Birds take over ride at Great Escape

Looks like GE has gone to the birds, they have a group of ravens that have taken over the pirate ship ride. Article has video in it also.

http://www.wnyt.com/x3521.xml?ag=x156&sb=x183

Oh, I was expecting to see a photo of a roller coaster completed covered in ravens, a la Hitchcock's "The Birds."

I told them to get a Huss "Fly Away"... ;)

Haha Gator. . . that is a down for me though. . . I love that Pirate Ship. :(

I do wonder how often this happens though. . even if it is unnoticed. .

Like they said. . hopefully they'll grow and it'll only be a couple weeks before they "move out".

I wonder if this is a bad sign for the ride. Hopefully not. . . because I love this ride. Just for it's sheer simplicity, it's so amazing. Also because you can just die if you stand up. But we'll try to keep that off our minds, eh? :)

Edit-I also wonder if one of these birds is going to try and come back to it's nest sometime when it's fully operational and poof!- another Fabio incident ensues. ;) *** Edited 5/19/2005 2:19:12 AM UTC by AdrenalineJunkie***

Haha. . . honestly though. . .speaking like a parent. . .the birds gotta fly outta the coop sometime. . ;)

I don't think you should judge the ride on how it looks, but on how it rides. And that pirate ship works pretty deathfully for me. :)

However, it is right for Great Escape to let the birds stay rather then push them out to open the ride. Very environmentally safe and gets them in with the World Peace Crowd. . .also known as the hippies. ;)

They are very "threatened" birds????? I think they meant "threatening". They guy even said it on the news.

"Threatened" doesn't make sense to me either. Where I grew up, ravens were pests to be shot and poisoned.

Maybe they have a different standard in the Adirondacks -- if there are less critters than tourists, it's "threatened". ;)

I think you might be thinking crows rather than ravens.

"Nevermore!" quoth the raven, as someone asked when the Pirate will be open to the public.

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DawgByte II said:
I think you might be thinking crows rather than ravens.

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Both were valid targets for farmers and ranchers in my family. Ravens were more of a problem near the woods and foothills of the rockies. But like I said, things might be different in the Adirondacks.

Does anyone know if there are similar raven issues in other mountainous parks like Silverwood or Playland?

*** Edited 5/19/2005 2:48:20 PM UTC by greatwhitenorth***

Remember that this is that park that has to close early due to noise, and cannot operate their Intamin bobsled past 6pm because of the neighbors. As well Great Esacape has to get "special" approval for all projects due to them being right on the border of the Adirondack park. Bunch of "crow" if you ask me, but that is the NY State of mind.

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greatwhitenorth said: Does anyone know if there are similar raven issues in other mountainous parks like Silverwood or Playland?

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Not here at Holiday World. The last raven seen in southern Indiana was in 1894.

Well, all except...that coaster they started building exactly 100 years later.

Paula

Nice subtle plug there, Paula ;).

I promise I'm coming to Holiday World this year, I promise!

HEY! I was at HW sometime in the last 100 years! How come no one saw me? :(

that sucks, why don't they have someone like a animal specialist remove them?

Cool. Sort of fit in with the pirate ride theme in a way.

I always thought ravens were neat. In the same family as the crow, but twice as big. Some about 2' tall and 4-4.5' wingspan. Both are very smart. Ravens usually stay away from populated areas.

*** Edited 5/21/2005 12:31:44 AM UTC by Raptor Pilot***

I do like ravens, but I think they could relocate it, or do something, I suppose the "animal lover" image is what they like.