As three cats slumbered nearby, Rita Sarnicola fielded calls in her Owasco home and dispatched demonstrators to potential hunting areas. As the unofficial coordinator for a loose confederacy opposed to this weekend's crow shoot, she was busy sunrise to sunset Saturday, relaying information to locals and visitors from as far as Washington, D.C.

"Six cars of people are scouring the countryside where residents have called and heard gunshots," Sarnicola said. The groups were looking for illegal activities - such as baited hunting and the use of alcohol - and wounded crows, she said.

While hunting is legal, she said, there shouldn't be contests to see who can kill the most. "Hopefully," she said, "we won't have any more 'contest' type things."

Others engaged in monitoring and protesting - and, in some cases, trying to inhibit - the crow shoot weren't as ambivalent about hunting.

"Ahyicodae," a one-named Cornell University student majoring in English, was among a group of six from Ithaca who went out at sunrise.

"Hunting is immoral - it's plagued humanity since the beginning of time," she said. She was especially angry by what she perceived as the glorification of crow killing by tournament organizers.

Four arrested

At approximately 10:12 p.m. - as word of the Columbia shuttle disaster began to circulate - state police cited four protesters with trespassing and interfering with the lawful taking of wildlife. They were Brian W. Pease of Liverpool, Laura C. Carver of Ithaca, Milo J. Polte of Huntington, Pa., and Timothy F. Slate, of Danvers, Mass.

By 7 p.m., after being arraigned in Niles, the four paid $100 fines and were released from Cayuga County jail.

Despite the arrest, they planned to return today. According to Pease, a Syracuse University law student and well-known PETA activist, they will continue to try scaring crows from hunters with electronic calls.

"I understand the risks. I'm acting on my conscience," Pease said. "Getting arrested is nothing compared to getting blown away by a shotgun. That's what's happening to these birds."

Don't tread on us

By noon, hunters Jason Barnes of Union Springs and Rich Wheeling of Auburn were collecting their equipment and dead crows.

Afield since daybreak, they'd dropped four crows on their Springport lease, a farm field from which they hunt waterfowl. They used silhouettes and calls to lure crows.

Both consider protesters - especially those from outside of the area - as misguided people attempting to infringe on a legal outdoor activity and on their rights.

"The sportsmen in this state provide more funding, in gear purchases and licenses, that saves more wildlife than PETA could ever save," said Barnes, a land surveyor and state-licensed hunting guide with Frontenac Fowlers.

"Everyone's entitled to their opinion," Wheeling added. "This is something I enjoy."

Barnes called crow droppings "disgusting." He was surprised animal activists from Washington drove up to defend the birds. "If they spent their money doing good things for crows instead of on gas to come up here, it would be money well spent," he said.

Face-off at Spinouts

As the 1 p.m. crow-counting deadline neared, protesters in front of Spinout's Tavern on Auburn's Orchard Street were ready to face off with the hunters returning from the fields.

Robin Bridgman of Rome had arrived at 10 a.m., carrying a "Pro-Crow" sign. When she learned of the hunt, she couldn't believe it. She even e-mailed U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton.

"It's gut-wrenching," she said, "They are a bunch of bored guys who want to get together, swill beer and hunt crows." She feared the hunt made the region's citizens look like "a bunch of backwoods Gomers."

Although she despises all hunting, she said the flippant attitude of advertising that appeared in The Citizen was a major problem.

Another protester, Patricia Wright of Rochester, stood alongside Bridgman to be a "voice" of conscience. "Crow roost is a wonderful phenomenon," she said.

Wright dismissed the assumption that people are defending crows strictly because of the birds' intelligence and kinship attributes.

"There is a group that thinks there is a hierarchy of importance, but a number of us believe all creatures should be cherished," she said. "If they were doing this to sparrows, I'd be out here."

Wright agreed with Bridgman that giving dead crows to a mink farmer didn't justify the hunt. She wished minks were released to hunt crows, and she disapproves of the man's engineering of the natural order.

As a vegetarian, she says, human development should not supersede animal development.

An Auburn man, Chris Whyte, called the crow hunt shameful and the organizers hypocritical for claiming it would provide national attention for the city.

"[The roost] was on National Geographic," he said. "They want to get rid of what put Auburn on the map."

Both Bridgman and Wright commended Whyte for his steadfast refusal to join a hunt.

"You're a real man," Bridgman said.

"Strong enough to be gentle, that's the way I'd put it," Wright said.

"I will do what I can to stop it," Whyte said.

Lois Baum, president of the Animal Rights Advocate Group of Upstate N.Y., also joined the protest in front of Spinouts later in the afternoon and argued that "animals should not be used, abused, or exploited."

She said there are non-lethal ways to reduce Auburn's crow numbers, such as distress boxes.

Many returning hunters greeted the protesters in front of Spinouts with blasts of their crow calls and comments such as "tastes like chicken!"

Counting crows

While disagreement ruled on the street, a joint team from Cornell and the state university at Binghamton focused on scientific research in a yard behind Spinouts. They had agreed in advance with crow-shoot organizers to test 100 dead crows for the presence of West Nile virus.

"None of us are crow-hunting advocates," said Anne Clark, a behavioral ecologist from Binghamton. "As behavioral ecologists, you don't want your subjects to be shot."

Ideally, Clark said, she prefers live subjects to work with, but she said she appreciated the opportunity to study the birds. "We're taking advantage of it in the sense that it's going to happen - there is no reason not to make some good of it," she said.

Dog food is crow food

Around 2 p.m., Steve Johnson, the man behind www.savethecrows.org, a Web site dedicated to protecting Auburn's crows, was collecting food and donations outside City Hall.

Maxwell Haines and Morris McQuaid from Auburn's Pet Food Pantry, which provides pet food to the needy, brought more than 500 pounds of dog food for Johnson to spread Saturday evening near various roosting sites in Auburn.

The goal, he said, is to keep the crows in Auburn so they won't venture into the county Sunday and into the crosshairs of hunters.

Johnson said he got involved after witnessing what he called misinformation displayed at a city council meeting. He puts his research on the Internet to debunk the "nonsense," especially allegations that crows pose a health risk.

"I'm not anti-hunting. I'm not even anti-crow hunting," Johnson said. "What bothers me the most is when they make a contest and do it for fun because they have nothing else to do. That's a terrible thing to show our children - that we can kill animals for fun."

He also disliked the advertising that linked the activity to non-profit organizations, which refused to accept money generated from the event. While some sponsors pulled out, Johnson hoped other businesses wouldn't become involved in such a polarizing event.

As the evening rolled on, Trudy Gaertner, a wildlife rehabilitator, had yet to see any injured crows from the hunt. She wasn't surprised. She didn't expect to encounter any for a few days.

"Birds hide when they go down," she said. "It's up to the public to find them."