Dept. of Agriculture Shooing Away Messy Downtown Birds

INDIANAPOLIS - If you hear loud firework-type noises downtown, don't be alarmed. It's the Department of Agriculture trying to scare away Starlings from where thousands of the European birds roost.

Just imagine, you're here on the circle doing some Christmas shopping, when all of a sudden something falls from the sky landing right next to you. It's unsanitary, it's unsafe and most of all it's an eye sore.

"If anybody else has noticed, when you come down to the city it's always a couple of degrees warmer than it is out in the country," said Channing Howard of the USDA.

The warmer temperature is ideal for the European Starling. All you have to do is look up and there they are.