200 Pigeons Homeless

It can be quite fun to flip through old issues of the Baltimore Sun in search of articles that relate to Corpus Christi Church.  Earlier this week I stumbled on the following headline from November 4, 1904:

200 Pigeons Homeless.  Wire screens in Corpus Christi Belfry shut out flock.  Residents Show Sympathy.  Descendants of Carrier Birds Now Hoover Piteously About Steeple in Which They Lived Nine Years. 

Three weeks earlier the church had taken steps to eliminate a large colony of pigeons from the steeple, first by placing whiskey soaked in corn on the roof to drug the birds which would make them easier to capure and then by sending three boys up into the belfry.  What happened was close to a massacre:

Their object was to secure the pigeons and their zeal was not lessened by any regard for the feelings of the pigeons. Nests were destroyed, eggs broken and the young either taken or left maimed. To the frightened pigeons, the boys seems ill-omened Ogres.  There was a rush to escape. The three boys attempted to beat them back. Wings were injured and pinions broken as they beat against each other in their attempts to escape or were struck by the boys. 

Soon after wire screens were installed to cover all the openings and prevent the birds from returning, much to the dismay of some of the neighbors:

Mr. J.M. Watts, of 1403 Mount Royal avenue, who lives opposite the church, is one of the oldest residents of the neighborhood, and having watched their flight in the morning and their return in the evening, feels an indignity has been done to the pigeons. He and others have observed the pigeons beating again[st] the wire in their futile attempt to gain entrance.

 It does not appear however that the church managed to scare away the birds forever: 

At present the belfry is closed to the pigeons, but they seem disinclined to forsake the old familiar walls.  The evening angelus finds scores of pigeons perched in the ledge of the large rose window over the Mount Royal avenue entrance.  Others find warmth in cuddling together along the many ledges of the walls.  Dozens of other birds fly here and there from cornice to coping and from coping to pinnacle, seeking some nook sufficiently sheltered for winter habitation and large enough for nest and young birds.