Crows

Penn State is trying to chase away the crows that come onto campus during the winter, using noise in the evening to scare them away.

This move makes me kinda sad, I guess, and not for any real reason other than nostalgia for my alma mater, Iowa State. While crows here can be a nuisance, at Iowa State they were ubiquitous. For two years I lived across the street from campus there, and our sidewalk was painted white with crow droppings every winter (if there wasn’t snow to mask it). Late at night, when I’d eat at Perkins as an undergraduate, we had to be quiet getting to the car, or the crows would get startled and crap all over us. Sometimes I’d walk by a tree and it would sound like rain because of all the crows pooping. And when I’d drive by the intermural soccer fields, they would be blanketed black with the crows.

It was a disgusting, but also endearing, part of living in Ames and going to Iowa State. My freshmen year I met a girl whose parents had a lovely story about meeting in the 70s because of the crows. A crow pooped on her mom, and her dad was there to offer a scarf or something to clean up the poop. And thus, love was born.

Image credit: Annemarie Mountz at Penn State Live