The Lawrence Winter Crows Delight All

[Dana Fox]

On Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21, Dana Duxbury-Fox and Bob Fox led two  Brookline Bird Club Trips to see the Amazing Winter Crows staging and roosting in Lawrence MA.

We had wonderful folks from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts who braved the cold to see this winter spectacle.

Both nights the Fish and American Crows succeeded in showing off their staging area while they waited for darkness to fall with and we heard those remarkable calls the American Crows make. Thank God they chose a section of the city to stage in that was relatively easy to find and more importantly easy to park. Amazingly, we didn't lose anyone!

Their departure to the roosting area always amazes me. Unfortunately for them, where they are roosting now can not accommodate them all. Bob calculated there were over 13,000 of them. Some of us managed to find hundreds of them roosting at 5:15 pm  to the southwest of their main roosting  area on the ground as the trees there were full. At this point in the winter, they are no longer using an area to roost in that can accomodate them all in trees. It will be interesting to follow them in the weeks ahead. The crows are probably at their peak numbers now with new migrants from the frozen north having arrived.

 Now that the crows have left their earlier roosting location along the New Balance Building off So. Union St. as they have done each year in late December or early January (as they have done since we began watching them in 2013), they are charting another roosting location pattern this year. The roost location may still change again this winter.

 As I tell our observers, "the Crows are in charge each night and it is my job to find them. And they never tell me their plans!"

Thanks to all who came,

Dana