More than 62,000 crows have moved out of the downtown area to take up nighttime roosting spots in towns surrounding Auburn.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services biologists counted 1,010 crows in the city Thursday before heading back to USDA regional headquarters in Castleton, near Albany.

"I think we accomplished our goals," said Ken Preusser of the 98-percent reduction in the downtown roost. "Any of the crows that are left seem to be scattered around the city, mostly in softwoods."

Conifer trees, which are softwoods, provide crows with a warm environment due to the abundance of pine needles. Preusser also said the USDA teams discovered that the crows had been using trees at Highland Golf Club on Franklin Street Road as a staging ground to jump off to trees in the downtown area.

Preusser said the number of interactions the teams have experienced have dramatically dropped in the last week. In some areas where they would find 10,000 to 15,000 crows heading out of the city, they are now finding 3,000 to 4,000. There have been reports from residents in Geneva, Owasco and Elbridge that they're seeing more crows than usual, claims the USDA could not confirm.

"We haven't spent any time looking around for them yet," said USDA director Richard Chipman. "But it makes sense that they're going to towns outside of Auburn."

When the hazing started on Jan. 10, Chipman said his idea of success would be to reduce the roost to less than 10,000; initial estimates placed the roost at 63,800. After one week of the non-lethal harassment methods, which included distress calls, lasers and pyrotechnics, the downtown roost was determined to be 24,770.

The biologists came back to the city at no additional cost last week and broke out the big guns, hanging crow effigies (stuffed, dead crows) in trees and placing a "scary man," an inflatable scarecrow that waves back and forth, blares a siren and flashes lights, near the Owasco Outlet.

The scary man has been used with success on Oneida Lake in harassing cormorants from catfish pools. Chipman said it's useful to employ different techniques when dealing with large crow roosts because the most stubborn crows become accustomed to the other hazing tools after some time. He considers this job to be a useful, intriguing experiment for the USDA, since this was the largest roost it's ever dealt with.

Biologists will return to Auburn next week to see if the crows have returned to the downtown area. They will follow up occasionally until the roost leaves in March. Chipman said he's been getting a lot of questions about the effect the crow hunt will have on USDA efforts.

"You're looking at two different phenomena," he said. "We're chasing crows out of the city at night and in the morning. And they would be chasing them from their feeding territories during the day. I don't think it will have a huge impact on our project, but it's all pure speculation."

City manager John Salomone said he's very pleased with the success the USDA has had in hazing the roost. He hopes to speak with Chipman on the prospects of getting crow-hazing training for city employees.

"If we can get some training from the USDA so that we can conduct these efforts ourselves, it would limit the costs to the city in the future," he said.

Chipman said the USDA has never trained city officials on the techniques in New York state. He is aware of one instance where that took place in Pennsylvania on small roosts.

"We have trained airport staff before," he said. "And it's not rocket science, but it is an integrated program based on science."

Staff writer Benning W. De La Mater can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or ben.delamater@lee.net