My new neighbourhood does not have cats. It has crows. Highly gregarious social crows. Big flocks. They seem more like gangs or swarms than flocks. In fact, a flock of crows is referred to as a murder of crows, and this seems right.
I like crows. I like their beady eyes and shrewd sense of humour. I like their pragmatic ways and raucous voices. I like that they’re smart and practical and they waste no time getting to the point. As the crow flies: direct.
I used to walk through what I believe is a Crows’ Roost as at the Experimental Farm each morning at dawn. Since the snows came though, the Farm is just for cars and crows. There are no sidewalks along the busy road, and the bike paths aren’t plowed.
Splinter groups of crows come over to my neighbourhood and scavenge for food. It can’t be easy finding enough to eat when everything’s covered in snow. There are many hundreds – possibly thousands – of crows in the roost, and each adult needs about 11 ounces of food each day. I don’t know how they do it.
The other day I was about to toss a stale piece of bread in the garbage, when I remembered the crows. Maybe if I left it in the back yard, one of them might find it. I tore it into several pieces and tossed it out there.
My arch enemy, the squirrel, got to it first. I didn’t mind though: he’s not my arch enemy in the winter time, he’s just a hungry animal doing the best he can.
Within moments, the crows arrived. I watched from the window as they took positions according to their pecking order. I only have a tiny back yard, so only one crow would go in at a time. He’d pick up a chunk of bread and fly away with it. Then the crow on the gate would take his turn, while the other crows re-positioned themselves along the fence and telephone wires. The next one up would move to the gate. The gate was pre-feeding station. Occasionally two crows would have a bit of a scrap over who got to sit on the gate.
This morning the snow was falling and the crows were roaming the neighbourhood looking for breakfast. I cooked a turkey the day before yesterday and refrigerated the giblets until garbage day. I decided to give them the giblets and neck. After all, they do eat road kill when they get the chance. They’d probably consider turkey organs a rare delicacy.
I tossed all the giblets and the neck into the snow in the back yard. Sure enough, within seconds, the crows started jockeying for position. The first few crows made off with the liver and heart and kidneys. The neck lasted for hours, as they took turns ripping bits of flesh from it.
It made me happy to see the crows in the snow, tearing into the turkey on New Years Day.
This year’s CBC (Christmas bird count) indicated record numbers of crows in the Ottawa area. Ya huh, a birdwatching knitter; I’m so cool.
I’m not sure you’re going to be glad to have the crows if they come all year. I think I wish you luck.
hehe, pleased to watch a murder in action 😛
We spotted over a hundred crows sitting in the trees south of Heron (east of Riverside) as we drove to my sister’s place on Christmas Eve. I’d never seen so many all in one spot before. Grace must be right. I rescued a crow once and it was a big bird, although smaller than a chicken that you’d buy at Loblaws. Its chest and folded wings filled my hands as I carried it. Birds are cool.
Grace – another birdwatching knitter! We must be kindred spirits.
Gillian – crows are smart, they’ll stop hanging around my place in the spring when a) I stop feeding them and b) Mother Nature unveils a fabulous feast.
Krothe – you make me feel like an accomplice! 😉
Julia – I think I read that there’s a crow’s roost over that way when I was trying to find out if there was one at the Farm. Did you know – I don’t mean to be scary here, but it IS a bit alarming – a crow’s roost can have as many as TWO MILLION crows????? What happened to the crow you rescued, by the way?
Last night on Jeopardy, there was a contestant that had rescued crows as pets when he was a child. Apparently the mothers throw the runts out of the nest and he had 3 or 4 of them growing up. He says that they are great pets till the end of the summer and then they leave.
I caught him in the first place because he couldn’t fly and that’s why I thought he needed help. I took him to the Wild Bird place out in Nepean and they told me there was nothing wrong with him, he was just young (apparently they have blue eyes when young – I’ll know better next time) and I should put him back and let his parents look after him. I feared for him because of all the cats in the ‘hood so they took him in and probably let him go a few days later when he had learned how to fly. His parents cawed and cawed for days around the house after that and I felt terrible about their angst but at least the young crow was safe.
I want to know about your kitties. Did you get them? Will we see photos? Keep them away from the crows until they’re a bit bigger than the crows.
Julia, I would have done the same thing.
Shagatha! I’ve been watching you with interest over there on Bank Street, terrorizing that motley collection of critters, body parts and inanimate objects. I’ve been wondering: Am I the only one who doesn’t know who you guys are?
Anyone know just how many crows are in the murder that flies through Ottawa south everyday? I flies from the McCarth Rd. area across Walkley Rd., by the Airport Parkway. I have seen in many times – they fly around dusk each day. I am guessing at least 10 000, yes ten thousand, if not more.
Lesley
Lesley, I saw them a few evenings ago and was stunned. They stretched out as far as the eye could see in both directions, and they just kept coming. I’d back up your estimate of 10,000 or more.
We’re not the only ones who have taken note of them – I’ve noticed a lot of people landing on this blog over the past week or so after googling those crows. I don’t know much about the crows, but I’m going to make some calls and see what I can find out – I’ll report back once I know more.
I live in the Walkley/McCarthy area and have been observing the winter crow roosting flights for several years. It’s actually quite astonishing!!!!! 10,000 – maybe … maybe 10’s of thousands ???
I haven’t looked this year, but there used to be a massive roost in the high trees on the north side of Riverside Drive across from Billings Bridge plaza. However, I’ve just read that apparently the main roost is in the area around the Civic Hospital.
Fascinating!!!!
[…] things I love about them. (Long-term readers might recall I’ve blogged about crows before. Here and here and here. […]