Crows attack pedestrians on campus

Security officials recieve three reports of pecking and swooping near Mac-Corry

On Wednesday afternoon, Ian Marcotte, MSc ’11, met an unlikely foe outside of Goodes Hall. He narrowly escaped an attack from a duck that charged at him from behind a tree.

While Marcotte’s situation may seem unusual, it follows a series of reports filed to Queen’s department of Environmental Health and Safety recently, concerning a bout of aggressive bird behavior on campus.

Today, Campus Security issued an alert, warning that aggressive crows are swooping down and pecking pedestrians using the pathway between Mackintosh-Corry and Ellis Hall Dan Langham, director of Queen’s environmental health and safety said his department has received three phone calls complaining about the birds.

“What we’ve concluded is that there are at least a couple of nests in the pine trees that line the pathway,” Langham said.

Langham said that bird attacks of this nature haven’t been reported to the Department in the past.

“It’s possible that [the birds] haven’t nested in this area before … According to the wildlife person we spoke to, they can be [aggressive] at this time of year because they are nesting,” Langham said. “It’s reasonably typical for them to protect their nest.” The Department is in the process of printing warning signs to put up for pedestrians in the area. Langham said the signs should be up by the end of the week. The birds are likely to remain aggressive for the next month. Because of regulatory reasons the Department will not be able to move the nests. Langham said that the Department doesn’t have any specific actions in mind if the situation worsens.

“We’d have to assess the situation. We just wanted people to be aware,” Langham said.

People are advised to report any further incidents to the Department of Environmental Health and Safety at 613-533-2999 or safety@queensu.ca.

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