Susan Collicott wrote:

"This time I resisted my "DUCK!" instinct, looked up, and yes, they were
crows, not mutants
from outer space."

Susan, you've got to consult your field guides more, if you think "duck"
when you see a crow!

But seriously, your crow-and-jay fight description was amazing, makes me
think again how much corvids are like people. And I too am consistently in
a stage of wonderment when I see crow flights. I've often seen the same
thing right around dusk, the last crows streaming rapidly toward their
roost, quick black shapes against the darkening sky. The purposefulness of
it makes it almost an eerie experience. Gives "as the crow flies" a whole
new connotation.

And every morning now I'm awakened by the cawcophony in the trees in the
ravine, as crows are apparently staging there briefly on their way to their
respective neighborhoods. Each day at about 7 a.m., when I drive away from
home before there's much traffic, there are crows striding on the main
streets, I suppose looking for the night's road kills or garbage thrown
from vehicles. Later on, there is too much traffic for them.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416