We drove south on Quaker Road, Jon at the wheel, me sitting next to him with a numb mouth. We were on our way home after my root canal. It’s a busy four lane road with traffic going both ways. Wires from the traffic lights criss crossed the view of the sky which was streaked with peachy pink, and gray/blue clouds from the setting sun.
Then the birds came.
A thick flock of birds silhouetted black against the sky. I thought they were starling at first, but there were so many of them and they just kept coming. I’d never seen a flock of that many starlings before.
As we got closer to them I could see that they weren’t starlings, but crows. They would thin out a bit then a new wave of them would come, in a long wide flowing stream.
There were hundreds if not thousands of them. I’d never seen anything like it.
Once in the woods behind the farm I witnessed a murder of crows chasing a hawk. That was impressive, but this made me think of the way people used to talk about how flocks of birds would blackening the sky.
When I got home I read how crows gather at night. It’s called roosting.
They fly in large flocks and roost together for safely, warmth and to learn from each other about where there might be food or predators. Because they don’t see well at night they often choose cities because they are lit up with streetlights all night.
This is why I never saw them around the farm, there aren’t enough lights in our area.
What a treat it was to get to see the crows on their nightly roost. Something I never would have seen if I hadn’t had a root canals at just that time.
I’m still in a bit of awe just thinking about it. I can see them in my mind, the river of black birds crossing the road in front of us.
I only wish we had followed them to see where they decided to spend the night.
I am so glad you witnessed this, Maria. The crows have a “pre-roost” site when they fly in from every direction of the compass around the same time late afternoon. There is a lot of flapping and cawing and chasing and finally, at some unknown (to me) signal, they fall quiet and wing out toward the setting sun to their roosting place that night. (They change sites to avoid predation). I call it my daily miracle, I never get tired of the awe. It also a reassurance to me that the earth is turning as it should, regardless of what we do.
They must have been on the way to their presorting site Diane. A friend of mine works at the hospital nearby and said the crows often roost in the trees in the parking lot. They poop on all the cars and it pisses people off. But she loves to see them. and you are so right about it being reassuring! Thank you for that insight.