Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991                   TAG: 9104110689
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

ROOSTER'S RECEPTION NOTHING TO CROW ABOUT

The rooster's noisy nocturnal crowing has been a nightmare for about three weeks, said Roger York, a Church Hill resident who is a senior planner for the Richmond Department of Community Development.

"He crows all night," said Gary Loving, whose back yard Sonata has moved into. "He crows on the hour and my wife heard him crow 14 times in a row.

"At night, he's shrewd. He flies up there in that tree about 20 feet and sleeps, and he knows nothing's going to catch him," Loving said. "He's not a dumb bird, that's for sure."

No one wants to hurt Sonata - who was named by Loving - but no one can sleep. The rooster begins his solo around midnight and completes it between 2:30 and 3:30 in the morning.

Sonata's act isn't playing well, either, with Michele Gillete, another Church Hill resident.

"He's got a good pair of lungs," she said. "He wakes us up a little earlier than what we're used to."

Robert Martin said he didn't know roosters could fly until he encountered Sonata. Awakened at about 3 one morning, Martin went to search for the bird.

"I had trouble finding him because I was looking on the ground and he was up in a tree," he said.

Sonata's Church Hill days might not last much longer. Loving said he and his wife planned to lure Sonata into a big truck by placing some rooster food inside it.

"If we can do that and get the doors shut, we're going to take him to a farm in Hanover County, where I've found a home for him," Loving said.

"But if we can, we're going to let him out [of the truck], and he can fool around all he wants to on that farm."