1,000 crows
Jan 21, 2019 23:38:29 #
ELNikkor wrote:
Thanks for the info., I'll look for the roost if i... (show quote)
I named mine Quote. If they ever learned to talk I didn't want them to talk with a lithp.
Prior to 1918 was about the time the conservation of migratory birds was a joke to most. Market gunning was taking a toll. Even robins and blackbirds went to New York markets. Passenger Pigeon and Bison lessons were forgotten. Women needed the feathers from egrets shot at the breeding grounds(leaving untold thousands of chicks to starve)or they were behind in their fashion duties.
The sad part about the crow was, as a maligned pest, the laws were and still are loosely applied. You want stink, hinting at killing feral cats to reduce their predation of songbirds will put you at odds with every ailurophile out there.
And I am a believer in hunting. I enjoyed it. I ate what I killed. Maybe that's why I didn't see sense in killing crows.
Bill
Jan 21, 2019 23:58:21 #
ELNikkor wrote:
Thanks for the info., I'll look for the roost if i... (show quote)
It was English class, she should have read you some Poe. I mean you had already made Edgar an honorary Raven.
Jan 22, 2019 00:31:34 #
Here in Sacramento I watch them going west to east every morning, then back east to west in the late afternoon. I don't watch them every morning. 
Every morning they make their transit. Sometimes I watch them.
I would guess on some afternoons there might be 500 to 1000 crows. Sometimes they stop in our neighborhood and cluster in the high plane trees. It's a fascinating phenomenon I've been watching for many years.
I heard there's a major cold front going thru the Rochester area. Maybe they're moving away from the cold weather.
Every morning they make their transit. Sometimes I watch them. I would guess on some afternoons there might be 500 to 1000 crows. Sometimes they stop in our neighborhood and cluster in the high plane trees. It's a fascinating phenomenon I've been watching for many years.
I heard there's a major cold front going thru the Rochester area. Maybe they're moving away from the cold weather.
Jan 22, 2019 07:08:45 #
Jan 22, 2019 07:38:25 #
billnikon
Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont
ELNikkor wrote:
I usually see only 7-10 crows at a time, but this ... (show quote)
You experienced a Murder didn't you. Crows are very communicative, they can travel great distances for a meal.
Jan 22, 2019 08:10:04 #
GED
Loc: North central Pa
In Lancaster Pa and King of Prussia several years back large flocks of crows tore the roof material off of some of the shopping malls causing much expensive damage. All kinds of deterrents including explosive charges were used to try and chase them away. Hunting them turned out to be the most effective deterrent.
They are incredibly intelligent birds. I raised two when I was younger and they both learned to talk, they lived free and would come to me when I called, one of them would grab my neighbors practice golf balls and put them in the rain gutter. They were a lot of fun until the police shot them claiming they could have rabies.
Of course crows don't get rabies, but at that time I believe they were more intelligent than the police.
They are incredibly intelligent birds. I raised two when I was younger and they both learned to talk, they lived free and would come to me when I called, one of them would grab my neighbors practice golf balls and put them in the rain gutter. They were a lot of fun until the police shot them claiming they could have rabies.
Of course crows don't get rabies, but at that time I believe they were more intelligent than the police.
Jan 22, 2019 09:01:08 #
mas24
Loc: Southern CA
There are crows in my community. I usually see 3 to 4 crows searching for food in the mornings. They can scavenge for food as well as Sea Gulls can. I've never seen the behavior you stated. But, I can truly tell you, that by observing them for at least 10 years now. They are one of the most intelligent birds on this planet.
Jan 22, 2019 09:02:55 #
I had a pet crow when I was young, named him Ellsworth, just recently found out that he would fly through the windows of a small elementary school about two miles away and take pencils off the desks. He was one smart bird, he was free, what got him killed about three miles from home.
Jan 22, 2019 10:12:56 #
DirtFarmer wrote:
Wouldn't that be a serial murder of crows?
No, just a good day of shooting.
Dennis
Jan 22, 2019 10:19:41 #
Corvus, (my first crow) loved pencils too. He'd peck them to pieces. I still have one of the decimated pencils he chopped up in 1963...
Jan 22, 2019 12:24:43 #
mas24
Loc: Southern CA
ELNikkor wrote:
Corvus, (my first crow) loved pencils too. He'd peck them to pieces. I still have one of the decimated pencils he chopped up in 1963...
Interesting, the love affair that crows have for pencils.
Jan 22, 2019 12:58:11 #
Crows are federal,y protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, but there are get-around for agricultural pests (and other damages). However, big crow roosts are largely a wintertime phenomenon and thus no crops are reall at risk, and thus they should not be shot. In the East, Common and Fish Crows can be inthe same flocks or roosts, but for the most part they segregate. Where I live in piedmont Virginia, we have both species in summer, but the Fish Crows mostly move to waterfront areas or dumps for better food resources.
Jan 22, 2019 14:42:39 #
ELNikkor wrote:
I usually see only 7-10 crows at a time, but this ... (show quote)
There was (is?) a huge crow roost in central Kansas in a catalpa forest near the tiny town of Medora, a few miles from where I was raised. Not proud of it now, but as kids we would go to the center of the roost just before the crows started coming in. The noise was deafening at the peak. We would point our 12 gauge shotguns in the air, no need to aim, and shoot. Several birds would fall. Again, not proud of it, I also remember trying to shoot crows with 22 shorts. If they were very far away, the bullets just bounced off. Tough birds, and very smart also. I stopped hunting shortly after that.
Jan 22, 2019 15:20:34 #
When I was in Junior High, I walked by an orchard going to and from school. At certain times of year (surprisingly, not when the nuts were ripened), the orchard would be mobbed by crows, the trees black with them. When a kid (me) walked by, they'd make a variety of clickings and croakings that all sounded ominous to a thirteen-year-old imagination.
Jan 22, 2019 15:25:05 #
My crow would sit in a tree for hours making every noise he could think of, except "caw caw". He could imitate the voices of the neighboring ducks, chickens, geese, collie, even a peacock. He would only say, "Hello", however, when the phone would ring.
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