Hi Tweets,

In Greater Vancouver BC there's a *massive* pre-roost staging area in the
non-breeding period along Still Creek along the boundary between eastern
Vancouver and western Burnaby--some estimates have gone as high as 12,000
birds. The fly-in is from many points of the compass and resembles Rob
Conway's and Ruth Taylor's descriptions closely.

Ruth Taylor further writes:

(snip)
>A couple of years ago, Ellen Blackstone (who loves crows) somehow persuaded
>me (don't like crows) to visit the roost near the Montlake Cut.
(snip)

Ruth, I started off not liking them either, but the more I learn about them,
the more I watch their behavior, the more complicated and fascinating they
become, and the more I've come to love these bright-eyed rascals (and the
more I realise EB's onto a good thing). For one thing, they have, according
to the studies done on them generally and locally, a highly complex social
system and a home life in which, for just one example, adolescent
crows--besides the usual teenage boisterous goofin' around to pass the
time--visit the family nest, babysit, help out with feeding the new kids,
and apparently drop in from time to time just to socialise with their folks
years after they've left the nest.

There's a field next to the office building where I work which fills up with
large standing puddles which can persist for days after a heavy rain. I can
say without risk of anthropomorphising that each day the crows pile in to
socialise as well as drink and bathe as regularly as folks hitting the local
tavern after work. Can't help wondering what a translation of their calls
might be--a corvid 'Cheers', perhaps?

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net

"She's psychic....we've decided to find it charming."
--Frasier