I have always loved crows and have learned as much about them as I could. I enjoy watching them walk, soar, fly and settle. Fortunately for me there is a large winter roost in an adjacent town. That roost has about 13,000 crows in the winter, filling trees, having a great time chatting with one another. Just before dusk, groups of crows gather everywhere before flying on together to the major roost. Flying over the car as I drive, they seem to be as excited to get together with their roost mates as I am to go meet my friends.
Apparently the Hartford winter roost, a tiny bit of which is pictured above, attracts many crows from Canada and more northern New England. While it is somewhat warmer here, I am surprised that they don’t join other migratory birds heading even further south. Hartford must have a great Trip Advisor rating among crows, so this is as far as they need to travel.
I had a cranky relative who hated crows. For some reason he seemed to take their call personally and would fire his gun at them when they landed in tall firs near his house. Fortunately he was a terrible shot and never even grazed a crow. I always rooted for the crows if I happened to be visiting during his temper fit.
My only conundrum comes from my mutual love of crows and hawks. Hawks like to go after crows. Crows retaliate by grabbing a few friends and chasing the hawk. I always hope that all the birds escape this fight to fly another day.
Saved By Words 
I love birds especially as I anticipate the coming of spring. I often envy their freedom to fly away as seasons change but yet just like the crows, they too have to fight for their dear lives if they are to fly another day.
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Nature certainly has its darker side along with its beauty.
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Goodness, that’s quite a convention there!!
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And I guess ours is relatively small.
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Perhaps
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I was blown away when I learned how sophisticated crow communication is. They can solve problems with up to five steps to their goals. They can pass information down at least two generations. I completely understand your fascination with them!
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There was great research out of the University of Washington which I loved.
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I like crows, too, but I don’t know much about them.
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We have some crows who live next to the area of a family of red kites. It is fascinating to watch them occasionally fight and the crows usually see if the kites.
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I don’t know kites. I will promptly look them up.
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It is ‘Milvus Milvus’ and I have just realised that they are just native to Europe and North Aftrica. They were nearly wiped out here but have now been successfully reintroduced and they are plentiful in our area. *(Though some of our poultry don’t think that it was an unmitigated boon)
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Very lovely. I just spent some time looking at the images and contrasting them with our hawks.
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I love crows too and enjoy watching them fly from tree to tree before stopping to visit at happy hour.
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We have lots of crows here, and they sometimes come into our garden to take bread.
Local farmers shoot a lot of them though, sadly.
The name for a group of crows (collective noun) is a good one.
‘A Murder of Crows’. I always liked that. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I guess farmers in this country shoot them too. And of course they are an old irritant, hence the “scarecrow.”
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They’re like leaves left in the tree. So many…
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They do look like leaves, don’t they.
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✌
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Bird conventions are the coolest. I have this memory of my dad and me stopping at a bridge that ran over a small river way out in the country. Dad began whooping like crazy when we got out of the car onto the bridge. I thought he was losing his mind. All of a sudden, hundreds of swallows came flying out. We went under the bridge and found nests plastered on the cement. They kept making a continuous loop flying over and under the bridge. It was the craziest thing because it was out in the middle of nowhere.
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We went once to watch a whole flock of swifts circle and then descend into a school chimney(fortunately no longer in use.) I love watching swallows but never got to see that many at once.
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We have a tree in our driveway that birds like to gather in. We call it the clubhouse.
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Good one!
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I like Birds in general. We feed them grains and water in a bowl in the balcony. Have you tried feeding stray birds? It is fun 😊
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I fed them every day. We even have a little bird bath.
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We have three different types of crows here in Australia Elizabeth.
I think my favorite birds are Rosellas, they’re so beautiful, colorful & their behavior is hilarious!
Blessings,
Jennifer
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I am on my way over to look at images of them. Thanks. Just did. Wow!
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I find all birds very interesting, Elizabeth. We have lots of loeries and owls who visit our garden as we live near a bird sanctuary.
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I love learning about bird varieties around the world that we don’t have here. I will check out loeries. Just did. They are lovely indeed.
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Where I live, we have too many birds to contemplate about a mutual love-hate relationship. We have eagles, hawks, crows, pigeons, parrots, mynah, bulbul, tailor birds, sunbirds and several kind of water birds, all living together in peace… Or so it seems to an onlooker like me!
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hi Elizabeth,loved reading the post. I’m publishing a post on crows,found yours that way, gave a link from mine to this post. Thank you!
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