Stadium Blvd & Ferdon

Yesterday the crows were flocking – what’s going on??

^Um, birds doing what birds do? Both crows and robins spend the winter in flocks. Locally the crows form very large flocks that roost togehter overnight in stands of tall trees, and then break up into smaller groups to forage during the day. For years now there have been flocks of robins that stay in the area over the winter. They are often seen along the river, but they move around looking for berries and other fruits to eat.

Notably, robins – members of the thrush family – do often move out into the woods for winter. Most never migrate as the legend has it. The “first robin of Spring” merely signals a shift from nearby wooded areas to the lawns where, in a change of diet, the robins look for (don’t listen for) earth worms.

We saw hundreds of crows flying and cawing cacophonously on January 15 near Stadium and Pauline. It was an Hitchcockian sight!

Crows cawing cacophonously? Was it a concatenation of the crows?

…and causing consternation!

I believe the proper term of venery is a “murder of crows,” in honor of Edgar Allen Poe.

I was trying for an alliterative corollary of “tintinnabulation” in honor of same.