TWEETERS:
After reading Bruce McKenzie's post about the crows roosting in Kenmore,
I thought I'd check it out. I arrived about 4:20 and already the crows
were gathering in great numbers. There was another car in the parking lot
so I went to talk to them and found that they had just left Safeway and
noticed all the crows heading for the park-n-ride lot so they came to
watch. It was really quite a beautiful sight, trees silhouetted against
the sky with it's streaks of gray, blue, pink, and lavender. and I
estimate 2000 or more crows roosting and flying about just as Bruce
described. I watched for 20 minutes or so and the birds were still
coming. An amazing sight. Just one big splat on my windshield.
Linda Phillips
Kenmore,98028-2616
sweetmem at juno.com

After a couple of nights with freezing fog around Thanksgiving the crows
that had been spending the nights in the trees around our neighborhood
finally started leaving for a roost each evening. Between the owls
harassing
them during the night and being covered with a thick layer of frost in
the
mornings I'm surprised they waited so long. This is later than the last
two
years for them to join a roost.

Tracking the crows was a lot easier than the past couple years. The local
crows gathered with 75 to 100 others in the Poplar trees next to the 68th
Ave NE bridge over the Sammamish river, then headed to the swamp on the
north side of the Kenmore Park-N-Ride lot. Yep, this is the small Great
Blue
heron rookery. By 5:00PM there are 300 to 500 crows in the swamp and the
trees in the Park-N-Ride lot. If you go up 73rd Ave NE or 80th Ave NE
toward
NE 192nd St you'll see the crows in the trees on the north end of the
swamp.

In past years I've seen herons occasionally during the winter at dawn
and/or
dusk at the swamp, appearing to be spending the night. Even witnessed a
bit
of nest repairs during the winter. Wonder what the herons think of the
new
residents? Imagine they could end up chasing the crows out of the swamp.

Sitting in the car at the Kenmore Park-N-Ride lot (standing outside is
not
advised without an umbrella), or on 73rd Ave NE, or 80th Ave NE from
4:00PM
till after 5:00PM is quite interesting. There appear to be three major
and
two minor groups of crows. As the crows arrive there is a lot of
jockeying
around for the preferred roost. At times it appears the flights are in
response to changes in the cloud colors during sunset. As time goes by
most
of the crows merge into one large group and will fly around in formation,
looking much like a flock of pigeons. Quite a site to see such a large
number take off and fly around all at once!

Bruce McKenzie