Control Nature

Last night, at this god-awful class I have to take, the learning was interrupted by this shriek of a wild exotic bird. It scared the teacher.

The teacher sitting across from me told me that it was actually an aural scarecrow. When an animal approached, the bird noise went off.

It was installed mainly to scare away birds. "Bird poop," my colleague told me, "It scares birds away so they don't poop all over the buildings. Mainly, they're trying to scare the gulls. They have one on my campus too. Not a bird on campus."

Then, today, we had an inservice on the other High School campus. Students got the day off while teachers worked. I noticed the same alarm had been installed there. The campus was silent. The campus had been landscaped with trees, lawns, bushes--but not a bird to be seen.

I recall a time on campus, during an Open House. It was night and I was standing on the balcony that overlooks our quad. An owl, as silver as moonlight, glided from out of nowhere, and landed on one of the towers, where her chicks were nested. I watched her at about eye level.

I don't believe we have this robo-bird at my school yet. I hope we don't get it.