Crow problem stymies Charlottetown

The city of Charlottetown, P.E.I. is taking further steps to solve the crow problem in some neighborhoods.

The city tried a few experiments last year to try and push the crows away from residential areas. But now it's back to the drawing board.

"The crows, they own the neighborhood," said Christine Hoffman, who moved to the Brighton area of Charlottetown nine years ago. "There's tonnes of them. They swarm the trees. And they're really loud in the wee hours of the morning and at dusk. And they make a huge mess."

A year ago, the city tried to tackle the crow problem around Victoria Park by purchasing two high-tech sound machines called whalers that residents could sign out to try to scare the crows away.

The city also experimented with strobe lights and owl whistles.

A lot of the crows did leave the Brighton area, but they just relocated to other neighborhoods in the city.

"So our next strategy is to try and find some deterrent that can move them out of the city all together," said Sue Hendricken, Charlottetown's parks and recreation manager.

"That might be quite a challenge, but we have to collect some information this fall as to where they are gathering and see what we can do from there."

Hotline set up

Anyone who would like to share their crow concerns or observations is being encouraged to call the city's crow hotline.

"We can establish them on a map and chart where the crows are gathering," said Hendricken. "And then, in areas where it's really bad, we can provide them with different kinds of deterrents to see if they're effective at moving them on."

The city has also recently installed three new streetlights in the middle of Victoria Park. It's hoped the lights will draw the crows there instead of residential areas.

"Traditionally we haven't observed a lot of crows in this part of the park," said Beth Hoar, Charlottetown parkland conservationist. "And we thought we could draw them in with the lights. The crows like the filtered streetlights and they feel a little bit safer because they feel they can see their predators."

The city will spend the next few months studying just where crows are gathering this year and whether any experiment seems to be working.