It’s the time of year when thousands of crows become a problem in downtown Rochester. Wildlife biologists began working to disperse the birds Monday evening.
City officials say this is follow-up work to efforts started in March to disperse 20,000 to 30,000 crows. The high concentrations of crows cause damage, the city says.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program uses pyrotechnics, spotlights, lasers and recordings of crow distress calls to break up the roosts. According to the USDA, these methods do not harm the birds and they are effective in spreading them out into smaller groups over a broader area.
The operation began at dusk on Monday and follow-up efforts will be used to prevent the birds from re-establishing another large roost…