2008 Woodie Awards
Crows in the Hawks Nest
...but not for long!
Dan James
Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: News
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The crows first touched down in the trees around the townhouse village and on-campus houses. Several trees appeared to have black leaves, but upon closer ispection, it was actually hundreds of crows. The familiarity of Rockhurst's campus had quickly turned into an Alfred Hitchcock film as the crows cawed from the trees and sky. The eerie look to the trees and sky is not the only mark the crows have cast on campus. They have also left sidewalks and cars covered in, well, feces. Several sections of sidewalk all across campus have been nearly painted white by the droppings. Sophomore Alex Primo, an unfortunate resident of THV, had his car fall victim to the crows as it was literally covered with poop. "I made the horrible mistake of parking my car under a tree," said Primo.
"When I came out to drive it the next day. I couldn't even see out of the windshield. It was bad."
The American crow often gathers in large communal roosts at nighttime when they are not in nesting season. While attempting to off the pests with a BB gun might be tempting, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 makes killing the American crow illegal. Vigilante students will have to restrain themselves.
Fortunately, Physical Plant is already on the job. They have brought out the heavy artillery to get rid of the crows, specifically, a cannon. Though not exactly the typical cannon. This cannon does not actually fire anything; it just makes a loud booming noise to scare the pests away. According to Mark Arnold, the grounds crew foreman, the cannon operates on propane and a mechanical timer. Basically, a chamber fills with a gas and trips an igniter, which fires the cannon. The cannon is located on top of Massman Hall. Cannon shots began on Tuesday, January 29 at 4 p.m. and continued until 6:30 p.m. every 20 minutes. The grounds crew hopes that by continually scaring the crows away they will eventually leave for good.
Arnold said in the past the crows usually pose a problem in the fall when they begin to flock for the winter. However, the problem lessened ths year after the Laidlaw landfill shut down at 87th and Blue River, removing a nearby food source for the pests. This is apparently the first time the crows have come in the winter. Arnold suspects that some construction may have caused them to vacate their previous roosting spots to come here. In the spring the crows will break up into smaller flocks for the summer, but until this happens the Rockhurst community will have to hope the cannon can blast them away.
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