MAGPIES WINNING IN EXTRA INNINGS

(Ouray) Despite the efforts of local law enforcement and summer vigilantes freed from the tedious classroom, magpies reign supreme in this box canyon town.

Since May police have arrested over 200 of the black and white squawkers and some 50 of their ravenous associates. Round-ups continue this afternoon with incarcerations centering around heaping dumpsters and bankrupt backyard gardens.

With the abduction of a spunky septuagenarian from her garden apartment early Monday the crows can now claim another victory in the struggle for the hearts and the minds of this very frightened town.

“Every time I hear that familiar caw I think of poor Mrs. Belfry, sitting out on her porch doing crossword puzzles. Then, without warning she is dragged off to who knows what horrible fate,” said investigating officer Anthony Flyfishe.

“The worst of them hang out in the back-alleys and on the power lines where they can keep an eye on what humans throw out,” said the officer who has subdued more than 100 of the pests single-handedly, using only regulation rubber bullets dipped in tailings water and common sense.

Gangs of youth, armed with sling-shots and pellet guns will continue keeping the infestation at bay through August. Then, when that brave contingent goes back to school the local militias are generally depleted, reinforcements nothing more than a chest-of-medals fantasy. Shells of their humvies and monster trucks still litter Main Street, a testament to the stark futility of it all.

“They run a regular little sewing circle every damn morning under my window,” added Irvine Toole of the Oak Street Tooles. “They caw at each other tirelessly. They curse like little beaked sailors. They arrogantly relieve themselves at will, dance suggestively in the street and even smoke cigars before breakfast.”

Toole added that at least the birds don’t have car alarms.

According to a controversial feature in The Pea Green Peeper, which appeared exactly one year ago today, pedestrians should feel fortunate that the birds can’t aim. In the article, Sewage Treatment and You, the subject of aggravated attacks from the sky and frontal assaults on windshields was undressed by artillery experts within the Colorado Division of Wildlife. These logistical engineers suggest that the city import or clone predators who might eat the crows.

“The only animal who will repeatedly eat crow is human,” said one DOW spokesperson, and employing that tactic would certainly open up a whole new can of worms.”

Residents began to smell a rat when they noticed the gradual disappearance of other birds in town. By now the classic variety of songbirds has been all but diminished. Even smaller garbage birds seemed to be avoiding the downtown areas, especially after dark.

“If one hikes up another 2000 feet the place is loaded with songbirds,” said Sarah Cera of the Butane Society. “Our committees will keep a close eye on this one to insure that crows, magpies and ravens are not the victims of discrimination. Species profiling is an ugly thing,” she flinched, cracking her badly deformed knuckles like dried Texas pecan shells.

Many Ouray residents display tacky, plastic pink flamingos on their property to discourage squatting flocks. Others have constructed patriotic scarecrows out of discarded Fourth of July parade floats. None of these methods works for long as the birds get wise and pooh-pooh the attempts of the land-locked humans, mocking them from nearby box elder trees, flaunting their feathered invincibility

Attempts to harness and redirect power surges when crowds of crows loiter on utility lines have been abandoned in the face of criticism by animal rights advocates from the Confront Range.

Even though the crows provide a source of protein to some residents during the winter months most people here agree that it’s time to run the winged bullies out of town, if it’s not already too late.

“We may as well admit it,” said Toole. “We are defeated. The entire town will soon be in the hands of scavenger birds. Oh, well, it could be worse. It could be the bears in charge and at least the birds have promised not to pave the side streets.”

– Kashmir Horseshoe