aunts, etc. The group of crows that I saw sitting in the trees who had punctured my trash bag were probably a family. I know they have to eat the same as I do, but is is still annoying to have to clean up after them. I did find that if I take a large lid from a pot or pan and strike it with a wooden spoon, it will deter them from frequenting my trees and back deck. At first I used a starter pistol, but my wife thought the neighbors might call 911 and report gun fire so I reverted to the pot lid. And as for the droppings they leave all over my driveway, they are not dangerous, but are tough to get off the car and riding mower. Actually you can get more germs from pushing a shopping cart or opening the door of a public building than from the crows. I guess I'm going to have to break down and buy the stuffed crow that I saw on Amazon.com. Might be the best way to scare them from spreading my garbage in the street. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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