Diann and Tweets,
My friend, Maureen Sunn, and I did the same thing last week. There are
staging areas all around Bothell, including Bothell Landing Park, the old
school grounds on Hwy 527 and the streets of downtown. In fact, driving
through Bothell to the UW Campus looked as though we were at the Gates of
Hell!

The garage was a great viewpoint, and we had bins. You are right, it was an
amazing sight with the sky nearly black with crows. They settled into the
firs not far away. But right around dark, they left those large conifers
near the campus buildings. Driving down as close as we could get to a
delivery-only parking area (hey, it was dark and no one noticed!) we could
see and hear that they were roosting for the night in the deciduous trees
down in the wetland.

This is there first year there. I would know ,as they are so LOUD each
morning and evening coming and going! (I live right near Bothell Landing
Park.)
Penny Koyama, Bothell
plkoyama at verizon.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Diann MacRae" <tvulture at vei.net>
To: <Tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, February 21, 2010 12:42 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] great crow show


> Hi, Tweets
>
> Many of you have seen the early evening flights of crows to their various
> roosts in the area, but last night Bill and I had our greatest show ever.
> We went over to the UW-Bothell campus around 5pm. Not a crow in sight. A
> bit to the south there started appearing a few groups flying west to east
> (towards Woodinville). Small groups would fly over the campus, but
> starting at about 5:45, large groups began passing over. We went up on the
> top floor of the parking garage which is just across the street from
> Cascadia College and these flights began flying just over our heads. With
> a crescent moon (it'll be quarter phase tonight) high above it was
> fantastic to watch thousands of crows flying directly above us. I don't
> exaggerate. They were coming from downtown Bothell (perhaps a staging
> area near the Safeway) directly over us on a line to Woodinville or
> slightly north.
>
> As it got darker, the crow flight was lower. They were muttering and a bit
> of cawing, but essentially just heading to their roost. Our estimate was
> around 8,000 (or more) - just an estimate. It was really a sight to see
> and a great place to watch from. The flight went on until approximately
> 6:18pm.
>
> Cheers, Diann
>
> Diann MacRae
> Olympic Vulture Study
> 22622 - 53rd Avenue S.E.
> Bothell, WA 98021
> tvulture at vei.net
>
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