Thun combats crows with falconer and eagle owl decoys
Thun continues to rely on a falconer in the fight against rooks. The city of Thun carries out its annual tree maintenance along streets, in parks and at administrative buildings until mid-March. This year, only 20 trees need to be felled due to disease or safety concerns. With a tree stock of around 6,000 specimens, this is
Thun continues to rely on a falconer in the fight against rooks.
The city of Thun carries out its annual tree maintenance along streets, in parks and at administrative buildings until mid-March.
This year, only 20 trees need to be felled due to disease or safety concerns. With a tree stock of around 6’000 specimens, this is a very small number, the city authorities write in a statement issued on Friday. The diseased trees are to be replaced over the course of the year.
This year, tree maintenance work is taking place in the Lerchenfeld, Pestalozzi, Allmendingen, Länggasse and Hohmad areas. The respective work zones will be cordoned off for safety reasons.
Falcon to drive crows out of Thun
The city of Thun has had enough of the mess and noise caused by crows. It is deploying a falconer whose bird is intended to prevent the crows from building nests in the trees over the coming months.
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From January to March, the city is also active on the rook front. To deter the birds from settling in residential areas and to prevent them from nesting, a falconer is once again being deployed in the Grabengut, Schwäbis and Henri-Dunant-Strasse areas. As before, eagle owl decoys placed in the tree canopies are being used along Schwäbisallee, near the Lachenstadion and in the Seefeld quarter.
Crows are often unwelcome guests in urban areas. These sociable and communicative animals create noise and mess. When the birds are nesting in particular, large amounts of droppings fall to the ground, which can foul pavements, roads, rooftops and parked cars. Crows prefer tall avenue trees, typically plane trees.
To drive crows away from densely populated urban areas, the city of Thun has been relying for several years on a falconer and owl decoys. But crows are not only sociable — they are also clever and tenacious. They quickly see through the tricks of people trying to get rid of them. That deterrence and displacement are not sustainable solutions has been evident in Thun for years.
Despite all efforts, not all birds can be driven away. In the picturesque Schwäbisallee along the Aare, for example, the risk of being hit by crow droppings is not insignificant if you want to enjoy the first rays of spring sunshine for too long on one of the benches beneath the sweeping trees.
