Crow Roosts

  236 crows, that’s the number of crows that were perched in the trees on the hillside behind our house last week. This time of year their numbers start to dwindle down. We’ve had as many as 700 crows out there this winter. Usually the birds have stopped coming by this time so when I can add 236 crows to the paltry six or ten other birds I manage to find for the Great Backyard Bird Count I’m happy. Their large numbers help to make my bird count look more impressive.

   Every year the crows show up for a few months during winter. Winter crow roosts they are called. Andy posted a website at crowroosts.org where I could report my crow roost to some scientists studying them. The crows start to trickle into town around 3:00 or 4:00. Usually by sundown they are scattered all along the ridge of the hill, with as many as 50 in one tree, then once they are all gathered together they will all move on to another location.

   At one point while I was observing them there was a loud bang and a swarm of about 200 birds rose up into the air. Was the bang intentional? In some areas people use fireworks to scare the birds away. By comparison we have only a small roost at this location. There are roosts that number into the thousands. I have been reading a book called “birdology” where the author describes observing 50,000 crows in Auburn N.Y..That’s a lot of birds. That’s a lot of bird crap. The city had to train the birds not to roost in the downtown Auburn business area. People were carrying umbrellas to leave the buildings to get to their cars. Seems the only people happy with the crows were the car wash owners. They managed to get the crow roost to move elsewhere using loud recordings of crow alarm calls, fireworks and laser lights. (No crows were hurt in the process.)

   I personally have a love/hate relationship with the crows around here. I love the fact they chase off the raptors that threaten the smaller birds at my feeder, but in the spring they raid the nests of those same birds they were helping to protect. (I wonder if crows raid other crow’s nests as well.) If only all birds were as well adapted to survive as crows are. I recently read an article that said birds that live in families or groups have better survival rates because they’ll actually teach each other things to help them survive. The birds learn from the others and they will look out for each other as well.

   I haven’t seen any crows gathering on the hillside lately. Maybe they paired up while they were together in the winter and now they’ve gone off to build nests and raise families. From now on I’ll only find a few crows around here until the big influx happens again next year.

  

The Great Backyard Bird Count is here again.

My birding year starts with the GBBC. A few days ago I went to their website and printed out a listing of the birds common to my area (rare birds included), a brand new list, unchecked and just waiting for me to make that first sighting of the year. I tend to take the Great Backyard Bird Count literally and will only report those birds that I see in my backyard (and sometimes my frontyard) during the four days of the Count. My backyard is a large swampy wooded area behind the house with a small population of birds. After the Great Backyard Bird Count is over I will continue to use this listing throughout the year to record all the bird species I find in New York state. (The DOAS website has a good listing too.) My goal is to find all the birds on the list (or in my case as many as I can). Last year I found fewer bird species than the previous year so this year I’m heading out with renewed vigor to make this my best year yet.

Although I didn't spot as many birds on my list last year as I would have liked I did have some nice sightings. One of my favorites was the barred owl I saw at the DOAS sanctuary. In addition to last year’s list the red-headed woodpecker, black tern and moorhen I saw at Montezuma were great additions to my life list and one very good reason for going there every year. I also chose a target bird last year, a golden-winged warbler, which I found down near Tuxedo New York. I have yet to decide what this year’s target bird will be. Last year I also started recording in a notebook where and when I or others saw a particular species of bird so that I can return there this year and hopefully find it again for my list.

At 8:30 yesterday morning I found my first bird. My first bird for this year was a beautiful red male northern cardinal. It’s one of a pair of cardinals that hang around here all year. That bird and 263 crows were the only sightings I had at my house yesterday because I had to take my brother to the Albany airport, but the trip to Albany presented me with a great opportunity to hopefully find some birds that are not so easily found around here.

As we drove down New Karner Road in Albany on the way to the airport we passed the Pine Bush Discovery Center and trails. http://www.albanypinebush.org/ That was the first I’d seen of that building and I decided I’d make it a stop on my way home. The pine bush is a unique area of sandy dunes with hiking trails throughout.  As I started hiking on the trail about fifty crows perched in the low trees around me or flew overhead. I had decided to walk the short blue trail and was growing disappointed because I wasn’t seeing any birds except for crows, lots and lots of crows. It wasn’t until I got back to the center that I finally found a group of chickadees. I was surprised to see a number of red-breasted nuthatches with them. A white-breasted nuthatch was also present. Two vultures soared overhead. It was hard to see them through the trees. I was hoping they might be black vultures which can sometimes be found in the Albany area, but they weren’t. They were turkey vultures…being chased by the crows.

I decided that I might try going to the Landis Arboretum in Esperance next, but first I had to find Esperance. Zipping down some back roads that went by a number of farm fields I thought I caught sight of a harrier that flew low over a field then perched in a tree. I turned down a road near the tree and parked. A red-tailed hawk, not a harrier, was sitting in the tree. Ah well. I then glanced over into the yard on the other side of the car in time to see a handsome adult bald eagle fly up from the ground into a tree. What a nice close look. As I drove slowly away I happened to look at the spot where the eagle had been sitting on the ground. There was a snow goose laying there, its head was up and it looked quite scared. I wondered what the story was behind that. Had the eagle grabbed the bird and dropped down there to eat it when I interrupted it? I drove off down the road and I hadn't gone too far when I spotted a large, mostly white colored bird in another yard so I pulled over. For a few minutes I was in hopes that I’d found a snowy owl, but it was definitely a hawk devouring a small animal it caught. I couldn’t figure out what hawk I was looking at. The front and the face was white. The back and the back of the head was a pale gray. Maybe it was a gray ghost, a male harrier? I think I was able to discern some facial disks. Darn, I’d thought about bringing my camera, but decided against it. That happens every time. I turned around and drove by the farm fields once more where a female harrier was coursing over the field.

I finally found Esperance and pulled into the town hall parking lot. The town hall was located by a river. I could see birds in the water and I was able to check common mergansers, Canada geese and mallards off my new year’s list. From there I followed the signs to the Arboretum. In a tree by the parking lot was the iconic symbol of spring, a robin, another spring teaser in a winter full of spring teasers. When I climbed out of the car I could hear bird sounds. Following the sounds uphill I saw more robins flying around. A brown thrasher was walking about under the bushes. At the top of the hill I heard an unusual sound and followed it. As I got closer there was a sudden burst of robins flying away from something moving in the bushes along with a loud snorting/ grunting sound. Oh my gosh was I about to be attacked? Phew. I could see a large animal retreating up the hill through the trees but I couldn’t quite tell what it was. I thought it was a deer, or at least I’d hoped it was a deer and not a carnivore. Whatever it was it was gone. Red breasted birds flew back and forth overhead. There were robins everywhere, I estimated there were about seventy five.  Spring is definitely on the way.

Well I didn’t find any birds in Albany I couldn’t find around here, but it was a fun day and a good start for the year. I found 17 species, only 219 more to go.