Swooping crow has school in grip of fear

The "enormous" black bird swoops out of the sky to disrupt lessons and break times at Meadowhead Junior School, Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn.

Staff are even afraid to leave their cars on the school car park for fear of finding large scratches on the paintwork, and youngsters are fed-up with seeing the bird pecking at their classroom windows.

Now the school is appealing for advice on how to get rid of the pesky bird.

Janet Knight, head- teacher, said: "It keeps swooping down and it's actually frightening the children.

"We have been on the internet to see what we can do and it suggested putting a newspaper or bin bags on the inside of the windows, so it can't see through and instead sees its reflection, which it is supposed to be frightened of. But it just ignored it.

"It has been doing this since we came back after the Easter holidays about four or five weeks ago. We had never seen it before and it has just decided to arrive and start causing trouble.

"Every time I go near, it just flies to the next post on the fence. The children are getting quite frightened, it's an enormous bird.

"It sits on the cars, the fence or the window sills. We have a fence at the side of the car park and it just hops from one pillar to the next. It's probably a very talented crow but it's just causing us a nuisance!

"We want to know if anyone can help us."

Crows have developed a bad reputation over the years, due to the dark colour of their feathers and their diet of dead meat. They are also thought to circle above scenes of death such as battles.

But Doug Windle, secretary of the East Lancashire Ornithologists' Club, said it could simply be protecting a nest, and will move on in time. He said: "I would suggest probably it is nesting somewhere nearby and it's just defending its territory.

"I would suggest calling in the RSPCA, there isn't really anyone who usually deals with anything like that. The problem will be trapping it because they're very, very wary."