Bird Brains Part 2

As if Godzilla wasn't bad enough, they now have bird problems in Tokyo. According to a story in The New York Times, the Japanese are beside themselves as they battle an invasion of crows. The birds are spreading garbage, cutting fiber optic cable to use in their nests and causing major power outages by committing seppuku on high-tension power lines.


The Japanese have declared war on the birds, but so far are losing that war. From the Times piece:

"Some steps taken to reduce crows include putting garbage into yellow plastic bags, a color the birds supposedly cannot see through, and covering trash with fine-mesh netting, to prevent large beaks from reaching the goodies within.

Still, the crows have proven clever at foiling human efforts to control them. In Kagoshima, they are even trying to outsmart the Crow Patrol. The birds have begun building dummy nests as decoys to draw patrol members away from their real nests.

'They are trying to outfox us,' said Kazuhide Kyutoku, deputy chief of Kyushu Electric’s facilities safety group, which conducts the patrols. 'They aren’t willing to give up territory to humans.'

The birds seem to be winning. Mr. Kyutoku said despite the twice-weekly patrols, which have removed 600 nests since they began three years ago, the number of nests keeps increasing, as have blackouts."

While I sympathize with our Far Eastern brethren, I've been busy with my own "bird problem" for the past three weeks. Yes, folks, it's spring turkey hunting season in Michigan.

After weeks of scouting near our cottage in northern Michigan, I returned two weeks ago to actually hunt the wily gobblers. Because it's not uncommon to see a turkey walking along the road in this state, many of my non-hunting acquaintances ridicule this pursuit. "I saw 10 turkeys in a mall parking lot yesterday!" they mock. Yes, I answer patiently, but local law enforcement and the DNR frown on me hunting in mall parking lots.

And don't think the birds don't know it.

Two hunter friends joined me for the expedition and each morning we slouched out to the woods to watch the sun come up from our separate spots in the Mackinaw State Forest. We made funny noises for a couple hours while we stared at maddeningly empty clearings. In the evenings, some serious beer drinking and card playing was accomplished, but no birds were harmed in the making of the production.

It's a humbling experience to be outsmarted by a bird, but I think it's good for the human psyche. And one reason, I've found, why most hunters have a better understanding of nature than their non-hunting brethren

The Japanese are now wrestling with whether to employ "lethal means" to reduce the crow population. All I can tell them is that a loaded 12-gauge is no guarantee of sending a bird to meet his ancestors.

For another take on crows from a respected news source, click here.