Published: Thursday, 15th March, 2007 12:00
Parents being divebombed on the school run!
By Ally McRoberts
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Pic by: Dunfermline Press
THERE’S been a murder – of crows – terrorising parents and kids on their way to St Margaret’s Primary with one rogue bird landing on top of a mum’s head.
In incidents likened to scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s chiller ‘The Birds’, three parents have now had fly-ins with crows fiercely patrolling a lane near Garvock House.
Dee Forrester, of Orwell Place, Dunfermline, was petrified after a black crow swooped down on Thursday lunchtime as she fetched her daughter’s violin.
“It was like something out of The Birds!” she said.
“I’m not good with flying things, I can’t sneak out if there’s a butterfly around, so it was scary as anything.”
Dee, whose kids Ellie (8) and Euan (6) attend the school, continued, “Ellie had forgotten her violin and had a lesson that afternoon so I had gone to fetch it and bring it down.
“I was walking down the path near Garvock House to the school where there are trees on either side.
“This crow then landed on my head and dug its claws in. I dropped down a bit and screamed and it flew off and sat on the fence.
“I was a bit traumatised by the time I got to the school and when I said what had happened they said I was the third person it had happened to.
“And they were all brunettes too!”
A spokeswoman at St Margaret’s said, “There have been three incidents now. A couple of weeks ago one woman had a crow tangled up in her hair so it’s all a bit scary.
“We had to get the janitor to move two crows from the playground this morning too.
“One was injured and couldn’t fly and the other one, maybe the parent, was just standing next to it. It had a broken wing so maybe the other crow has just been trying to protect it.”
So far the crows have only divebombed parents of St Margaret’s pupils as neighbouring Commercial Primary said they hadn’t heard of any problems with mad crows.
James Reynolds, from the RSPB, ruled out the possibility that the crows were protecting their young as he said it was still too early in the year for them to have had chicks.
He added that the same crow may have been responsible for the attacks and explained, “To land on someone’s head is extremely unusual behaviour which strongly suggests to us that it’s probably a captive reared bird that’s either escaped or been released.
“It probably associates humans with food and has become fearless, in a sense.
“I’m sure it wouldn’t have meant any malice, if a crow is capable of malice!”
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