Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife ( Jun 14/00) - According to the experts, hardware store operators and gardeners, decoy owls might not be anything to hoot about.

Decoy owls can be spotted perched on top of several houses in Yellowknife as well as on the four corners of the Scotia Centre on Franklin Avenue.

The consensus is that their purpose is to frighten ravens and other pesky birds away from rooftops or out of peoples' gardens.

The other consensus is that they simply don't work.

"I think it was a garden craze that came out that people succumbed to," explained Yellowknife resident Catherine Moore. She and her family moved here from Iqaluit just over a year ago and purchased a house with the plastic decoy already perched on its rooftop. Although she didn't climb up there to fasten the bird, she hasn't taken it down either.

Moore says she doesn't see it as a decoy for much of anything.

"You got me," she said. "Maybe the intention is something like that (scaring off ravens), but I can't see it personally. The raven is a pretty tenacious bird and I don't think it scares easily."

So, off to Canadian Tire's garden section for the answers, but employees Adam Kirsch and Josh Watson aren't any more clear on the usefulness of decoy owls than any other Yellowknife citizen. They're also pessimistic, even for salespeople.

"They're supposed to scare away crows and ravens," Watson said. "But look how many buzzards are flying around Yellowknife. They work just about as good as scarecrows in fields -- the birds just aren't scared of them."

Canadian Tire has eight of the lightweight, plastic creatures in stock and have sold two so far this year. Watson said they may be meant to scare mice as well.

"I doubt mice are that smart though," Kirsch interjected as the two sat at the customer service desk. Both employees considered the possibility of them being for decoration just before closing Saturday as the plastic creature sat on the counter.

Looking pensively at the tawdry bird, Watson remembered seeing something about the decoys on television.

"I saw a show on TLC where in the States there were like millions of ravens going to migrate in this one town," he said. "They said (decoy owls) didn't work there either."

In the end Kirsch and Watson concluded the birds, similar to pink flamingos and garden gnomes, are a form of decoration.