OHIO-BIRDS Archives

February 2010

OHIO-BIRDS@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Margaret Bowman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Margaret Bowman <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:27:35 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (21 lines)
While I tend my octogenarian uncle, I often birdwatch out his east-facing window.  This afternoon (Sunday, Feb. 14), I began noticing a constant flow of American crows, moving north to south, generally following the valley of the North Fork of the Licking River along State Route 13.  I didn't start counting right away, but after I did, I counted 54 individuals before I was called away from the window.  This was in a time span of maybe five minutes.  There were never more than 7 to 10 in view at a time, and sometimes briefly none in view, then more would pass, some maybe 20 feet off the ground, and some quite high.  None veered off course, and none were seen moving in any other direction than due south.  I had never seen anything quite like this in my part of Licking Co.  

I have seen the large mass of crows that hang around the truckstop along I-70 near Cambridge, OH.  What I saw today wasn't anything like that.  This was certainly not a "flock" in the sense of blackbirds or starlings.  It was much more spread-out, mostly in twos and threes, but occasionally more.

A few years ago, during the height of the West Nile Virus epidemic, crows were hard to come by, as were blue jays where I live.  Now we seem to have large numbers of both.  

Is this a common occurrence with crows?  A weather sign?

Margaret Bowman
Licking Co., OH

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]

ATOM RSS1 RSS2