Madera Downtown Association Crow Abatement Program with Integrated Avian Solutions
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It’s nearly dusk in downtown Madera, but most anybody who has frequented the area in recent years would notice a big difference.
Back then, “The county courthouse was just lined with crows. There were literally hundreds, hundreds of them,” recounted Steve Copland, a downtown insurance broker and board member of the Madera Downtown Association.
Photos by David Castellon
That was on top of the thousands and more crows that would perch nightly along power lines, rooftops, awnings, trees and utility poles across downtown.
If the combined cawing wasn’t enough of a nuisance, city officials and business operators said what was worse was the vast amounts of poop on streets, sidewalks, storefronts, signs and cars parked around bars and other businesses open at night.
But that has changed.
A couple of weeks ago, near dusk, hardly any crows could be seen, and Copland said on most nights in recent weeks few have been showing up. He credited the change to a trio of falconers and their trained hawks, who since last month have made periodic visits to downtown Madera.
On this night, falconer Adam Baz was here with his Harris hawk, Mars.
Standing in a downtown parking lot, Baz let Mars fly to various roofs and utility poles, essentially to make his presence known to any crows looking to roost for the night.
It wasn’t long before a couple of crows showed up, cawing loudly and flying in circles around Mars – though keeping a good distance away – likely trying to annoy the hawk so it might fly away.
But Mars held his perch, and it was the crows that ended up fleeing, as most crows in the area have been doing since Mars and the other trained falcons have been coming downtown.
