The New York Times
February 2, 2003, Sunday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section 1; Page 40; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk
LENGTH: 654 words
HEADLINE: Like Capistrano, but With Crows and Shotguns
BYLINE: By The New York Times
DATELINE: AUBURN, N.Y., Feb. 1
BODY:
When the sun drops behind the fields and the light begins to fade, the crows gather downtown for their nightly convention.
Tens of thousands of the birds, having finished a day of foraging on nearby farmland, fly in from every direction, flocks passing one another like tour buses looking for parking spaces. The birds settle on roofs and in treetops, often under the bright lights of city office buildings and the Auburn Correctional Facility. The crows, whose roost in Auburn, about 25 miles southwest of Syracuse, was recorded as far back as 1911, have long stirred strong feelings among their human neighbors. Bird lovers say they are fascinated by the evening ritual, the birds' intelligence and their long-term family relationships. Many others see a raucous and disgusting horde that leaves droppings on cars, sidewalks and people.
But the real flap began in January, when hunters advertised a shooting tournament to take place just outside the city. The contest, which began today and ends Sunday afternoon, awards cash prizes to the four-member teams killing the most crows.
Although this is the third year for the crow shoot, it is the first time organizers have publicized it, generating a din of protest and support in public meetings, news media coverage and Internet postings.
"It's a barbaric event, and we're going to resist it peacefully," Stewart Vernooy, an animal rights advocate, told the City Council on Thursday.
Several organizations planned weekend protests, volunteers pledged to rescue injured birds, and a Web site has called for boycotts of businesses promoting the contest.
A letter to the editor of a local paper called the hunters "beer-guzzling Gomers," a label that an organizer of the shoot, Thomas Lennox, quickly embraced. He said he planned to have T-shirts made with the phrase printed across the front.
Despite legal efforts by protesters to block the contest, the shoot began this morning, with 36 teams registered. Contest participants were scheduled to meet at the close of the contest at a local bar, Spinouts Tavern, for the counting of the crows.
Mr. Lennox and other organizers sat in the tavern's back room on Friday afternoon and defiantly lunched on sandwiches of deep-fried crow. They proclaimed the meal delicious.
For the organizers, the tournament, like the lunch, is a matter of sport and spite.
"The crows in Auburn have caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage," Mr. Lennox said. "Anybody with pride and dignity wants to keep their car clean. Businesses have lost customers because they won't park under trees where the crows roost."
Researchers say that Auburn's crow population has ranged from 25,000 to 50,000 over the past two years, and that it is unlikely that a two-day event will greatly reduce the size of the roost. The winning team in last year's shoot killed 43 birds.
Discharging a firearm is illegal within the city limits of Auburn, so hunters will head for more rural nearby areas surrounding Cayuga County, where crows feed during the day.
The crows seek nighttime shelter in the city for several reasons, said Kevin J. McGowan, an ornithologist at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca. They are drawn to the warmth of Owasco Outlet, a creek that flows through the city, and the lights of the prison help them see predators like hawks and great horned owls.
The city has tried to disperse the crows by using owl decoys, balloons and sound effects mimicking a crow in distress. Several years ago, someone hung crow carcasses from trees, hoping to scare away live birds.
Nothing has worked. Instead, the crows have have only spread into other neighborhoods.
"When people try to move these roosts, they take something that's annoying and they turn it into a problem," Dr. McGowan said.
Organizers said profits from the tournament would be donated to area food pantries.
February 2, 2003, Sunday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section 1; Page 40; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk
LENGTH: 654 words
HEADLINE: Like Capistrano, but With Crows and Shotguns
BYLINE: By The New York Times
DATELINE: AUBURN, N.Y., Feb. 1
BODY:
When the sun drops behind the fields and the light begins to fade, the crows gather downtown for their nightly convention.
Tens of thousands of the birds, having finished a day of foraging on nearby farmland, fly in from every direction, flocks passing one another like tour buses looking for parking spaces. The birds settle on roofs and in treetops, often under the bright lights of city office buildings and the Auburn Correctional Facility. The crows, whose roost in Auburn, about 25 miles southwest of Syracuse, was recorded as far back as 1911, have long stirred strong feelings among their human neighbors. Bird lovers say they are fascinated by the evening ritual, the birds' intelligence and their long-term family relationships. Many others see a raucous and disgusting horde that leaves droppings on cars, sidewalks and people.
But the real flap began in January, when hunters advertised a shooting tournament to take place just outside the city. The contest, which began today and ends Sunday afternoon, awards cash prizes to the four-member teams killing the most crows.
Although this is the third year for the crow shoot, it is the first time organizers have publicized it, generating a din of protest and support in public meetings, news media coverage and Internet postings.
"It's a barbaric event, and we're going to resist it peacefully," Stewart Vernooy, an animal rights advocate, told the City Council on Thursday.
Several organizations planned weekend protests, volunteers pledged to rescue injured birds, and a Web site has called for boycotts of businesses promoting the contest.
A letter to the editor of a local paper called the hunters "beer-guzzling Gomers," a label that an organizer of the shoot, Thomas Lennox, quickly embraced. He said he planned to have T-shirts made with the phrase printed across the front.
Despite legal efforts by protesters to block the contest, the shoot began this morning, with 36 teams registered. Contest participants were scheduled to meet at the close of the contest at a local bar, Spinouts Tavern, for the counting of the crows.
Mr. Lennox and other organizers sat in the tavern's back room on Friday afternoon and defiantly lunched on sandwiches of deep-fried crow. They proclaimed the meal delicious.
For the organizers, the tournament, like the lunch, is a matter of sport and spite.
"The crows in Auburn have caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage," Mr. Lennox said. "Anybody with pride and dignity wants to keep their car clean. Businesses have lost customers because they won't park under trees where the crows roost."
Researchers say that Auburn's crow population has ranged from 25,000 to 50,000 over the past two years, and that it is unlikely that a two-day event will greatly reduce the size of the roost. The winning team in last year's shoot killed 43 birds.
Discharging a firearm is illegal within the city limits of Auburn, so hunters will head for more rural nearby areas surrounding Cayuga County, where crows feed during the day.
The crows seek nighttime shelter in the city for several reasons, said Kevin J. McGowan, an ornithologist at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca. They are drawn to the warmth of Owasco Outlet, a creek that flows through the city, and the lights of the prison help them see predators like hawks and great horned owls.
The city has tried to disperse the crows by using owl decoys, balloons and sound effects mimicking a crow in distress. Several years ago, someone hung crow carcasses from trees, hoping to scare away live birds.
Nothing has worked. Instead, the crows have have only spread into other neighborhoods.
"When people try to move these roosts, they take something that's annoying and they turn it into a problem," Dr. McGowan said.
Organizers said profits from the tournament would be donated to area food pantries.
