Garry came running out of the bathroom. “Go look at the feeders!!”
Two crows
I went and there were hundreds of crows all over my deck, the rails, the trees. Literally hundreds. You could barely see the deck for all the crows on it. I had never even seen a crow in our woods or anywhere near a feeder. Today, we had a genuine murder of crows. After a bit of gawking — it was a serious Hitchcockian moment — I grabbed a camera.
Crows in the tree
Of course, by the time I had the cover off the lens and had turned it on, they had dispersed. There were still a few in the trees and I got a couple of interesting shots. If only I’d had the wits to grab the camera first and skip the gawking. It’s just that it was so strange to see so many crows on the deck when I didn’t even think we had any crows.
Garry would like to know how the expression “A murder of crows” came to be. I’m betting it is because crows are extremely fond of eating dead things. Plucking the eyes off corpses and all that. When they suddenly show up in a huge flock like that, it is rather unnerving.
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Categories: Anecdote, Animals, birds, Birds, Black & White, black & white photography, Blackstone Valley, Photography
They are a bit scary Garry.
Leslie
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Leslie, I was so taken by the sight that I came out of the bathroom to notify Marilyn, running BUCK NAKED. I am usually a very, very modest fella.
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Our older son was followed home from school by some crow. He was quite upset about it. It had picked him out and actually followed him
Leslie
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They are very smart birds. Makes them interesting pets (especially if you can teach them to say “Nevermore”), but also a bit spooky.
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chuckle….
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THEY CAN BE SCARY. SOMETIMES WE HAVE CROWS HIGH UP IN A NEIGHBORING SEQUOIA TREE. THEY COME SWOOPING DOWN TO CHASE A CAT ONCE IN A WHILE AND SOMETIMES THEY HAVE FLOWN CLOSER TO THE GROUND, RIGHT OVER MY HEAD. THEY COME AND GO IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
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Garry had images of Hitchcock’s “The Birds” and when I saw them, so did I. I have no idea what brought therm. I’d never seen a crow in our woods before, so they seem to have appeared out of nowhere. Eeery. The murder of crows came and went.
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Patricia, this was truly a Hitchcock sighting for me when I peered out the bathroom window. The crows were lined up, FULLY covering the top rail of the porch fence. They were flanked – in all directions – by squads of other crows.
Patricia, can you help on the “Murder of Crows” or “Gathering of Crows” lines — I know I’ve seen them before, I just can’t get the little people who work in my brain to solve this one for me.
In the Mayer bio, I’m just up to the part where Louie tries to hit on Janet Leigh’s mother while counselling young Janet about her virtuous image and the dignity of MGM pictures. ‘Dignity, always dignity’. Gene Kelly had a big problem with Mayer’s hypocrisy. Louie didn’t approve of Gene’s brashness. Dignity, always dignity.
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I believe “A murder of cows” is the name of a group of the species, like a”a herd of cows.” They can certainly be a noisy group and a threatening one when they father together.
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I love crows! They are so smart and funny, yes, crows seem to have a sense of humor. They are brilliant creatures…
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I just don’t know where they have been for the past 20 years. NEVER seen one here. Not on a feeder or even just flying by. And suddenly, there are hundred? What inspired that?
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Grace, I need to remember crows have a sense of humor. Didn’t know that.
They didn’t seem funny yesterday. Eyes of the beholder, I guess.
Thanks for the insight, Grace. Another lesson learned.
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They are my favorite birds – https://www.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/the-cleverness-of-crows
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Grace, thank you.
Today, you are my Miss Jean Brodie.
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I wd be terrified. I have seen rather large gatherings of them in the mountains, when they took off, they became a black noisy cloud.
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There is something a bit spooky about them. They are dark as night, but they have piercing eyes. Still, the truth is that they are birds and make pretty good pets, or so I am told. Back to Edgar Allen Poe.
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Kiki, I was IMPRESSED to say the least by that gathering of crows.
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