Thursday, December 4, 2014

The Urban Crow --- Day 3/318

Walks: Fillmore Street, Presidio Golf Course, Trader Joe's, Clay Theater (250 Year Anniversary of the Hermitage documentary  special showing), Best Buy (printer breakdown/new printer)
Distances: 5 miles, 3.5 miles, rainy days, home yoga (2-3), teach yoga

The other day before the rains came Ciwt opened her back door to a cacophony of squawking crows and noticed they were flying to a tree behind her building . As she watched at least 60 crows began gathering in the tree  and on the roofs
around her .  She's seen these gatherings before, sometimes with wicked, yes, murderous fights in the air.  (Crows will kill invaders; thus the term murder of crows).  There's a riveting fascination to watching these big coal black birds.  Partly this is  related to a Hitchcock/ Birds-type fear and partly to just watching nature do its thing.

In this case it turns out nature is bringing crows to urban environments in droves.  Also turns out crows are very smart, have incredibly complex social interactions are omnivores and are strong survivalists. They like places where shooting guns is against the law, and food - any food because they are omnivores - is readily available.  They can talk to each other so the word is out that cities provide these things and more.

As for the evening Ciwt was observing, it is generally a fall and winter phenomenon before they pair off and disperse into smaller groups to mate.  It's actually a sort of hoe down, social get together. They hang out, goof around, frolic, exchange information and then quiet down and fly off to roost for the night.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_crow/lifehistory http://www.pbs.org/http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_crow/lifehistory http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/a-murder-of-crows-crow-facts/5965/wnet/nature/a-murder-of-crows-crow-facts/5965/






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